My pledge:

Strong branches need resources, and under my leadership they

will get what they need
There are many reasons I am standing to be the next General Secretary of UNISON. But an
important one is that I believe UNISON has failed to respond to the massive changes in the
workplace, which mean that the most important work the union does is increasingly done by
branches but they are not resourced for it. Despite these self-evident changes, UNISON has not
adapted and because of that we are struggling to defend our members.
There is more than one type of leadership UNISON needs to beat the Tories. There is leadership
that wins victories by setting out a vision, inspiring members and giving them confidence. I
believe my record shows I have this. But there is also the type of leadership that reviews our
internal structures and resourcing, and makes a union fit for purpose so it can take on our
common enemy. Let us not forget that type of leadership in this General Secretary election. This
is just as important but has clearly been lacking in our union.
Changing times
The world has changed:

National collective bargaining has less impact on more and more of our members,
leaving negotiations and the lodging of annual pay claims increasingly to Branch
activists;
RMS and now WARMS membership systems have been devolved to Branches to
administrate, with no extra help to do so;
Fragmentation similarly increases pressure on branches. Branches no longer deal with
one employer. Many branches have hundreds;
Facility time attacks have reduced the ability of branches to fall back on seconded
officers from the main employer;
Constant and vicious cuts lead to constant reorganisations and consultations for
changes to terms and conditions. Only branches lead on this increased work;
Campaigning, working with community groups, individual casework, negotiation, strikes
theyre all on the increase for branches as austerity bites.

Branches can do it better

And as well as all this, I would also contend that there is more branches can and should do,
because they can do it better than regional or national offices. Significant aspects of both
recruitment and communication are better done at the branch level at the closest possible
point to our members.
Any analysis of where the work that matters to our members falls will show that the vast majority
of it falls in branches. And because the resource from the wider union has not followed the work,
it is branch activists who bear the strain. Long hours; stress; families put on the back burner.
UNISON still has structures and funding arrangements built for another time. Why is this, and
what vested interests have led to our current inertia and inability to adapt?

What we need
We need a sensible review of the work undertaken at regional and national levels, and a change
to branch funding, to drag UNISON up-to-date and put resources and support where they are
needed. Any serious campaign to be General Secretary of our great trade union must address
this.
Increasingly the work of regional and national offices is remote from branches, and sadly it is
increasingly irrelevant to members. This is partly because UNISONs democracy is not as effective
as it could be. The work of national and regional officers is not under lay direction and control
often enough.

My pledge
What would I do if elected General Secretary? I would address these challenges with three key
principles in mind:

Any change must be with the full input of lay members and be under lay control and
direction;

Our trade union must live within its means, so we must make sustainable and
responsible changes;

Any change must lead to the most effective use of our resources possible, so we
cannot see further funds distributed to any part of our union that will not utilise
them to defend and support our members.

With these principles in mind, my commitment to our members is as follows.

Within the first 100 days of my taking office we will establish a review of all national and regional
activity, with the full participation of lay members and under lay member control. This will
prioritise union activity and expenditure at those tiers with a view to reducing or stopping activity
and expenditure which is not affordable. Nye Bevan famously said that the language of priorities
is the religion of socialism. Well, UNISON is under attack, and as such we should not shy away
from tough decisions about our priorities. We must free up sufficient resources as are necessary
to support Branches in their critical work, the success or failure of which will determine the
future of our union.

This Review will report back to National Delegate Conference 2016. Accompanying it, I
will recommend to the NEC to put to Conference a proposal for a new scheme of branch funding
to be in operation by 2017. Branches will receive an immediate increase in the standard
entitlement of member subscriptions they receive of 3%, taking the branch standard entitlement
from 20% to 23%. All additional percentage enhancements will remain unchanged, and branches
which already have significant unutilised general reserves will not receive the additional funding
unless they have plans for how they will use their general reserves to support members.
This will be the first part of an immediate strategic push to transfer the unions support and
resources to where they are needed at the branch level, and over time the balance of where
union resources are focused will change significantly under my leadership.
This is what I believe we need to start winning again for our members. That it has not happened
so far when the need is obvious is a major and unacceptable failure of leadership.
Under my leadership, this will change.