John Burgess is standing for Unison General Secretary. He spoke to Solidarity about why.
I decided to run for Unison General Secretary for a mixture of reasons. Mainly due to the frustration and disappointment that after five years of austerity our union appears to have no strategy fight back.
It is clear that the Tories sense a weak trade union opposition and want to finish us off. I am not someone who stands at the back complaining, but adding nothing.
The General Secretary role is clearly a leadership one, but it should be a role that inspires members and reps to organise and fight back for themselves. I am not someone who promotes a one size fits all approach. I am, and have always been keen to listen and learn from others and most importantly share with others.
My number one priority is to get all areas of our union into a fit state to tackle austerity and the trade union bill. I want to deliver a trade union that is in the hands of the membership and not the other way round. I want branches to be able to engage with employers without the need of any officials.
Election of officials is another way that we open up democracy and bring accountability to the membership. We must stop the fear of branches talking to each other. I find it difficult to understand how this culture has been allowed to take hold within a trade union. I have learnt so much from so many other branches, it is negligence in my view to promote a culture whereby branches are fearful of speaking to each other.
I think the very fact this question needs to be asked would shock the majority of our members. I am very clear we have mandate to represent and defend our members. Being a rep is not about building a career or avoiding work it is being member-focused, all of our resources should be to that end. Pay is a big issue and I would want to look at how we can maximise our collective strength in trying to win decent pay for our members. It is clear the next pay campaign is going to take place under the new anti- worker bill.
It is going to take hard work to win on pay, but I believe with the right attitude and resources it is possible. More of the same is just not sustainable. Privatisation is taking place at an alarming rate and this presents the biggest threat to our national union role. If we don’t mount a coordinated response to this issue, there will be no national union as any agreements will either be done on a branch to branch basis or by the hundreds and thousands of other employers. Ultimately, our existence depends on having reps prepared to organise and represent members. If they are unable to do this then we are not going to survive the attacks that are already starting to services, jobs and activists.
I don’t understand why we are not more high profile in the NHS, this is a service with strong community support. We need to quickly examine our organisation and with support of our members, reps, branches and officials turn it into a real fighting arm of our union. I don’t seek a higher wage and have made it clear I will remain on my current salary. Elected officials’ salaries should be linked to whatever we win for our members.
My own view is that I should be allowed to be seconded to the role. If I was to stand down or fail to win and election I would return to my substantive role in the Council or wherever it ends up. I think the link back to the work place is critical. We are very much “in the thick of it” here in Barnet. It has been seven years since we started, but it really just seems like it was yesterday. We have just learnt children’s and families’ social work are now in an outsourcing project, which means 91% of the current workforce are facing outsourcing. We are going to organise and fight because to do nothing would be so wrong.
