Gall is right to acknowledge UNISON’s massive presence on the march but wrong to classify UNISON as Britain’s ‘second biggest union’. He is over 100,000 members wide of the mark in using that outdated classification. That aside, Gall makes the crucial point that union power should not be simplistically equated with numbers on a demonstration, no matter how exhilarating and unifying the effects of such mobilisations.
The main determinants of union power are strong workplace organisation and effective industrial/political leverage – in those respects much remains to be done in the 2010 - 2015 war of attrition to defend public services as well as the jobs, pay and pensions of the workers who provide them:
http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2011/01/unisonactive-exclusive-unison-britains.html
PS: We've got photos of 25 of the banners here https://picasaweb.google.com/101924085583187662306/26MarchBanners#
