It was Sally Hunt at the TUC conference this year http://lawatwork.blogspot.com/2010/09/one-union-per-sector-idea.html who suggested what many of us have been saying for years. We need to organise and focus on centralising our resources so that we can become a more effective fighting machine or we will never achieve total competence by having different Unions that are often competing against each other in the same sections of industry. So we should, for example, have one major union representing those who work in local government. The same will apply for different parts of the private sector.
It is ridiculous right now that we have the GMB, Unison and Unite organising in the same branch. I remember when I was branch Secretary for Lambeth Unison how I would turn up at a consultation meeting with management and sit around a table with the GMB Secretary. I also know of cases where unions would approach members of another union that did not take their members on strike and try to convert them. This is a very divisive situation and the case for merging has never been greater than now. We should be talking about unifying what we have and not allow factors that can divide to continue.
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