Blog: It’s time to go for growth

Last year, our union achieved something big – we grew.

At a time when union membership across the world is in decline, it’s UNISON that’s bucking the trend and standing up for more and more public service workers. As a result, we’re now the biggest union in the UK.

A big part of that was our “Grovember” campaign, which pulled everyone together – activists and staff, in branches, regionally and nationally – to focus on recruiting more members and growing our union in November. It was a massive success, producing a spike in membership numbers and a lasting change across our union which has seen membership continue to grow through 2019.

But we cannot rest on our laurels – because the more people who join our union, the better UNISON is able to defend all of us. That’s why in May we’re running another month of activities to grow our union – we’re calling it “Go For Growth”, and just like Grovember, it’ll take everyone working together to succeed.

Branches and regions across the country will be making plans to speak to more potential members about the benefits of being a UNISON member. That’ll be supported by advertising, social media and press coverage. There’s a UNISON Centre phone bank running this week to support branches in the build-up to Go For Growth. And we’ll be conducting dedicated research on why people join and leave UNISON to learn more about what motivates people to be UNISON members.

There’s a huge amount of work to do, but I know that our union is up to the task – and that every time we build our union, we make it easier to support, defend and represent our members in the decades to come.

Find out more at goforgrowth.unison.org.uk.