Union Building Conference 2018

Union Building Conference.

Sharing best practice, supporting each other.

Trade unions are the oldest, largest and most democratic voluntary organisations in Britain. No other non governmental organisations have had such influence. Our values reflect the most progressive and socially minded concerns of the people. Without our combined impact social and work life in Britain would be much worse for the entire working population. Yet two thirds of workers are not directly involved in our membership. Many members are less active than they could be and all members have a lot to offer our organisations. How do we motivate more support and engagement? Some approaches work better than others, this event seeks to facilitate sharing and discussion of best practice and new ideas. Some unions have organised nearly 100% of their potential membership. Yet their members are not always as active as needed to benefit from such strength of number. Some unions have been in existence for hundreds of years and survived many storms. But the current weather forecast may not be so good for them. Some unions are just forming and full of new energy, finding new ways of organising new groups of workers.

Some unions face the destruction of the industry or services which gave rise to them.

Some unions are general, some unions are specialist and relate to particular occupations. Some unions are general unions with specialist sections.

Some unions recruit their members for life, some lose members when their jobs go.

In some unions the majority of members are actually self-employed. In some the majority work for massive employing organisations, in others, they work for hundreds of small organisations.

There is a wide diversity of requirements to build and sustain and develop our unions.

No one organising model fits all. Yet we can all learn from each other. There are inspiring trends and examples that we can all learn from. We want to bring these examples into focus for us all at this event and enable unions to draw out elements of organising that can benefit them. This Conference reflect on cutting edge new approaches to motivating and sustaining active memberships and rooting a union presence into every workplace. It will be a participatory gathering suitable for the involvement of anyone concerned with the health and future impact of our trade unions.