National campaign: Vital everyone has their say
In her latest blog for activist magazine Activate, Fran explains how it's vital that everyone has their say on our national campaign
I want to start by saying a massive thank you to everyone who has so far taken part in our survey on the next steps of our national campaign. There’s still a week to go and we want as many people as possible to take part before it closes on Tuesday 5 March.
It’s vital that everyone has their say on our national campaign, as we continue to fight for better pay, pensions justice and job security. And as we take this campaign forward, maximum involvement and engagement from members are so important.
Just as we are doing now, we asked for your say on our national campaign last year, which resulted in unprecedented concessions from the government. You were asked to have your say on the strategy endorsed by the NEC, which was to pause strike action, in order to allow for talks to be held on ensuring employers made good on their concessions.
90% of members endorsed this strategy and we were clear that while strike action was paused, the campaign continued. And we are now picking up where we left off, with the NEC having agreed to take a temperature test to see what members are prepared to do to ensure the government commits to our demands.
This will be a crucial organising exercise that will provide us with a breakdown of the results by group, branch and workplace in order to inform our approach to any subsequent statutory ballot. It will also allow branches to speak to all members to encourage them to vote in the survey and to carry out a data cleansing of workplace and grade information. We’re also encouraging the use of the Organising Hub, which will be an essential tool during any statutory ballot.
The NEC has agreed a preliminary timetable and with branches having been put on a ballot-ready footing for a number of months, we need every effort from our activists to be ready for a potential statutory ballot in early March. To assist with this, we will be running strike schools throughout March and engaging with activists and senior lay reps across the union.
The immediate priority is ensuring every member has their say in the current survey. This is a crucial first step as we continue where we left off from last year’s historic campaign.