UNISON Regional Convenors - 2009 seminar report‏

On 28 and 29 October UNISON regional convenors (senior lay representatives from all parts of the UK) met at Birmingham University for their 2009 annual seminar ‘2010 & beyond – politics, strategy & organisation'.

The seminar was opened by Dave Prentis, General Secretary, who introduced a summary of the changing times and new directions for the union. Member recruitment is strong, more new members joined in Local Government last month than during the pay strike in 2008, and UNISON has grown year on year over the past decade. UNISON continues to face significant challenges and achieving Equal Pay across public service employment remains at the heart of our work with 45,000 cases ongoing.

We cannot afford to delay in preparing to defend public services in anticipation of next year’s general election. We must find new ways to talk directly to members, organise them and engage them in defending their jobs and the services they provide. Senior regional lay activists must provide leadership, working with regional organising staff to ensure branches are engaged in the national agenda. Through being involved in joint branch assessments and meeting with Branch Secretaries we should ensure the national objectives are embedded at branch and regional levels.

Jane Carolan, Chair of Policy, Campaigns and Development Committee, went on to identify the key battleground for the coming months, defending public services. It is clear that no matter what political party is elected to Government in 2010, we are likely to face unprecedented attacks on public sector jobs and services. The current “crisis” is one of the profit, greed and speculation of the bankers.

Clare Ruhemann of the Labour Research Department presented new research commissioned by UNISON on the 20 largest UK unions, 'State of UK unions 2009'. This report provides a detailed breakdown of the unions’ membership, financial and political positions.

The Convenors considered how regional lay leaderships can engage branches with the organising agenda, how we can improve participation at branch and regional levels and the potential to continue to grow the union. Ensuring regional structures provide equal access to all members to be engaged with the democratic process will enable us to develop the UNISON leaders for today and the future.

Daniel Blackburn from the International Centre for Trade Union Rights provided a global view of the state of international labour relations. ICTUR is an organising and campaigning body aiming to defend and improve the rights of trade unions and trade unionists throughout the world. The fundamental right of workers to organise is under global threat, but union rights are not only under legal threat, trade unionists face assassination, assault, kidnapping and detention. Daniel was about to attend as an observer at a trial of 31 public sector trade unionists in Turkey, their crimes undefined and without any surety that they will receive fair representation.

A panel discussion on the Review of Political Fund Effectiveness gave Regional Convenors a chance to scrutinise the document that was produced in answer to the 2008 National Delegate Conference motion 63 “What do we get for our money?” Steve Warwick, Clare Williams, Diane Kelly and Jane Carolan led the discussion which focused on the need to raise the quality and effectiveness of strategic political campaigning using the General Political Fund resources. Considering the origin of this work was a major debate in which many branches and regions took part, it is a great disappointment that so far few branches and regions have responded to the consultation, despite the deadline for submissions only being two weeks away on 13 November 2009.

Regional Convenors renewed their commitment to raise the profile of the Million Voices campaign and to urge all branches to sign up.

Finally Bob Oram, Chair of NEC staffing committee, presented Meeting the Organising Challenge – from theory to practice; delivering a clear message about the need to get the organising ethos into the thinking of all UNISON staff and activists. The roles of Local Organiser and Area Organiser have been in place for a year and the staffing committee are reviewing how they are being used in regions in partnership with the staff unions. The next steps will be a review of job descriptions to ensure integration of the organising roles and succession planning to meet out future staffing needs.