Leaders organising to meet the challenge

“Everyone can be a leader. The key is to translate what we do on a day to day basis into leadership.” That was the inspiring message from Roger McKenzie, West Midland’s Regional Secretary, as he kicked off UNISON’s 2nd National Leadership School last week.

Lay activists and staff from the regions and HQ came together for four days of political debate, self reflection, motivating presentations and hard work, as we all looked toward meeting the huge challenges and major threats to working people and the poorest in society from the political ideology of the ConDem Government.

We kicked off by looking at our own leadership styles and at what makes a good leader in the trade union movement. We borrowed from Alice Walker, “Be an earnest speaker and a fearless listener,” and from Martin Luther King, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” as we looked at how we can all have a role to shift the power in favour of working people.

Professor Jeremy Waddington, from the Manchester Business School gave us a political framework to inform UNISON’s strategic response to the Condem’s policies. He reminded us that in an ideological and centrally inspired campaign, the Condems have effectively switched focus away from the finance and banking sector to public services; from bank regulation to public sector cuts. And they have taken public opinion with them. He warned us that the impact will be reduced employment in both the public and the private sector, increased privatisation, greater inequality and the real possibility of more anti trade union legislation.

He told us that we have a window of 18 months to resist the Condem Strategy but we must propose a viable alternative, based on UNISON’s alternative budget and we need to act NOW. He highlighted the importance of building strategic alliances at a national and local level with other trade unions and community groups and called on us to look at how we can get our messages across to our members, the public and politicians at all levels.

Dave Prentis followed this the next day with an inspirational presentation which laid out why the union has never been more important. “This is now our time to lead. We are the people expected to challenge the government and defend public services. This is what trade unions were created for,” he said, calling on us to generate a groundswell of opposition to the Condem cuts.

Dave’s call for the union to move to an organising approach at all levels was illustrated by the contribution from Audrey Parkinson, an activist recruited as part of UNISON’s 3 Companies project. This project targeted low-waged, poorly unionised workforces in outsourced services run by one of three multi-national companies. The focus was not just to recruit members but to identify leaders within the workplaces and support and train them to organise. Audrey was one of these leaders and her story, and what she has achieved in the workplace and with her members was uplifting.

This theme was also picked up by Lilian Greenwood, an ex-UNISON organiser, now a Labour MP. She highlighted some important lessons from her election campaign of relevance to us in getting our messages across and support for our messages. Personal and direct contact is key; listening is at least as powerful as talking; work as a team to maximise your different skills and talents; make sure you take people with you, she told us.

Throughout the week small project groups worked to develop practical campaigning resources which built on what we had learned. The range of resources presented included cascade training to deliver key messages to members and activists that there are alternatives to public service cuts; toolkits to build community alliances and to challenge and lobby politicians; promotional materials to support these activities and a proposal for a dedicated cuts alert line.

Perhaps more importantly though, we left with a better understanding of our own role as leaders within UNISON at all levels; a commitment to work in partnership across the lay and full-time structure and a renewed determination to meet the challenges ahead by organising, recruiting and bringing on the leaders in our own branches and regions.

Kate Ramsden
Scotland Region