UNISON is gearing up for a further massive union-wide recruitment campaign this spring.
TV advertising – funded by the general political fund – will kick off on 24 April and will run for six weeks. Branches and regions are planning a four-week, union-wide on-the-ground recruitment and organising campaign running from Monday 28 April to Friday 23 May.
UNISON staff will be calling every branch to ask what you are planning and to help make sure you have all the resources you need.
General secretary Dave Prentis said: “With job losses, service cuts and austerity, there’s never been a more important time to be in a union.
“We’ve shown that when we pull together as one union, we can recruit like never before – but this government’s savage job cuts mean we are still losing more members than we recruit.
“TV and newspaper adverts are a great way to show people why they should join a union, but we get the best results of all when we combine that with getting our people out into workplaces across the UK, talking to non-members and asking them to join. We need every branch to play their part.”
In last year’s recruitment campaigns, UNISON welcomed 154,485 new members into the union – some 26,625 more than we recruited in 2012.
The campaign phases saw spikes in the numbers joining every week, but the biggest of all was in the first two weeks of the campaign in March 2012, when the union organised co-ordinated on-the-ground activity.
To get ready, branches can:
- plan your recruitment activity – as part of your local pay campaigning work or by identifying key workplaces and getting out to meet non-members;
- order recruitment materials – visit the online catalogue;
- create your own branch materials using our online print service;
- order UNISON’s Essential Cover-branded promotional items from www.tc-unison.co.uk;
- order a UNISON Essential Cover display stand and leaflet racks from www.bluecreation.co.uk;
Tell us what you’re planning. Email webmaster@unison.co.uk, or tweet/Facebook using the hashtag #joinunison, and we’ll share your stories.
