Europe - the dog that didn't bark at #uNDC15‏

As the clock ticked down on a bail out deal between the Greek Government and the Troika – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF – UNISON conference was debating emergency composite motion 2 on ‘UNISON’s political campaign after the General Election.’

However this omnibus composite (agreed between the NEC and 5 branches) was silent on Britain’s relationship with the EU - an issue which is central to the political agenda of the Tory Government and attracting growing concern in some parts of the British trade union movement (see below).

If we shy away no one can help us but if we decide to fight, no one can stop us

#uNDC15 A thumping speech from Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, hit all the right buttons with Conference with support for the Glasgow strikers and a pledge that 'an injury to one is an injury to all' as he backed sacked SECC worker Robert O'Donnell.

It celebrated victories, listed the challenges ahead and underlined that trade union rights are human rights and must be protected.

His full speech is below:

We have to get better organised - Glen Williams

#uLGC15 'I have tried not to focus on the doom and gloom, but to give you a flavour of the struggles that take place every day around the UK, struggles and resistance by you and our members that we need to build on. We have to get even better organised; we have to devise and work within the new structures of devolution and combined authorities, working across the usual boundaries of service groups' said Glen Williams, Chair of the Service Group Executive in moving the 2014/15 Local Government Annual Report.
Full speech below:

We Belong To Glesga., Dear Ol..Glesga Toon...

#UNDC15 Well this week we all do. The National Delegate Conference hits the real* capital of Scotland (sorry Embra) where delegates can sample the best curries, the best pubs and the best hospitality that Scotland has to offer. Who needs sunny weather when you can drink all day, dance all night and play at finding the cormorants on the Clyde? And two of Scotland’s finest football teams play here, Celtic and Partick Thistle, while there are also representatives of the lower divisions on the South of the river.

Then there’s what happens in the Conference hall. The SECC itself has become controversial as a result of the policies pursued by its management, so has only itself to blame. And if UNISON were booking its conference now, perhaps we could take those policies into account. But it is worth remembering that the lead time between booking a conference venue and actually using it is about five years.

Will conference words of unity translate to reality?

Calls for unity from both platform and floor were welcome after a sometimes bitter special local government conference in London on Tuesday - and unity is essential if anything positive is to come out of this costly exercise.

Really important stuff about how we organise, how we consult clearly and transparently and how we engage members, was battered through with little debate as the conference voted time after time to move the business on.

But it did back the motions. Sound and considered templates from Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Service Group and others on strategies for consultation, including using electronic communication, more political lobbying and developing union wide strategies on pay. All very positive, although tying negotiators’ hands when it comes to consulting on last minute offers may yet come back to bite us.

The real challenge for the lay and full time leadership is how they implement the mandate to re-open the pay claim in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – which was clearly what it was all really about for most delegates. The technicalities of that are not simple; members will no doubt be a bit confused as will the whole bargaining structure, so it will test the pronouncements on unity to the full.

Union women can defeat the Con Dems

#unwc15 UNISON NEC member Jane Carolan writes in the Morning Star on the potential influence of the union's women members on the outcome of the upcoming General Election: 'The country can afford the services that UNISON members provide - services that save, protect and enrich lives - if we stop wasting money on costly privatisations and pointless reorganisations and make the banks, big corporations and the super-rich pay a fairer share in tax.

Cuts to funding are becoming critical, to the point that local authorities could be on the verge of collapse - yet if the Tories continue in power there’s more to come. Our alternative, the UNISON manifesto Securing the Future of Public Services, is available on our website.

We each have a contribution to make. Do not assume that neighbours and workmates vote. Do not assume that they are aware of the alternatives. We need a million female members speaking up for public services because they care about the services they deliver and the services that they use.

One million women demanding an alternative can make a difference. One million women demanding change equals hope'
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-978c-One-million-women-make-a-difference#.VN2atVZFDIU

LGBT conference builds fight against austerity

#ulgbt14 UNISON's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender members met this weekend in Blackpool for hopefully the last time under this Tory led Government.
   As always LGBT Conference debated a wide variety of motions, with austerity and cuts being a recurring theme. Housing, where young LGBT members are particularly suffering from attacks on their rights to housing benefit, risking them being in hostile private shared housing. Gender Services, where Trans members are struggling for support as services are cut. Of particular note this year was a number of motions around supporting older LGBT people, with the shocking state of our fragmented and mostly privatised social care where there is huge fear of discrimination.

Labour will not deliver without a fiscal stimulus

#Lab14 Yesterday’s pro-austerity mantra of Ed Balls about ‘balancing the books’, ‘difficult decisions’ and ‘tough fiscal rules’ should send a shiver down the spine of every UNISON member. As Nobel Prize winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz said in the FT last week ‘the single most important policy is to improve the macroeconomic policy through a well designed fiscal stimulus’. Deflationary policies of austerity are the cause of wage stagnation.

Dave Prentis was right to point out in his Conference speech yesterday that working people have been ‘betrayed by privatisation, betrayed by the very people who crashed our economy’ and have suffered a five-year pay freeze while their pay has fallen in value by over one fifth’. But the economic prospectus set out by Balls can only lead to more of the same – continuing austerity means a continuing pay freeze and capping of benefits as well as further cuts in funding of public services. Unions working flat out for the return of a Labour government next May must challenge the Balls economic narrative otherwise we will be sleepwalking into a future of permanent austerity.

UNISON up for the fight in Local Government

#uNDC14 At UNISON's local government service group conference, Glen Williams, SGE Chair, gave a wide ranging review of the union's work over the past 12 months: 'If you have had chance to read the Annual Report then you will see how much work goes on in the background by Officers and the Members that you elect. I cannot possibly do justice to the daily resistance that goes on in Local Government and have tried only to give you a flavour of the challenge but a sense we are also up for the fight and there is so much great work going on in Regions and Branches, far too much to mention in this report'.
   Full speech below.

Democracy is the lifeblood of trade unionism

#uNDC14 'As well as the formal policy debates over four days there will be the opportunity to attend fringe meetings for high quality debates and briefings on key campaigns as well as time for hardworking union activists to network and socialise with UNISON sisters and brothers from across the UK' writes Angela Rayner North West Regional Convenor in a preview of conference on the regional website:
http://www.unisonnw.org/national-delegate-conference-our-democracy-in-action/

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

Campaigning for Palestine - A trade union conference

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organising a conference for delegates from trade unions, sponsored by the TUC, on Saturday 5 April. It will hear about the latest developments from speakers, including trade unionists, from Palestine and from the trade union and solidarity movement in Britain. It will take place at the TUC, Congress House, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3LS
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/campaigning-palestine-trade-union-conference/

Upbeat mood at UNISON LGBT conference

#ulgbt13 Over 400 delegates and visitors gathered in Liverpool over the weekend for the annual conference of UNISON's LGBT self organised group. In a moment of collective pride, exactly 30 years after Nalgo's first lesbian and gay conference, UNISON's first out President Maureen Le Marinel addressed conference on Saturday morning. Local Labour MP and Shadow Minister for Justice Stephen Twigg praised the trade union movement's massive contribution to the recent advances in LGBT rights but noted that there remains much to do both at home and internationally:
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/lgbt-conference-twigg

Frosty reception for Tory Minister at UNISON Police & Justice Conference

#pjconf2013 Last month the Con Dem Government put 70% of probation services out to competitive tender,thus guaranteeing a frosty reception for Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Damian Green MP when he addressed UNISON’s police and justice service group conference in Brighton yesterday. Green angered delegates by defending profit making in public services as ‘not a bad thing’ and by snubbing probation staff at the sharp end of Con Dem privatisation. However privatisation is not the only threat to the job security of police staff. UNISON is raising concerns about the removal of safeguards as growing numbers of staff face transfers from the police service to local authorities:
http://www.policeoracle.com/news/HR%2C+Personnel+and+Staff+Development/2013/Oct/10/Staff-transfers-Loophole-could-lead-to-unscrupulous-decisions_72180.html

A Labour pledge card for 2015

#lab13 With the run up to the General Election underway, the need for a strong set of values to replace the illiberal, reactionary ideology of the Con Dem Government is paramount. As yet the Labour Party has not set out a clear alternative. But trade union votes should not be taken for granted. Some of us have been here before, being told not to 'rock the boat.'

TUC 2013 Preview: Oh! We do like to be beside the seaside

#TUC13 The bucket and spades are packed, the correct length of trouser leg to be rolled up for paddling purposes has been calculated and the knotted hankies are at the ready. The TUC has decamped to Bournemouth for the next few days for its 145th annual jamboree. Starting on Sunday, Congress will set out its campaign programme for the period up to the next general election.

Save our NHS - all roads lead to MCR on 29 September!

#undc13 The Con Dem coalition poses the biggest threat to the existence of the NHS in its 65 year history - a theme which ran through many debates at conference and was fully addressed by Composite D on NHS Campaigning. The motion was moved by Debra Turner (pictured) of Central Lancashire health branch who called on members to 'work with other trade unions, patient groups, community organisations to fight for the future of the NHS. We need to take our message and our vision to our communities'.  Debra's full speech can be read below...
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news-articles/conference-says-nhs-privatisation-gravy-train-must-be-stopped

Strong support at NDC for UNISON's organising agenda

#undc13 The conference debate on organising and recruitment was the most comprehensive in the 20 year history of the union. NEC member Sue Highton moved motion 1 which confirmed that workplace activity is essential to recruitment and emphasised the importance of developing new activists if the union is to adapt to new employer structures.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/conference-rises-to-the-challenge-of-recruitment
   In a similar vein, Diane Kelly (pictured) North West regional delegate moved amendment 1.1 stating that ‘if we are to fight back, it’ll be with one hand tied behind our back. Because less than four out of ten local government workers are in a union. Less than six out of ten health workers are in a union. And the picture just gets worse in the other services.'

A better and fairer way than austerity

#undc13 Scotland NEC member Gordon McKay tore into the ConDems' failed austerity policies as UNISON Conference set out a detailed and evidence alternative. "We need an end to job cuts and the dogma driven pay cap in the public sector. Giving people work and paying a fair wage will promote spending and growth" he told delegates. The full text of his speech is below along with Jane Carolan's response to the defeated amendment.

GS sets out priorities for year ahead - Pay, Organising and Fighting Austerity

#undc13 Dave Prentis restated the absolute importance of pay campaigning following the poor 2013/14 settlements in health and local government (except Scotland) - ‘we must break the pay policy and we must build our members’ resolve' - calling on GMB and UNISON to join in the 2014/15 pay campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73r-ED6lfM&feature=youtu.be