Funding the fight for Equal Pay

I am very pleased to see that there is a report of Thursday’s National Executive Council meeting on the UNISON website already.

Read this blog tomorrow for my own report – but in the mean time all UNISON members do need to take on board that we are going to have to find ways to fund equal pay litigation.

I was very pleased that the NEC changed its mind about charging members who were bringing equal pay claims for their representation. The point about trade unionism is that we provide free representation to our members – unlike “No Win No Fee” solicitors who get rich on the back of bringing claims.

All UNISON activists need to recognise that, because we have taken the correct decision to continue to provide free representation to our members, we need therefore to be prepared to find the considerable costs of this representation.

A “road show” will be visiting UNISON Regions in the near future in order to start the debate about how we find the resources to meet these costs. We have to find a way to will the means having already willed the ends…