Today started with a meeting with our new Birmingham Branch Organising team, to review what was done last week and to plan what they will do this week.
We have been exceptionally fortunate to have received some short-term funding from the UNISON National Fighting Fund and other national and regional sources to set up a team of Local Organisers to pioneer the use of the 'organising approach' in a major local authority.
What we want to do is to build up strong local organised workplaces where members are working together to support each other in facing the challenges at work. We are also identifying people who can become stewards or workplace representatives, who will be well trained and supported by the branch to maintain the strong workplace organisation. We will thereby attract more staff to join the union and make us even more effective.
Recruitment without strong sustained local organisation is doomed to disillusionment and failure. Organisation needs recruitment, if our members are to have real influence with their management.
UNISON has been applying the 'organising approach' developed by public sector unions in American, Australia and elsewhere. The 'Three Companies' project had great success in building union organisation in three private catering and cleaning companies working on public sector contracts. Workplaces with hardly a few members turned into 70% plus membership and established effective organisation, winning real improvements in the conditions at work for or rather by members.
Now we want to see whether we can use these techniques in local government. Sheffield Branch is also running an organising project.
We will be focusing on three different areas - the schools in one parliamentary constituency, Yardley; the Adults Assessment and Support Planning division which faces privatisation in a social enterprise in 2013; and one of the big mega-administration buildings (Woodcock Street) where the council is concentrating thousands of staff. We will be looking at how we build a unionised community for the many staff who are working from home. There may be other focus areas later in the year, depending on progress with these three.
It's early days, but the team has been getting out to workplaces, meeting members and stewards, distributing newsletters and publicity.
Graeme Horn, Joint Branch Secretary
December's membership figures show an increase in new members joining us. Traditionally we see an increase in new members in the run up to taking strike action. However, I believe the hard work put in by the Branch Organising Team along side Branch Activists helped increase numbers more than would have been expected.
ReplyDeleteJohn.Slotta Branch Membership Services Officer