The more public service workers are in UNISON, the stronger UNISON is — meaning public service workers win better deals for themselves and their services.
That doesn’t just mean recruiting new members, it means hanging on to the ones we’ve got. That’s why UNISON Eastern launched a regional retention strategy last year, laying out some simple steps regional staff and activists could take to cut down on the number leaving and keep the region in growth.
Claire Murray, a steward at Norfolk Community Health branch, is just one of the activists putting the plan into action and keeping the union in growth.
“Every month we get a list of leavers from Warms,” Claire explains. “I send a quick email to anyone I can’t contact by phone and then ring round the rest.
“It’s amazing the number that didn’t realise they’d left. Sometimes direct debits bounce or they forget to tick a box when they change roles and their DOCAS stops. A quick phone call and they rejoin.
“Another member left because we didn’t strike for a better NHS pay rise. I explained about how we’d done everything we could to get a successful strike ballot but that not enough people — including the leaver! — had voted to get over the legal thresholds. They said they’d think about rejoining.”
Claire contacts a dozen or so leavers a month and always convinces one or two to stay. Generally about a quarter realise their error, while the lion’s share of the others have left the trust.
“It makes the difference between leave and staying and takes less than an hour a month,” says Claire.
“It doesn’t take much time, I can just fit it in if I have a spare five minutes. And then just to see one person back on the joiners list next month makes it all worth it.”
Is your branch calling all leavers? All Claire had to do was her mandatory GDPR training and she was set up to make the calls — any activist can get involved and make a real contribution to keeping your branch strong.