Award for Poole UNISON recruitment campaign

Poole man Jamie Fry was presented with UNISON South West’s Public Sector Organising award in a ceremony at Taunton county cricket ground.

Jamie, a procurement officer at Poole Council and Assistant Branch Secretary for Poole UNISON branch, was given the award in recognition of his work recruiting and training new activists as well as standing up for local government workers in negotiations over pay and conditions.

Jamie’s activities included a mentoring scheme for young members to support them to be more active. Many of these new members signed up after the successful “recruit a friend” initiative he ran.

In another success, the branch now has an active group of women campaigners, focusing on gender equality at work. These members initially came together at a trip to the “Suffragette” film at the cinema organised by Jamie.

Jamie said: “people coming together to campaign for justice and decent working conditions is something I’m passionate about. UNISON is for all public service staff and I want to make sure we’re as strong as possible to fight for workers’ rights.”