Membership Report 1st Jan 2011 to 31st Dec 2011
During the year membership increased by the large number of 270, but unfortunately this has been offset by 115 members leaving the Union during the same period. Leaving a net rise of 155.
This in itself is encouraging although there is scope for many more new members.
Why not encourage a colleague who has not yet seen the light to join Unison to fight for their pension and also to help protect their terms and conditions they currently enjoy.
Many newly recruited staff within the organization is not on substantive contracts but is on the 'Bank'. This particularly applies to UCS/OOH staff. These are eligible to join the Union but it appears that very few do. When they are actually working for the Trust they should be afforded the same Unison cover as any other employee so go out there and recruit them.
This also applies to staff that retire and then return to employment. If they were members of Unison prior to retirement, unless they re-apply to join the Union, Shared Services deem them to be new staff and will not take Unison subs without a new application being completed.
At these difficult times with the economy and possible severe public service cuts it is imperative that your membership records are completely up to date, so if any member has had any change of circumstances such as name, address, job details etc., within the past 5 years could they please e mail me at richard@pound.eclipse.co.uk with their updates details.
Wishing all members of Unison a Happy and Healthy New Year and thank you all,
Richard Pound
Unison membership Secretary
South Western Ambulance Branch
