6. Support for activists in recruitment and organising

Back to all Motions

Conference
Date
June 16, 2017
Decision

Conference notes that recruitment and organising needs to be at the heart of any strong and powerful union.

Conference notes that we need to:

  • Recruit new members into our union to increase the union’s voice and to ensure the long-term viability of the union;
  • Recognise that organising, not servicing, is what makes our union stronger and more able to win things;
  • Continue to identify and develop a new layer of UNISON activists for now and for the future;
  • 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 National Executive Council to:

  1. Encourage regions to map our members in the community, voluntary and private sectors to identify target areas for recruitment and 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.

Birmingham UNISON Branch

NEC POLICY: SUPPORT