ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates that the Women’s Committee pursues a different role within UNISON to that of the Regional Committee. The function of the region is to operate in an intermediary role between branches and national levels of the union, and between different service groups. The region is divided into Regional Council and Regional Committee. Gender differences were more visible in the regional committee and council debates. Several issues were discussed in the mainstream Regional Committee and the Women’s Committee and provided useful insights into the different perspectives of women in UNISON. Observation of the Regional Committee and Council over the period of a year showed that activity tended to be focused on three underlying issues — each of which took up considerable debating time and energy. The first related to external issues of industrial action against job cuts and hostile employers, the latter two related to internal issues of union democracy.
