Mobilising for pensions action from the bottom up

Gregor Gall surprisingly appears to embrace the great leader theory in his review of the TUC Congress preliminary agenda on the Guardian’s comment is free website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/05/unions-leaders-members

His implied criticism of the ‘big 3’ unions, UNISON, Unite and GMB, is based on his external perspective on preparations (or lack of) for industrial action in defence of public sector pensions. UNISON members understand and overwhelmingly support the union’s strategy of seeking to secure the union’s bargaining objectives on pensions through negotiations while – simultaneously - preparing for industrial action in the event that the necessary concessions are not secured.

The painstaking task of preparing ballot registers for hundreds of thousands of members and thousands of employers doesn’t easily lend itself to media sound bites or platform rhetoric. Nor does the mobilisation of stewards and unions pension champions /contacts in order to raise member consciousness of the need for action.

But had Professor Gall taken the trouble to consult the UNISON website he would understand that all of this is going on apace – with thousands of shoulders rather than a single shoulder to the wheel:

http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/campaignNews5.pdf