Organising campaigns
National organising campaigns
Since the establishment of the national organising department in
mid 2005, Unite has been organising and building trade unionism in
the following sectors:
- IT Services, as part of a Fair Pay campaign
- Aviation, from cabin crew through cleaning, security and
catering contractors to airport services
- The non-profit sector, by way of regional campaigns, Cargomm,
Sam H, Turning Point, Loretto Care and Ark Housing
- The meat sector, both in red meat and white meat
- The fish industry in Britain and Ireland
- The mushroom industry in Scotland and Ireland
- Japanese car companies developing the organisation and growing
the membership in Nissan and Honda
- Building cleaning, the cleaning contractors in Canary Wharf and
the City of London
- Construction and building materials
- Logistics, parcels and now grocery retail logistics
- Finance in the banking sector
Membership gains
The national organising department has helped to drive Unite's
total membership growth. In the first five years Unite organisers
have recruited over 61,000 new members. This is ‘real’ membership.
Real membership that is checked and backed up by application form
verification and only recorded if a member is actually paying. The
organising department has also recruited 3,356 new shop
stewards.
The growth in Unite's membership is also sustainable membership,
precisely because Unite's organising department has built strong
and effective workplace organisation. The turnover of membership
has been reduced significantly and Unite continues to add members
and train shop stewards.
Shop stewards' combines
Targeting key sectors of the economy, the national
organising department has established shop stewards' combines,
bringing together lead lay representatives from all of the
companies concerned, in key sectors:
- In aviation, for cleaning and security and for airport
services
- In food, for the meat industry and for the food and mushroom
industry
- in logistics, for grocery retail
Six new combines have been established, with Unite returning to
the roots of what built the union in the first place. Through those
combines, it is the members that determine their industrial
strategy and priorities, looking not just to next year’s pay claim
but also two and five years ahead.
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