Carl Roper of the TUC explores the crucial link between union membership, mobilisation and the ability of unions to deliver for members and argues that 'if we get the balance wrong and place too much emphasis on a role as service providers and regard members as ‘clients’ then we are diminished and our ability to mobilise members becomes harder. Unions have always been (and must remain) more than this. Members are not just clients but key participants in the life of the union; indeed they are the real source of union power. And unions themselves have to be agents of ‘social action’ not just providers of a ‘social service’
http://strongerunions.org/2013/02/19/its-membership-and-mobilisation-that-makes-us-a-movement/
