Thanks for your support so far

This is just a quick post to say thanks to all the support I've had so far in my campaign. It's really scary when you stand up and say 'please support me' and it means so much when people do.

I'm really glad that I'm getting support from across the union and especially from young members. So here's a little thanks for the help so far, and a request for further support.

If you've got a branch or Regional Young Members Forum meeting before the 16th February please try and get them to nominate me (forms from www.unison.org.uk/elections). Otherwise please tell as many young members that you can that the elections are coming up and that I'll be a great NEC members.

Thanksxxx

Key Challenges

Here I set out what I'll do if elected. I believe that there are three key challenges that face the NEC Young Members rep, ensuring that Young Members are prioritised, ensuring that young members activity is at the centre of the union and that young activists are well supported.

I will set out here how I plan to tackle these challenges, working closely with other NEC members and the National Young Members Forum.

Prioritising Young Members and listening to Young Members
With so many demands on your time it's easy for Young Members being deprioritised. It's essential that all NEC members report back to and listen to the people who elected them and for me that would obviously be young members. I will be accessible to any young member to get in touch and tell me what they think. To that effect it's vital to stay in contact with all levels of the Young Members organisation. Working with the Young Members structures means that together we'll be able to have the most influence within UNISON and have a stronger voice for young members.

I will:

• Attend National Young Members Forum Meetings and the National Young Members Weekend to report on NEC business and listen to members
• Be available to visit regional young members events where invited
• Use electronic media to publish reports on my activities and seek the views of young members

Young Members at the Centre of our Union and our Campaigns
Young Members must take their place at the centre of our union. The recent Young Members Survey commissioned by the National Young Members Forum reveal that, like all members, Young Members see issues such as pensions and the welfare state as key issues. And while it's important that as young members we continue to campaign on issues such as equality in the National Minimum Wage and Votes at 16, it's vital that we put more energy into including young members in union wide campaigns such as positively public and defending our pensions.

I will:

• Work with others on the NEC to ensure that we use Young Members and a young persons perspective within UNISON's campaigning work
• Work with the National Young Members Forum to put a young members perspective forward
• Ensure that Young Members are not sidelined and just seen as the activists of the future, but as the activists of now

Developing support for Young Activists
Young member recruitment has gone from strength to strength in recent years thanks to hard work across the union. Now the key is to ensure we can turn more of these young members into young activists.

I will:

• Identify good practice from across the union (such as the Young Members Development Programme being developed in the West Midlands) ensuring schemes are rolled out and included in the Code of Good Branch Practice where appropriate
• Look at the development of a buddying scheme for new young activists
• Ensure the recruitment and development of young activists is a priority for UNISON

TUC Speak up for Public Services Lobby

Yesterday I attended the TUC's Lobby promoting the value of public services. The day didn't start well for me as I got locked into my friends house (who I'd stayed with the night before) and ended up having to climb out through the window!

But I made it to the rally not long after it had started, to here a number of General Secretaries and the like making empassioned speeches about defending our services against the dogmatic privatisation and marketisation by the Government. Some were great, some not so great but with every TUC affiliated union speaking it was quite long. I stayed to the end of the rally though as my friend Wes was speaking on behalf of the National Union of Students, unfortunately by the time he spoke the room was a lot emptier than at the beginning when you couldn't get in it was so full.

I was able to lobby my own MP, Roger Godsiff. We met at 4 and had a good long chat. I'd only met Roger briefly before as I've not that long lived in the constituency. Roger was very supportive of the TUC lobby in general and the more specifics. Having voted against Foundation Hospitals and Top-up Fees he has a decent record as an MP. He also assured me that he had contacted and asked questions of the Department of Health around decisions such as outsourcing primary care services amongst others. We also shared a common belief in the importance of good involvement of front line staff in projects such as Connecting for Health.

Important for our Branch was a discussion on PFI, with our new PFI hospital under construction. Roger and I agreed that we need more creative ways of raising finance, rather than the expensive PFI schemes which are already hitting the NHS hard.

All in all it was a good day. I hope to take forward our relationship with Roger Godsiff as a Branch to build support for our cause locally as well as continuing the pressure nationally.

This sort of event is a great way of ensuring members remain engaged in the bigger picture and take our experience to decision makers, rather than just dealing with the problems that policies create on the ground. I was glad to see young members there and hope that over the coming years we can increase the involvement of young members in these events.

Embedding organisation and creating activism, a necessity if we're to defend public services

NHS Together - the coalition of Trade Unions and Staff Side NHS organisations, has decided to call for a day of regional activities rather than a national demonstration in defence of the NHS. This is reportedly due to concerns about poor turn out for a national demonstration based on branches feedback. While regional activity is all well and good, and very important, it is difficult to co-ordinate on one day and I believe is often more difficult to mobilise. People understand where power is, and maybe more important where the media is and that is, rightly or wrongly, London.


Having successfully led the mobilisation of local activists to Cardiff for NUS' National Demo stopping Top-up Fees for Wales and yet more activists to Edinburgh as part of the Make Poverty History Coalition I have some experience in mobilising for demo's. And I can understand the leaderships fears, a poorly attended demo can be worse than no demonstration at all. But the lesson has to be the importance of committing even further to the organising model and using this to create the activists we need on the ground to mobilise our members.

But to do this needs bold leadership at a national and regional level. To have a successful mobilisation of members, whether to national or regional activity, we need to be brave enough to focus the organisations resources towards building for the demonstration. This means all union officials deprioritising other work to get out their into branches, supporting them and going out and speaking to members.

All to often we talk about following the organising model, but then spend our time recruiting through freebies not through action, dealing with individuals cases rather than building for all of us. We must focus on building activists and activism within our branches, confident that when you get an activist members come with them.

If elected as your representative on UNISON's NEC I will ensure that the union receives this leadership from a national level. Then when the NHS or any other public service needs UNISON to lead its defence we're there and brave.

Defending the Labour Link

With the Tories on the attack over the trade union funding of the Labour Party there has been much discussion on role trade unions play within the Labour Party.

I strongly believe in the role of the unions in the Labour Party and pay into the APF (Labour Link) as well as the GPF (General Political Fund). I'm also an individual member of the party.

Rather than having less influence in the Labour Party, we need to increase the impact that our members make within the party.

Toward the end of last year I attended a Let's Talk event organised by West Midlands Young Labour and Labour Students. The whole 'Let's Talk' thing is a bit naff but this gave young people the opportunity to have their say to a Government Minister about child poverty in the world and at home. I was able to challenge Ed Balls on education policy, the national minimum wage and taxation as well as how we build momentum around eradicating child poverty.

This was also an important opportunity to promote unions and UNISON to other young socialists, able to explain the role unionisation takes in lifting people out of poverty with improved pay, flexible working, protection against discrimination etc.

From this I got into discussions with the Chair of West Midlands Young Labour about how young trade unionists and Young Labour can improve our collaboration. Hopefully this will lead to greater voice for young people within Labour in the West Midlands. This sort of activity, working with Labour's grass roots, is the way we improve our influence within the party.

Seeking nominations

So, I'm now seeking nominations for the young members seat on UNISON's National Executive Council. This is the sort of bit I hate when it's for my own election, telling everyone how wonderful you are doesn't come naturally. But I'm standing for the NEC because I do actually think that if I get elected it will be the best thing for UNISON and especially our Young Members.

I'm hoping I can use this election period to reach out to young members and hope this blog will become a really useful source of information about me and the election. If you'd like to offer your support please get in tough. If you want to get your Young Members Forum and/or Branch to nominate me please do, the more the merrier. Information on nomination can be found at www.unison.org.uk/elections

Below is the letter that I'm sending out to branches and regions and generally anyone who wants it. If you want a full copy please get in touch.

Sisters and Brothers,

Nomination for National Executive Council

I am seeking nominations for election to the NEC as the young members representative. The NEC is the keystone of our union's democracy and leadership and I feel that my passion, dedication and experience will ensure young members are heard. My vision is where young members are heard loud and clear at local, regional and national levels and where our union continues to fight for the diversity of our membership.

I have a breath of experience to be able to serve effectively on the NEC in political action, organisational governance and activism for young people, students and workers. Below I have set out this experience that I hope evidence the reasons why I hope you will consider nominating me:

• On the Management Committee of the British Youth Council (www.byc.org.uk). I was involved in campaigning on issues such as anti-social behaviour, lobbying for the national minimum wage for 16 & 17 year olds and overseeing the
  development and work of the organisation. This was my first experience of being a trustee and I gained insight into the constraints on organisational finances and how we must manage our resources to best be able to achieve our aims.
• As a student I became hugely involved in my student union (www.bugs.bham.ac.uk), spending a year as full time President. I led the organisation in a direction of prioritising political action rather than service delivery and led campaigns on higher education funding, against the BNP and our local efforts as a members of the make poverty history coalition. This activism led to us taking the largest numbers of students outside Cardiff to the NUS National Demo in Wales, stopping Top-Up Fees for Wales in their tracks; and taking even more students to Edinburgh on the 2nd July for the G8 rally. This was a key experience for me in understanding the different tactics in achieving change (such as informal lobbying, formal mechanisms and direct political action) and the important role that everyone in an organisation plays.
• As a steward and young members officer in my Branch, University Hospital Birmingham UNISON, I have been active in the activities of my branch. I was hugely involved in our recent successful dispute over Agenda for Change banding, ensuring members were fully aware of the situation and ready for action should it be necessary. On a local level, on top of the work with individual members, I have been leading staff sides involvement in a service reconfiguration.
• Within the West Midlands I am the Chair of Regional Young Members Forum. Having recently launched targeted recruitment materials and activities, our regional forum is now going from strength to strength with increased involvement. We're starting to make our mark in the region with plans in place to ensure young members are listened to in the region.
• As Vice Chair of National Young Members Forum I am leading on the development of our work to support the positively public campaign, ensuring young members have their place in the campaign and complementing the wider effort with young people focused activities.

I joined UNISON when I started my first job at 17, working as a carer in a residential home, becoming a member of my Local Government Branch. Unfortunately the 'Got a boss; get a union' idea isn't there for all young people, so UNISON at every level must engage with young workers and ensure this vulnerable group gets protection. We cannot do this by freebies alone, recruitment of young members must be backed up with strong campaigning on issues that young members care about, be that Votes at 16, equalising the national minimum wage or defending the public services of our future. Anyone that saw the huge numbers of young people marching for peace, free education and an end to world poverty in recent years know that lots of young people passionately care about our politics, so trade unions need to meet us young people in a dynamic and engaging way on issues we care about.

I'm standing for the NEC to ensure that over the next 2 years, UNISON not only recruits more young members but speaks and wins for us. This means a strong and democratic union that focuses on getting results over enforcing proceduralism. I would be grateful if you could give me your support in achieving this by having your branch or young members forum nominate me for the Young Members Seat on the NEC. For more information about the election and my candidacy visit
www.james4nec.blogspot.com

In unity,

James Anthony
Membership No. 8679650

NB. UNISON Branches and Regional and National Young Members Forums are able to nominate for the young members seat on the NEC. In order to nominate me the relevant committee would have to agree and submit appropriate nomination papers. Papers should be distributed from the 8th January and can also be obtained from www.unison.org.uk/elections The nomination period closes on the 16th February.