Report of UNISON National Executive Council 14th February 2024

The President opened the meeting covering the following issues.

General Secretary report

• We must and will make the Year of the LGBT+ worker a huge success
• We expect around £100 million in back pay this year for staff due to UNISON equal pay claims
• We are seeing more and more Section 114 notices in local government which will have a terrible impact on our members and the services they provide
• Consultation on the NJC pay claim is complete but now with the GMB.
• The anti-Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 march in Cheltenham had been a good and an upbeat event.
• LNER rail company backed down when they issued MSL notices after ASLEF threatened extra strike days. UNISON is working with ASLEF on this to learn from these tactics.
• Gaza remains a major issue for the union, and we are encouraging branches to donate to MAP and Red Cross and to raise the issue where appropriate.

Questions to General Secretary report

• The NEC members raised issues with the report, starting with the horrendous attacks in Gaza. The  chair of the International Committee was surprised there was no written reference to Gaza in the circulated report. She was pleased the Gen Sec has mentioned it at the end of her verbal report. NEC members discussed the ongoing genocidal attacks in Gaza.  The NEU, PCS and UCU had actively supported the day of action in workplaces. Unison did not back it or produce materials for members and reps like other unions. We need to see Unison step up a gear in time for the next day of action on March 8th. We discussed the BDS policy, and how it needs to be publicised more, but there is a recognition that sanctions will only have a limited impact when imposed by capitalist Governments. Some NEC members raised the issue of using the power of our union to organise, encourage and facilitate our 1.3 million members to get more involved in the campaign for a ceasefire. The trade union movement has the power to organise working class communities to mobilise to support the Palestinian masses. It will take a united trade union movement to build a movement that can hamper the Israeli war machine and force politicians to support a ceasefire, and these efforts will have to be international. The leadership of UNISON need to take a lead role in PSC rallies, but they also need to encourage local branches to get involved in local, regional and national demonstrations. Our efforts also have to recognise the anti-war movement in Israel and we need to look at supporting genuine working class movements challenging the Israeli war machine.
• An NEC member raised Birmingham Council and the possible loss of 600 jobs there which would likely hit Black members the hardest. There are many Councils in a very precarious financial position. We asked what we are doing nationally to coordinate a fight back against council cuts. We also asked that we pressure Labour to fund local government in full and that Labour pledge now to reverse the cuts. Many NEC members felt that equal pay issues were quite separate from the funding crisis at Birmingham Council.  These attacks on Local Government services are an intensification and extension on the austerity politics of the last decade. The very existence of democratic local government control over services is at risk, It will be UNISON members in the front line of these attacks, as well as their service users. UNISON, as the largest public sector union, has to lead the campaign to defend these services, but also to campaign for properly funded Social Care, Education and Health services, under democratic Local Government control.
• A number of NEC members representing Health seats raised that Wes Streeting was making statements to the media which attempted to stoke Transphobia and culture wars within the NHS when this was a non-issue for NHS staff and patients. They felt that Wes Streeting should not be speaking at Unison’s Health Conference when his Transphobic comments are out of step with Unison policy and echo those of the Tories. They understood the Chair of the LGBT+ National SOG had requested this too. As a union, we need to challenge the attacks on the LGBT+ community, but particularly the transphobia of many politicians, and there can be no compromise with these proponents of the “culture wars”.
• An NEC member was concerned about the roll back from the National Care Service announced by the Labour Party recently. Unison had commissioned a report on a roadmap to a NCS. They questioned what had changed since then and whether social care was no longer considered an emergency. A number of NEC members stated we should not be dropping or diluting our policies now because an election is coming and we do not wish to embarrass the Labour Party. The NHS was set up under more trying and testing conditions, so any talk of setting up a NCS being “to complex and difficult” and could not be set up in 5 years, is incorrect. Our union needs to be more confident and robust in challenging the back sliding of the Labour Party on the NCS. Our members in this sector and in Health need to be involved in pushing for this policy, with the union making proper funding in LG and Health the bedrock of their interventions in this General Election year.
• NHS Strike. Clinical support workers had been on long-term strike in the Wirral, and the dispute had been positive and vibrant, achieving 90% density of members. If the members there won their re-ballot, what could be done at a national level to support their dispute? We discussed how to strengthen these disputes and widen them to include the local communities. Good quality Health services provided by the NHS matter to everyone in the community, and our union has to look at widening these disputes to harness the support from local working class communities.

President’s report

• The President introduced her report. Including a report on Gaza, NBM Conference, Higher Education SGE Conference, TUC special meeting on MSL & Cheltenham rally.

Questions to the President’s report

• In the discussion, some of the following points were made by NEC members. Some NEC members felt there was significant disappointment at SOC ruling that Gaza could not be discussed at National Black Members’ Conference on grounds of legal jeopardy. They dispute other NEC members’ claims that the conference had been divided, far from it, the conference was united in wanting to discuss and support Palestine. It was a good Conference, but NEC members felt it was a problem when SOC ruled motions out of order as this meant issues do not get debated within the union and these issues then arise elsewhere. To win rank & file control of our union, we need to continue to challenge the bureaucratic nature of organising conferences and the union in general. Members and delegates must take every opportunity to have their voices heard, even outside the usual procedures and mechanisms.
• The President concluded by stating that NBMC had been the best Unison conference she had ever attended. It was vibrant and political, and showed unity in determination to support the people of Palestine.

Motions to Conference:

The following motions were passed by NEC to go forward to NDC:

1. Organising to Win
2. Union learning
3. Forced labour
4. Palestine (after amendments agreed from a South West delegate, to bring the motion into line with the NEC’s previous statement on Palestine)
5. NCS (after amendments agreed from a North West delegate. The amendment was in response to concern that Labour is diluting its commitment to NCS and that Unison should not lower its own demands in deference to Keir Starmer’s preferred electoral strategy. We should be bold and ambitious and proud of our policies, and not kick our demands into a second Labour term that may never come. The Gen Sec was happy with these amendments and stated that Unison has not changed its policy.)
6. Safe and healthy workplaces
7. Defending the right to strike
8. Climate change (after amendments to seek to secure the reinstatement of the £28 billion Green New Deal investment)
9. Year of LGBT+ Worker
10. Child care (after amendments from an NEC member from Northern region)
11. Bargaining
12. Investment

Organising update

• Membership had increased by 0.56% net in 2023. This was the second consecutive year we had seen net positive growth.
• 4,097 new stewards recruited in 2023. This was a 56% increase on the previous year.
• Record growth of new joiners at 209,000.
• Northern Ireland had seen the highest growth at +10%, due to significant industrial action there.

Questions of the Organising update

1. Given the obvious successes the strategy is having, one NEC member asked why the ’10 reasons to join UNISON’ video released for Heart Unions was pretty much focussed exclusively on servicing reasons. We need a union that is focused on organising our members, it is this process that will enable us to win strike ballots, to challenge local employers and to strengthen the progressive policies of the union and give them an impact in working class communities. Policies that are left on shelves from one year to the next are useless.
2. An NEC member stated that the results were positive. We could not be complacent but were heading in the right direction. Disputes and campaigning supports recruitment but retention is a big challenge. By organising our members we are building a union movement that can win disputes over pay. Pay disputes exposes employers  and enables the union to explain the nature of our class politics. A CEO on £190,000 per year, will have very little in common with a HCA striking to reach a Band 3 in the NHS. These are the opportunities to build the union, but also expose those who condemn us to low pay and poverty.
3. An NEC member representing young members stated that 15% of new joiners were Young Members, an increase which was welcome. They felt it was the Organising to Win strategy that was engaging young members, not the servicing strategy. Young people have been at the sharpest end of the austerity attacks over the last decade, and are a layer of trade unionists that see the strength of organising in the work place to challenge the employer.

Service Group updates

• An NEC member from local government reported on the Scotland FE dispute where our members had won their re-ballot for strike action. It was confirmed that industrial action had recently been approved by the Industrial Action Committee. The whole force of the union has to be focused on winning these disputes, as this will help to build confidence and militancy for the forthcoming battles in Education.
• An NEC member was concerned that the NJC claim did not mirror UNISON policy and only includes the claim for £15 per hour over 2 years. Their local dispute had won £15 per hour precisely because it hooked into UNISON policy and the employer knew this. As a trade union, we need to use the progressive policies we have and make them a reality, rather than aspirational material left on office book shelves.
• The Asst Gen Sec for bargaining responded that the NJC claim results from a series of regional discussions and a process of compromise, sometimes with the other two unions. We don’t always get to keep everything we want. On the current consultation on a Nursing Pay Spine for England, the government had thrown the RCN a sop and all other unions, including Unison, were against it. This is a divide and rule policy by the Tory Government, and we need to highlight this to the rank & file RCN colleagues we work with. It could be a challenge to AfC.

Industrial Action report

• The chair of the Industrial Action Committee reported that there were huge numbers of disputes taking place, more than at any other time in Unison’s history. This has to be a starting point for the direction UNISON takes in the years ahead. Capitalism offers nothing but more austerity, poverty and misery. Union members will have to learn the lessons of the recent disputes and build their forces for the upcoming battles. The main lesson is that withdrawing our labour wins disputes. Organising with our union colleagues, offers a way forward out of the misery being doled out by successive Governments.
• The Vice-Chair of the Industrial Action Committee wanted successful strikers to be invited to Conference this year. An NEC member representing the East Midlands asked that the Ash Field Academy strikers who had run a long and ultimately very successful dispute, be invited to Conference. This would make for inspiring Conference. The theme of the NDC should be “celebrating” those members that have taken strike action, they are at the vanguard of our movement. An NEC member who had had a successful branch dispute asked that the NEC send a message of support to Barnet branch where social workers were out in dispute and currently re-balloting. This dispute would have implications for many branches.
• The Industrial Action Committee was meeting in March and would receive a report on funding. We were looking at how we could automate the payment of strike pay, though this would be complex and a cost would be attached if we proceed. We were also doing more analysis of the costs of disputes. The sheer number of disputes was inevitably placing a strain on the fund. Every part of our union needs to be focused on facilitating the successful conclusion to all industrial action by our members. This is paramount to building the union and making it a rank & file organisation that is fit to lead workers. At the moment our union is learning the lessons on how to be a fighting & militant trade union, but we need to learn these lessons quickly and to learn them well.

Staffing issues

• A report was given by the Chair of Staffing. This included an update on the 2024 pay award process for Unison staff.