Increasing turn out in strike ballots

Submitted by sawa on March 28, 2018

So in the UK legal strike ballots require minimum 50% turnout of all members balloted
And also in some public services also 40 % minimum of all members balloted(not of those who vote) have to vote in favour of action. Meaning at a 50% turnout 80% of those who voted would have to vote in favour.
To put in context turnout was 46.9% in the last Scottish local election in 2017

Obviously the ideal action is unofficial wildcat strikes but such is not often possible and not wIthin official trade unions

So wondering what tactics folk have used to increase turnout whether in UK or anywhere?

Raising the profile of the issue and the ballot obviously helps. How have folk found helps to do such?

fingers malone

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by fingers malone on March 28, 2018

Basically going round and talking to everybody. It's very time consuming. We've also put up posters saying when the ballot deadline is, gone round the building asking who has their ballot on them unposted and then collecting them to post, stuff like that. But the biggest thing is talking to everyone about the issue and telling people about the ballot turnout rule.

Steven.

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on March 29, 2018

Yeah this is a massive problem. Local government workers in Scotland recently, for example, were not allowed to strike despite a majority vote in favour because of this.

This is mostly going to be an issue for large bargaining groups: particularly in local government, the NHS, national schools disputes and the civil service, where turnout is generally historically low (25-45%)

So fixing it isn't going to be easy. Like fingers says, one-to-one conversations are very important. But even if you're in a relatively small union branch you might have a couple of thousand members, meaning you can't talk to everyone individually.

There are a few admin things branches can do, like go through every membership record, ensure home addresses are up-to-date, and try to get email addresses and mobile phone numbers. The home addresses our most vital, but email and mobile details are also important as you can send reminders to people to vote.

A useful exercise for branches to conduct would be to conduct an indicative consultation ballot about something, primarily as an exercise to look at turnout, how big it is and where turnout is lacking (indicative ballots don't have to be anonymous, so you could even code ballot papers to see who isn't bothering to vote, then you can speak to those people to find out why, and stress the importance of them voting).

To some extent I think the low turnout problem may not be fixable, certainly in the short term. And so we need to think about other ways to beat the law. Either by just breaking the law and striking anyway if we get a majority in favour, or potentially by trying to do a legal workaround, setting up a "pop-up union", or a temporary branch of a radical union like UVW or IWGB, which say you get 10 people to join in a workplace, in the same bargaining unit. Then you ballot them, and organise a strike. If you do that, then there will be legal protection for all strikers (well, technically there would not be legal protection for members of other unions, however employees do not have to disclose what union they are member of, and couldn't know if people were members of the pop-up union – although the union would have to provide numbers and job roles of people balloted, so they could figure some out, so this would need careful consideration…)

sawa

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by sawa on April 5, 2018

Yeah that all sounds useful though often if it is a ballot of many workplaces isquite difficult as your workplace is just one of many and so harder to talk to a significant proportion of folks

Ballots having to be posted is a massive issue especially as many young folk are not confident in using the postal service.

I presume the use of consultative ballots has significantly increased? And unions def seem to be using them to decide from whether turnout is over 50% as to whether to allow a formal ballot. I also wonder how turnout for consultative ballots compares to formal ballots and if they help raise the profile of a dispute and/or if folk get bored and confused by lots of balloting.
Using consultative ballots to gather useful statistics sounds helpful in strategic direction of resources.

Pop up unions definatley seem interesting and a useful strategy to have as an option. Will be interesting to hopefully see further applications in the future. ☺

Steven.

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on April 5, 2018

Yeah lots of unions do consultative ballots as standard now.

In terms of large ones, turnout in consultative ballots is generally low. In Unison it's probably an average of about 10-15% (with decent branches getting a 40% turnout or higher, and shit ones having a turnout of zero).

I would say they can be useful as part of a bargaining strategy, but I think they do confuse members and give some "voting fatigue".

I believe the PCS adjusted a big national consultative ballot in order to try to identify areas of weak turnout, and got a turnout of just a little under the 50% threshold, which is pretty good for such a large group.

sawa

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by sawa on April 5, 2018

Steven.

Yeah lots of unions do consultative ballots as standard now.

In terms of large ones, turnout in consultative ballots is generally low. In Unison it's probably an average of about 10-15% (with decent branches getting a 40% turnout or higher, and shit ones having a turnout of zero).

I would say they can be useful as part of a bargaining strategy, but I think they do confuse members and give some "voting fatigue".

I believe the PCS adjusted a big national consultative ballot in order to try to identify areas of weak turnout, and got a turnout of just a little under the 50% threshold, which is pretty good for such a large group.

Ah so 40% turnout in a consultative ballot isnt that bad though hopefully get higher in our next consultative ballot.
Also it seems different unions hold consultative ballots differently with some holding them similar to formal ballots rules and some holding such at workplace or other meetings which get better turnout.

Do the anti trade union laws have any negative affect in unions recruiting less or forcing unions to try and get membership to be more active which is positive. Though obviously harder if is larger bargaining groups.

But yeah I worry consultatove ballots low turn outs can be used to justify having less formal ballots though obviously depending on the circumstance such can sadly be justified.

Is there any stats/evidence to support consultative ballots causing voter fatigue or is such not looked into much at least publicly?