Here’s the motion that we passed for Policy Conference 2025 at our meeting on 13 February.
Conference notes the success of the ‘back to the workplace’ approach spearheaded by Unite under Sharon Graham’s leadership, winning the vast majority of disputes and delivering hundreds of millions of pounds to members.
Conference notes the crucial focus on recognising and empowering reps throughout these disputes, as well as reinforcing the activity of workers through the organising department and leverage campaigns.
However, conference also notes that many of these tools remain largely unavailable to
members, especially those seeking to organise in unrecognised workplaces or with low union membership. Even reps in these contexts can struggle to access rep training, or access information on organising if a paid organiser is not allocated.
Conference believes that to reconsolidate this ‘back to the workplace’ strategy, it must be led by members and reps from the bottom up. To new members and reps, especially where they are elected between the three-year election cycles, the wider democratic structures of Unite often feel convoluted or opaque. Parts of these structures, such as Area Activist Committees, can lack engagement and their purpose can seem unclear.
Conference believes that lack of transparency is an obstacle to engaging members with the union’s democracy and therefore calls for all committee meeting minutes, including the EC, notwithstanding any confidential information, to be made available to members in good time through a dedicated, member-only page on the union’s website.
Conference believes that lack of transparency is an obstacle to engaging members with the union’s democracy and therefore Conference instructs the EC to:
- To publish all committee meeting minutes, including the EC, in good time through a dedicated, member-only page on the union’s website.
- Introduce a section on the Unite membership portal where members can sign up to the active member list, so it is not only those formally elected into a position who can access information on training and events. Resources on organising and democratic participation in the union should be provided through this portal.
- Make organising training consistently available to all members, empowering local branches with a stake in tailoring this training.
- Ensure rep training is available to reps in unrecognised workplaces – promoting this training to reps who might not be aware they can sign up, and offering digital courses, with shorter sessions over a greater number of weeks on evenings/weekends, due to lack of facilities time.
- Update rep training to emphasise collective organising and developing active, democratic workplace branches over individual servicing
- Utilise existing learning tools within the union to also introduce programmes for organising, ensuring these are available to members and not just reps and making use of webinars and online courses.
- Support members to become involved in Area Activist Committee structures, ensuring these have an outward focus on campaigning not solely an internal one on the business of the union.
- Ensure a concise guide to Unite’s democratic structures and how to stand is sent consistently to all new Unite members upon signing up. Make such guides available on the website alongside the constitutional timelines, providing online briefings aimed at new or potential activists at least once a quarter.