UNISON GS nails Radio 4's Any Questions

 

Last weekend UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea made a strong debut on BBC Radio 4's 'Any Questions' panel discussion. The programme focused on the upcoming budget with Christina contributing well received answers on NHS funding, social care, public sector pay and levelling up. Listen here:

Any Questions? - Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Christina McAnea, Nick Timothy, Nadhim Zahawi MP - BBC Sounds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0010nv1

Turning our back on the world - UNISON NEC disaffiliates from ICTUR

On 23 September 2021 the NEC's international committee declined to reaffiliate to the International Centre for Trade Union rights (ICTUR), on cost grounds. 

This appalling decision ends over two decades of UNISON support for the London based organisation which defends and extends the rights of trade unions and trade unionists worldwide, including raising awareness of their violations. 

https://www.ictur.org/About.html

'Not in our name' - Police & Justice Conference condemns NEC rule breaking

UNISON's first in person conference for almost 20 months was held in Brighton over the past two days. https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2021/10/police-and-justice-delegates-stress-frontline-pandemic-role/

Police and Justice branch delegates gathered to debate pay, job security, displacement of support staff workers by police officers, the welcome insourcing of a majority of probation staff and other key issues.

Notably an emergency motion condemning last week's unconstitutional, unprincipled and unviable decisions by the NEC was carried overwhelmingly. Full text below.

NOT IN OUR NAME

Conference, there is great concern following a meeting of our National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Wednesday 6th October 2021.

At this meeting resolutions were put forward on the agenda for this meeting and our own legal department made representations suggesting that four of these resolutions were a breach of UNISON rules, unlawful and could possibly bring our union into disrepute.

Why UNISON needs to campaign on Integrated Care Proposals

On the face of it ICPs or Integrated Care Partnerships (or Services) proposed for England make a lot of sense. Anyone who has looked after an elderly relative or been in a carer role will know the frustrations of care falling between two stools. ‘Who does what?’ is often the question, and beneath a shallow surface, ‘who pays for what?’. But the model is flawed and lacks scrutiny. Like most ‘good ideas’ it has fallen into a bureaucratic framework which means ‘form’ is taking precedence over function.

The form in this case is the Health and Care Bill currently at Committee stage in Parliament. Whilst there are always concerns about the role of private companies in NHS provision some have sought to argue that the Bill in fact rolls back some of the damaging privatisation provisions from the 2012 reorganisation of the NHS.

A lot will depend on the new bodies who will inherit commissioning from the clinical commissioning groups, but there are few safeguards to prevent increased private sector involvement in NHS service delivery – though CCGs have hardly been the bastions of supporting in-house NHS or local authority services either.

At best the Bill is Janus faced. On the one hand it arguably removes some tendering requirements from NHS commissioners – something they have protested has been a costly waste of time – but on the other it could lead to unregulated procurement without tenders. Contracts for Cronies anyone?

Perceived wrongs don't justify undermining UNISON democracy

The NEC meeting on 6^th October was, for me, a low point in my entire time as a UNISON activist, as the self styled “Time for Real Change” faction on the NEC forced through a series of “resolutions” despite independent legal advice deeming them to be ultra vires or beyond the scope of our powers.

On even a cursory reading of the “resolutions” it was clear to me and to anyone else that reads the rule book, that some were seeking to change or extend existing rules or were in conflict with the rule book.

A number also had implications for members of UNISON staff including the General Secretary, who was to be directed “from time to time as may be necessary” by the presidential team, conveniently forgetting that in rule it is only the GS that has the authority to act in between meetings.

It’s also worth noting that when it comes to democratic mandates, the GS was elected by the lay membership on almost twice the turn-out that many NEC members enjoy.

Black History Month – Mandela’s visit to Glasgow October 1993 video

To celebrate October’s Black History Month, the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation is launching a short video to mark the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s historic visit to Glasgow on 9 October 1993 to collect the Freedom of the City of Glasgow awarded to him in 1981 when he was still in prison. He also collected the Freedoms of eight other authorities, Midlothian, Aberdeen, Dundee, Newcastle, Hull, Sheffield, the London Borough of Greenwich and Islwyn.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Mandela famously said: “Whilst we were physically denied our freedom in the country of our birth, a city 6,000 miles away, and as renowned as Glasgow, declared us to be free.” Later he said that, while in prison: “it (the Freedom) made us realise that the world hadn’t forgotten us.”

Brian Filling, NMSMF Chair and Honorary Consul for South Africa in Scotland, said: “Nelson Mandela was a towering figure in Black history and it is important in Black History Month, and on the anniversary of his visit to Glasgow, that we remind people of his and the African National Congress’s struggle, and Scotland’s role in the fight against South Africa’s apartheid system, labelled by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.

“The apartheid system in South Africa was based on white supremacism and cheap black labour making vast profits for the West led and supported by Britain over decades”.

The six minute video will go online at 1pm on Saturday 9 October on the Foundation website at www.mandelascottishmemorial.org/9oct2021, Facebook www.facebook.com/MandelaScottishMemorial and YouTube https://youtu.be/tBo6v26ugjU It includes archive footage of Mr Mandela’s visit and a first-hand reminiscence from Michael Kelly, Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1981 when the Freedom was granted. Music comes from Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra playing “Nelson Mandela’s Welcome to the City of Glasgow” by Blair Douglas.