Organising is simply about collectively organising workers so that they can defend their collective interests – not what the union can do for workers but what workers can do for themselves through their union. Sadly though the decline in overall union membership by nearly 6 million since 1979, is also matched by a steep decline in workers covered by collective bargaining. Whereas 80% were covered in 79 less than 30% are covered today. With the total number of UNISON activists static for nearly ten years and the fragmentation of public services gathering pace it is no wonder half of all workplaces no longer have an active representative.
To halt that decline and ensure UNISON is ready to face the challenge of a Conservative government we need more stewards and we need to ensure that they recruit more than the current two out of every ten new members who do join.
General Secretary Dave Prentis was right to celebrate our success in more than ten years of continuous growth and to explain how, if the whole union embraces meeting the organising challenge, we can grow to be 1.5 million strong by our 2013 twentieth anniversary. However UNISON has adopted that target in previous recruitment plans in our efforts to significantly increase our density across all workplaces.
Whilst there are greater levels of understanding today, the pressures on activists in branches are immense and continually mean ‘organising’ slips down the agenda as immediate priorities have to be reacted to.
What was stressed at the leadership school was the need for this to be a whole union agenda. Focussed debate and strategic, targeted interventions by new the organising staff teams in regions, working in partnership with branch and regional lay activists has to become the priority.
Utilising the Million voices campaign in every workplace can be the catalyst for debate and building our collective strength. The union has the means and the resources to grow – the challenge now for all of us is ‘stop talking, start doing!’