Good luck to UNISON Regional Council - an obstacle to progress has been removed

Today is the first meeting of UNISON’s Regional Council in Greater London (since its inception in 2004) at which I will be neither a delegate nor a member of the Regional Committee.

There may well not be a quorum, since there has not been a quorum at a meeting of the Regional Council other than its Annual General Meeting since 2005.

However, the major obstacle to a functioning Regional Council has now been definitively removed (contrary to ill-informed rumours which circulated at Congress House following the suspension of the former Regional Secretary in December 2015).

The opportunity now exists for lay activists in Greater London UNISON to restore the Region to the relevance and significance to its membership which it had in its first decade.

UNISON members will face the problem that the Regional office is largely staffed by those who sat silently through the disgraceful conduct of their former manager during the last General Secretary election.

Many staff appointed in the last decade (and more) have no experience of working in a trade union under the democratic control of its membership at Regional level (and – of course – a large number of “activists” in the Region also lack the experience of being in charge).

Bringing UNISON in Greater London to being a useful part of our labour and trade union movement will be a significant challenge – and I wish luck to those who may take this challenge up.