- Conference
- 2022 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 14 February 2022
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes with grave concern the impact of the 2016 Trade Union Act on our union’s ability to take large scale industrial action in support of legitimate trade disputes.
The main lesson of the first five years of this restrictive legislation is that, repeatedly, national industrial action ballots are returning high majorities in support of industrial action but failing to meet the legal voting thresholds, often by substantial margins. This contrasts markedly with the general success of branches and regions in overcoming the legal barriers in local disputes, albeit on a much smaller scale.
This severe legal framework – which imposes a turnout threshold of 50 percent and in so called “important public services” requires a majority of at least 40 percent of all balloted members in support of industrial action – is effectively outlawing our members’ right to strike and weakening UNISON’s leverage in pay and conditions negotiations.
Conference reaffirms the importance of effective industrial action and therefore calls on the National Executive Council, in consultation with regions and service groups, to review and develop a new strategy for industrial action ballots, including:
1)In member consultation processes, setting a minimum turnout for indicative ballots before industrial action is triggered. This will create a mobilising and organising imperative to deliver the membership participation and support necessary for credible and winnable statutory industrial action ballots;
2)Reviewing the merits of aggregated and disaggregated industrial action ballots taking into the account the experience in recent years of UNISON and TUC affiliated sister unions;
3)Ensuring that clear and compelling narratives are presented to members in support of all potential disputes;
4)Investigating effective use of digital communications to maximise one to one conversations with members in bargaining units at all stages of consultative and formal balloting periods;
5)Developing a whole union approach in order to maximise resources allocated to industrial action consultative and formal ballots on the basis that “we are in it to win it”, this should include ensuring that UNISON is “ballot ready” with continuous, forensic cleansing of member and member records;
6)Examining the feasibility and use of leverage tactics including action short of strike action, lobbying of employers, digital campaigns etc.;
7)Work with the different service groups to seek to ensure that ballot and action timetables are joined up across disputes, wherever possible;
8)Work with Learning and Organising Services to ensure member training and education programmes encompass the challenges posed by restrictive anti-trade union legislation and how we can organise effectively to overcome them.
Also, Conference reaffirms the need to:
a)Press the UK government to deliver on its 2017 commitment to review the use of electronic balloting;
b)Campaign for the repeal of all restrictive legislation on industrial action to bring Britain in line with International Labour Organisation conventions;
c)Build strong workplace organisation including much greater numbers of workplace representatives.