- Conference
- 2019 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 24 October 2018
- Decision
- Carried
Last year’s women’s conference agreed that organising among low paid women should be a union priority. It was shown that shockingly more than half of UNISONs women members meet the criteria of being classed as low paid.
Conference discussed the fact that fragmented workforces are often blamed as to why organising amongst this group of members is hard with more women employed within care services, schools, catering and cleaning than any other occupation. It is true to state that organising amongst this group is difficult but conference agreed that however hard it is if low paid women represent 58% of the union ‘s membership it has to be a key area of our work.
Organising around an issue often makes it easier to engage with members and there have been successful campaigns throughout the union targeting the low pay and highlighting the impact this has. Lifting those 58% of members out of low pay and fighting for better working conditions must be a key part of any union organising model.
This Conference Notes
1)Birmingham UNISON Branches’ work organising home care enablement assistants to fight against the cuts they were facing.
2)That a lot of branch resources were needed to help members to win their ballot, not once but twice and members had to take substantial action over many months to be heard.
3)That member’s involvement and mass participation in the strike was key to building the strength of the union.
4)That we need to recognise that organising, not servicing, is what makes our union stronger and more able to win things.
5)That we need to organise workers at the grassroots and teach them how they should be directly involved in building a strong union in their own workplaces, so that they have the power to win things for themselves.
Conference therefore requests the women’s committee:
1)Encourage regions to map our women members working in Councils, NHS, community, voluntary and private sectors to identify target areas for organising.
2)Review and develop materials to help branches turn members into activists.
3)Survey regions and branches and produce a series of best practice case studies with supporting materials and contact information on each of the case studies.
4)Develop materials that will help staff and lay organisers to teach workers how the workers themselves need to build a strong union in their own workplaces so they have the power to win things themselves now and in the future.