Davena Rankin moving Schedule E – Political Fund Ballot
“The rule change today is simply an updating and tidying up exercise that is required of us by the Certification Officer. UNISON must make these changes in order to run our ten-year political fund ballot. The requirement for trade unions to hold political fund ballots was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in its 1984 Trade Union Act. This legislation placed a duty on all trade unions to do two things if they wanted to campaign on behalf of their members.”
“Firstly, we needed to hold and win a ballot of our members to set up a separate fund to support our political campaign work. Secondly, we are required to hold further ballots – every ten years thereafter – to renew our mandate.
“UNISON’s ten-year ballot is due and will be held this Summer. It is a ballot we must win – by making the case once again to our members, showing them what the two distinct sections of UNISON’s fund, Labour Link and the Campaign Fund, do and what they have helped us to achieve. Schedule E sets out the political fund ballot rules, which are prescribed in legislation.”
“As part of the formal ballot process UNISON must seek approval for our rules by the Certification Officer. On this occasion, when we submitted our rules, the Certification Officer requested that we make the changes that you have before you today. These rule changes: update the address of the Certification Officer, update the relevant Statutory Instrument that enacts the rules and standardise the wording on the scrutineer’s responsibilities for the security of ballot materials.”
“We are also taking the opportunity to remove all gendered language in Schedule E. We provide funding to the committee for the administration for justice in Northern Ireland which allows UNISON to play a leading role in their vital work, and it also funds vital research used in our campaigns such as the creation of national care services in Scotland, England and Wales.”
“We also provided funding to research which exposed the extent to which private care homes were off shoring massive profits at a time when they claimed they had no money to provide proper PPE to our members working in their care homes.”
“We also funded experts to provide a forensic analysis of Birmingham City Council’s accounts to provide additional arguments to help the region and branch fight the cuts. It also funds our big annual campaigns such as the no going back or public services champions – it allows us to use the collective strength of our union to put pressure on governments to deliver for our members and the services they deliver.”
“It is important that we win this ballot as without a political fund the work I have highlighted today, which is just a small selection of what we do every year, would stop as we would not be able to continue funding it. Passing the rule change today is a small but essential step in winning the ballot but we also need you to back into your branches and get involved with winning the ballot going forward.”