ABSTRACT
Public Service Union (UNISON) was born in 1993 as an amalgamation of the public sector unions National and Local Government Officers' Association (NALGO), National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE). One of the criticisms of the UNISON constitution shared by all self-organized groups (SOGs) is that it did not allow for their representation on the National Executive Committees (NEC). The UNISON Membership System only collects basic data on occupation, sex and 'race' so that the information required to ascertain whether the rule is working or not is simply not available. UNISON has been at the forefront of parliamentary lobbying and links to Labour politicians have been facilitated by its Affiliated Political Fund. The mainstream union has been enmeshed in a financial crisis since its inception, although this problem is far from unique to UNISON.
