GET ACTIVE – AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

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Conference
2014 National LGBT Conference
Date
31 July 2014
Decision
Carried as Amended

Conference recognises the priority that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) self organisation has given, along with the wider union, to recruiting new members and engaging existing members in self-organisation.

It is to our credit that not only do we encourage membership and participation in the self-organised groups but we also encourage activists to operate across the union in their branches and regions. It is this fantastic organising that means many of our LGBT members are branch secretaries, chairs and a range of other activist positions across our great union.

It is these activists that help encourage the next generation of activists and help with recruitment in all areas and at all levels across our union.

Conference celebrates our past work in this area but recognises we still need to recruit new members into UNISON, and more UNISON members need to be activated.

This is particularly important as we face savage cuts to our jobs and destruction of our hard won terms and conditions. Recruitment and encouraging activism is now more vital than ever. We need strength in numbers to be able to organise and defend our members effectively.

With the prolonged economic crisis and attacks on public services we must get the message out that people need the protection of the union, and that only by standing together can we defend public services. Every member who joins makes us stronger and better able to look after those employed in our workplaces.

Conference calls on the national LGBT committee to work with regional and branch LGBT groups and our caucuses to make recruitment and engaging new activists the core and lifeblood of our work and seek to:

1. Continue attendance and involvement in Pride events (and other community events such as LGBT History Month and International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) with an emphasis on ‘active recruiting’ – finding ways to speak to people about the benefits of union membership and getting people to join;

2. Encourage attendance and involvement with other organisations working in the LGBT community to raise our profile and recruit new members;

3. Make recruitment activity a high profile aspect of all regional LGBT group and national caucus meetings;

4. Develop new ways of recruiting at events and engaging with community groups and in social venues;

5. Promote the annual LGBT recruitment and organising awards, encouraging applications from regional, branch and caucus groups;

6. Promote opportunities to publicise UNISON – getting posters and Out in UNISON into workplaces, speaking at events, making people aware of our LGBT conference and caucus network meetings;

7. Continue to encourage LGBT members to get active and involved in branch and regional self-organisation and activity across the union.