Regional Organiser – South West region

The role

Our 1,200 staff work across 12 UK regions and our national centre in London. Regional offices support the work of local branches, helping to represent, recruit, organise and retain members, as well as making key contributions in areas such as campaigning, strategies for negotiation and bargaining, and actions against discrimination.

As a Regional Organiser, you’ll be playing a hands on, day to day leadership role, as well as acting as an advocate of the union. Guiding, supporting and developing local branches and activists to ensure the strongest possible workplace organisation, you’ll identify activist training and development needs, provide coaching and mentoring to stewards and branch officers, and manage a small team of area/local organisers. Additionally, you will lead negotiations, represent members individually and collectively, and help branches to develop effective systems and processes for handling casework.

The person

What we’re looking for...

• An understanding of our movement, its pressures and drivers, with a passion for equality.
• Ability to provide advice and guidance on the effective organisation of key branch duties (eg maintaining membership density, activist base enhancement, supporting employers with major restructuring, maintaining confidence in union ability to influence outcomes, oversight of case work and reducing response times).
• Good knowledge of key employment law, including developing case law and upcoming changes that may affect members.
• Good understanding of the political landscape and how this might impact our approach.
• Ability to manage a team of staff, with a willingness to collaborate and to lead by example.
• Excellent communication and advocacy skills, with proven ability to manage high level negotiations and representation of cases in challenging situations.
• Ability to build and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders, ability to influence and engage at all levels eg activists, democratic bodies/committees.
• Strategic project management experience, including budget management. Ability to develop strategies and solutions to solve complex problems.

Please refer to the job description and person specification for full requirements for this role.

This is a field based role and you will need to be able to travel in and around the South West region, including to our regional offices in Bristol, Exeter, Taunton and Poole, as required and occasionally to London for training, meetings or other purposes. The South West region covers a large area from Wiltshire to Cornwall.  However, for the foreseeable future we expect this post to be based in the Bristol office and will be supporting our branches in the north of the region (Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire).

How to apply

To apply for this opportunity please download and complete the General application form, referring to the job description and person specification.

Please note that only the relevant application form will be accepted. CVs will not be accepted.

The completed application form, along with the Recruitment and Disability Monitoring Form, should be sent by email to hrrecruitment@unison.co.uk quoting reference R10/17.

Please save each of your documents to include your full name, followed by job title, region/dept and reference.

Completed application forms must be received by no later than 11:59pm Sunday 13 September 2026.

In-person interviews will be held in our Taunton office on Tuesday 29 September 2026.

Please see a map of our regions below

About UNISON

UNISON is the UK’s leading public services trade union, with over 1.3 million members working in the public sector, private, voluntary and community sectors and in the energy services. We employ approximately 1,200 staff, with around 370 at our national centre in Euston in central London and the remainder in our 12 regions across the UK, including Northern Ireland.

UNISON is a dynamic, progressive union, committed to equality. We encourage men and women of all ages, Black and minority ethnic groups, disabled people, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to work with us.