Planning for the election: unions must set the agenda and begin campaigning now for what they want to achieve under a new government following the general election next year.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) intends developing a comprehensive political strategy for the 2008 general election.

Most of you have probably stopped reading by now and turned the page. You might be thinking, "Elections don't interest me" or you might be asking, "What's my union doing taking a stand on the election?" or "What's a general election got to do with nursing?" Australian nurses are about to find out about the significance of elections as the Howard government's hard-hitting industrial reforms took full effect from last month. This is a wake-up call to us all. A conference in Canberra of Australian and New Zealand union leaders in February this year affirmed that unions must continue to influence their political environments, if they are to have the power to win issues and make the gains that are of utmost importance to workers in their respective countries.

It is essential we start thinking about the scenarios ahead of us and ensure we are able to articulate the changes required in our political environment that will benefit workers most. For staff and members of NZNO, it's about continuing to be hard headed about securing pay equity in those sectors or parts of sectors where this is still to be achieved; maintaining pay equity in our district health board sector; ensuring workplaces are safe for health workers and adequately staffed with the appropriate skill mix. It's about fair play in terms of conditions at work and, among other issues, being able to continue to negotiate national multi-employer collective agreements.

To achieve these goats, we must not become complacent in the good times. The last seven years have been relatively good compared to the 1990s for our members, but there is always more we want and need to achieve.

* Internally, we must stay focused on our industrial fundamentals such as collective bargaining, building effective delegate and member representation and growing our union.

* Externally, we must continue to be persistent in our campaigning with government and our communities.

* We must keep building and maintaining effective relationships with other stakeholders.

* Most importantly, we must keep maintaining the motivation, strategies and plans that win the hearts and minds of our members and workers in the health sector.

Political, community and corporate strategies are essential if we are to be a "winning" union. We want to be able to have union workplaces and union members who have the ability, confidence, vision and path to achieve the most important things for them in their working lives. The CTU strategy for next year's general election seeks to build on these principles. It is a new and fresh approach from the union movement and one that was endorsed by NZNO's board of directors at its meeting last month.

Identifying our collective issues

The goal is for the union movement to set the agenda now. We need to identify what the collective issues are that we, as unions, want to promote and negotiate with an incoming government, rather than responding to the policy of the various political parties, or attacking a particular party.

It's about putting those issues we can be hard headed about before the public, regardless of which political party is elected, and that we will continue to campaign on post-election. The strategy will be achieved through developing an integrated campaign approach across all unions, with staged launches around the key issues following the strategy launch at the CTU's biennial conference in October.

Identifying the campaign issues will be done through union input, allowing for some feedback and testing with respective union members. This will be an important part of the process, as it will be essential the key campaign goals are embraced by all unions or supported by all union members.

To be successful, it will also be essential that union members across all unions stand up and be counted in the campaign activities. Members will need to show solidarity for the issues, so politicians from all political parties will realise we are serious about achieving these issues with the next government. In the last election, it was tremendous we were able to gain the support of every political party for greater levels of aged-care funding. It's this kind of momentum we will need leading up to, and during the term of the next government.

Being one of many leaders in NZNO is a privilege. Our members, delegates and staff display the determination that proves we are a winning union. We have a choice about whether we pursue the goal of influencing our political environment. This is both a collective choice throughout the election campaign, and an individual one on election day when we cast our votes.

Getting involved in politics is essential if we are to advance our union sector plans and growth strategies, our professional nursing aspirations and influence. It is also essential for the shape of our future health sector and the good health of New Zealanders.

By organising services manager Cee Payne-Harker