(As a follow up to our report from a few weeks ago, our Women’s Officer, Verity, shares her thoughts on UNISON South West’s recent Get Active event.)
In May I went to the UNISON South West Get Active Weekend in Croyde! It was a super weekend. I attended three workshops across the weekend: Campaigning on new issues and new workplace laws; Collective bargaining for beginners; and Embracing union values and tacking tough conversations.
As a complete newbie to union work and organising, I found the workshops to be a great introduction to different aspects of UNISON’s work and how I can get a campaign off the ground.
On the Friday evening they held the Get Active Awards, honouring UNISON activists for their work. It was a fun social event, allowing us to network with members from other branches across the South West. I found the award winners’ stories to be really inspiring ahead of the weekend!
The South West Regional Council was held on the Saturday afternoon – I attended as a delegate for our branch. It was interesting to see the process for voting in representatives and hearing about the different roles.
The Saturday evening entertainment was a fascinating performance by the Banner Theatre group – a musical celebration of industrial action over the years which was entertaining as well as informative and rousing!
We also had interesting plenary talks on topics such as stopping the far right and hearing from members currently undertaking strike action.
It was a fantastic weekend which I thoroughly recommend to all new members of UNISON who wish to learn more about how to Get Active!