Labour ballot: The curious case of the Tory and the vote

Andy Burnham has expressed concerns that Tories may have been given votes in the Labour leadership election and many in Corbyn’s camp have been quick to dismiss this as scaremongering, or as means to invalidate the election outcome. Parking politics to one side this election has turned into a very curious way to run a ballot.

I work with an former Tory councillor who has received several mail shots from candidates as a ‘registered supporter’. He hasn’t been mischievous about this but his name for one reason or another over the years got onto Labour mailing lists. He jokingly quipped that he could have registered three votes using different email addresses, family names and accounts if he could be bothered – because it really is that easy to register as a supporter.

Defend our right to strike

Tory proposals in the Trade Union Bill to impose new industrial action ballot thresholds for turnout (50%) and support (in 'essential services' 40% of all balloted) 'would make almost all strikes illegal, particularly in large and dispersed workforces where postal ballots rarely achieve this' writes Michael Meacher MP. http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/06/tory-trade-union-bill-is-an-attack-on-a-fundamental-human-right/
    The proposals if implemented (without a return to workplace balloting) will severely undermine national bargaining with union's unable to exert leverage in future negotiations on pay, pensions etc.
     The Trade Union Bill is a political attack on trade union rights as vicious as any law enacted during the Thatcher era. A major campaign inside and outside of Parliament is required to resist this draconian legislation.

A pay ‘proposal’ so bad it’s unbelievable

#njcpay2014 UNISON has called on the employers side of the local government National Joint Council (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to reconsider their current pay proposals and come forward with ‘improved ones which begin to tackle the hardship facing all of our members.’
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/lga-urged-to-reconsider-on-pay-proposals

Gearing up for strike action on pay

An impressive and growing number of UNISON members are now being balloted for industrial action to beat the Coalition Government’s public sector pay freeze. Ballots of NHS members in England and Wales close on 18 September and 20 October respectively. Ballots of local government members in NJC conditioned academy schools and SJC conditioned members in Scotland close on 24 September and 29 September respectively. There is also the possibility of Police Staff holding an industrial action ballot if the recent consultative ballot delivers a majority for rejection of a 1% offer.
    However balloting is not an end in itself. As local government branches in England, Wales and Northern Ireland gear up for a second day of national strike action on 14 October momentum is building for co-ordinated action. Delivering effective action and securing improved outcomes at the negotiating table is the biggest challenge facing UNISON and other recognised unions this autumn:
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/unions-mobilise-for-an-autumn-of-protest-over-pay

Concerted union action required to reverse pay decline

This week’s figures from the Office of National Statistics confirming that real wages have fallen for the first time since 2009 will come as no surprise to public service workers. And the implications of the Bank of England’s prediction that real wages will not begin to rise until 2015 are clear.
   Wage growth requires a concerted push by trade unions. Planned local protest action next Wednesday aims to keep up momentum in the local government NJC dispute ahead of strike action on 14 October. If attempts to engage the Food Standards Agency in ACAS talks are unsuccessful, a high profile strike by UNISON meat inspectors could be imminent. Also, two important industrial action ballots are due to start in the near future.
    On 28 August ballot papers will be sent to 300,000 UNISON members in the NHS, followed on 9 September by the industrial action ballot of UNISON’s Scottish local government members in the SJC pay dispute. Effective co-ordination and prosecution of these important disputes is the only way that the decline in real wages in public services can be reversed. The solution is in our own hands.

I’m relatively ‘Chillaxed’ about a ‘democratic threshold’ but it should be for everyone

On the face of it the requirement to have 50% of the vote, or a turn out of 50% as a minimum before representative action can be legitimately determined, may seem like a reasonable standpoint, however it poses some serious questions for the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’.

The Prime Minister has eventually succumbed to the lobbying of the most aggressive anti-trade unionists in his party and the Conservative manifesto for 2015 will include a pledge to impose a minimum threshold of 50% for all future trade union ballots on industrial action.

Local government NJC pay ballot - Get out the YES vote

Today industrial action ballot papers are being sent to 600,000 UNISON local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The pay ballot closes on 23 June and mobilising support for industrial action must be the number one priority of the involved UNISON branches over the next four weeks. GMB and Unite are also balloting in a long overdue united challenge to pay restraint in local government. UNISON head of local government Heather Wakefield makes the case for a YES vote in the adjacent video .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY1usnCysDo&feature=youtu.be
http://www.unison.org.uk/njc-14-27

NHS - A workplace powder keg

#uHealth14 UNISON's 2014 health care conference starts today in Brighton with members reeling from an unprecedented government onslaught. This month a two year 0% pay award was imposed with only a minority of NHS workers at the top of pay grades receiving a non consolidated 1% payment. And this year tens of thousands of health workers face transfer out of NHS employment under a much weakened TUPE regime providing limited protection to pay, pensions and contracts. Christina McAnea, UNISON head of health, writes in today's Morning Star that 'members are angry and that’s why we will be calling for a ballot for industrial action, because enough is enough. It is very rare for NHS staff to contemplate strike action because patients are their number one priority. But rarely have staff felt so strongly about they way they are being treated and rarely have they had so many reasons to feel that way.'
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7cf8-Unison-Health-Conference-Health-workers-are-at-breaking-point#.U0tk1FpwbIU

Police Scotland staff to hold a ballot on strike action

Police staff in Scotland are to ballot on strike action after relations between the force and trade unions have broken down. On top of existing job losses, members have been hit by plans to close four 999 centres, cuts in redundancy terms and and annual leave restrictions due to the Commonwealth Games. UNISON has long warned that the Scottish Government claim of 1,000 extra police is a sham as staff jobs are cut and police officers are used to backfill them.

UNISON members in HE back strike action to defeat pay freeze!

Yesterday UNISON announced the result of a UK wide industrial action ballot in higher education (HE) and 54.4% of members voted in favour of taking strike action against the 1% pay offer for 2013/14 from the employers' representatives UCEA. The service group executive will meet next Monday to consider next steps in the pay campaign with the ballot result of the UCU lecturers (which closes on 10 October) likely to be influential in the discussion. Last year UNISON members voted for action by a smaller majority (50.3%) but the UCU ballot went down.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/higher-education-ballot-result

Online voting - the key to Increasing turnouts in union ballots and elections

#TUC13 Detractors of unions often make reference to low voting levels to imply a lack of mandate for industrial action or to undermine the credibility of elected leaders. The fundamental problem of course is the imposition of postal ballots to preferred addresses (home addresses by default) which prevents participation in union democracy at work and requires the modern day hassle of returning ballot papers by post. An important debate at this week's TUC Congress proposed changes to trade union law to allow online voting. It was unanimously supported but will require legislation before it can be implemented for statutory elections - GS and NEC elections - as well as industrial action ballots.
http://ersblog.com/2013/09/13/trade-unions-ers-at-tuc-congress-2013/

Higher Education pay strike ballot underway

This week ballot papers are being despatched to UNISON members working in Britain's universities following rejection of a 1% offer. Lecturers union UCU will also be balloting in a dispute which presents an opportunity to launch a long overdue UNISON industrial challenge to the Con Dem pay freeze. The ballot closes on 8 October:
http://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/key-issues/higher-education-pay-ballot-2013/home/

UNISON calls on councillors to back Fair Pay as strike ballot opens

As the Scotland Local Government pay ballot opens today, UNISON has emailed councillors asking them to support Fair Pay for council workers. Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby said: “We have asked every councillor in Scotland whether they think it is fair that their employees have been offered a miserly 1%, when the value of staff pay has fallen by more than 10% in the last three years.”

NJC Pay consultation – we got to do better next time!

The NJC committee met this morning and the outcome of consultation on the 1% offer was a 59% to 41% majority to accept. So in a week when a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) claimed that wages have fallen more in real terms during the current economic downturn than ever before, the 3 local government unions (GMB, UNISON and Unite) will be signing up to a further erosion in real pay levels for hundreds of thousands of local government workers.
http://www.ifs.org.uk/pr/fs_june2013_launch_pr.pdf

Scotland ballots on pay action

Local government workers across Scotland will be balloted on strike action after rejecting a 1% pay offer. The ballot, covering 75,000 UNISON members, will start on 3 July, giving time to build the momentum with two Fair Pay Days of Action in council workplaces around the country on June 11 and 25.

The June 25 Fair Pay Day will also form part of the STUC’s 'Austerity Uncovered -There is A Better Way' nine days of action across Scotland, focusing on the effects of cuts to services and benefits.

Pay battle underway in Higher Education

UNISON is gearing up for a UK wide ballot 45,000 members in higher education, including registrars, cleaners, cooks, administration and security staff, following rejection by the HE unions of a 1% offer from the Universities and Colleges Employers. The UNISON ballot will open on 12 September alongside industrial action ballots of UCU, EIS and Unite members:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420963&c=1

90% vote to back New LGPS for England & Wales

UNISON members across England and Wales have voted 90.2% in favour of accepting the proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

UNISON's LGPS Ballot - Questions of Democracy and Leadership

UNISONActive has endorsed the democratic process of the union in relation to the ballot on the LGPS proposals for England and Wales, particularly in regard to the Local Government Service Group. This was not a process imposed on the union by officials. It was the decision of the local government conference.

UNISON LGPS 2014 ballot - Vote YES

UNISON’s membership ballot on the proposals for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for members in England and Wales opens today (and runs until 24 August). There is an overwhelming case for a YES vote.

The Government’s initial proposals were seeking to impose a 3.2% increase in contributions, a defined contribution scheme, a worse accrual rate, no protection and no right to remain in the LGPS if transferred to an external service provider. UNISON negotiators secured concessions on all of these issues following our industrial action ballot and the 30 November day of action (since when the status quo has been applied for LGPS members uniquely across the 4 public sector schemes):

By their contempt for collectivism and union democracy ye shall know them

On 17 June UNISON’s local government service group conference held a fiercely contested policy debate on the 2014 LGPS proposals and voted decisively for a branch based member consultation prior to the service group executive (SGE) agreeing a recommendation on acceptance or rejection in an all member ballot on the new pension scheme. The nationwide consultation was duly held and on 19 July the local government SGE, after an extensive debate, voted overwhelmingly to recommend a YES vote in the ballot.

Under UNISON Rule D 3.5.1 the SGE determines service group policy and therefore the policy of the union in local government is to recommend a YES vote in the forthcoming ballot.

The small and unprincipled minority who refuse to accept the legitimacy of service group conference and SGE policy decisions ahead of the membership ballot are showing contempt for collectivism and union democracy. Substitute strike ballot for pensions ballot and this point becomes very obvious.