Three's company?

The "3 companies project" on which UNISON is or will be working with the Service Employees International Union has given rise to comment - some favourable and some questioning. (All anonymous though!) It's about recruiting and organising members in three large multinationals with a track record of chasing public service contracts - which seems to me to be exactly the sort of initiative which we need to be taking.

Since I prefer things out in the open I have asked the following questions about the project ahead of next week's NEC meeting and will publish the answers;

* When did this project commence?
* Who is the project sponsor?
* Who is the project manager?
* What are the arrangements for governance of this project?
* What are the arrangement for lay oversight of this project? (Has it been reported on in any detail to any NEC Committee for example?)
* What is the budget for this project?
* What financial or other contribution is being made by the SEIU?
* Will we be recruiting members to UNISON or the SEIU?
* How many members do we have in these three companies?
* In which branches are these members?
* How are the lay leadership of these branches engaged in this project?

I have no reason to question the wisdom of teaming up with a Union with an impressive record of growth in order to learn from their experiences - and I cannot see any reason why the way in which we do this should not be transparent to our membership and activists. We certainly need to improve the engagement of lay activists in our private sector work.