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

Adding insult to injury - public service workers exempt from Tory call for pay rises

'It’s time Britain had a pay rise' the Tory Prime Minister told the British Chambers of Commerce on Tuesday. But Tory Ministers were quick to point out that Cameron's Damascene conversion to fairness at work does not apply to public sector workers. Within hours of his Leader's speech, Business Minister Matthew Hancock told Radio 4's the World at One that 'we've got to make sure we keep a tight constraint on public sector pay' and then later on the same day popped on Newsnight to shamelessly make the point that 'public sector productivity has gone up pretty sharply in the past 5 years'.
     It's about time UNISON made mincemeat of these contradictory and divisive attacks on our members now that wages are centre stage in the political debate. As Simon Jenkins stated in the Guardian: 'If he had the courage of his economic conviction, Cameron would do the same for the public sector. He can hand out bonuses to welfare recipients and state workers without bruising his deficit reduction strategy. He can print them. He found £375bn overnight to give the banks with no risk of inflation. He can do it again'
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/david-cameron-britain-pay-rise-cough-up-public-sector-welfare

Does it matter which union is the 'largest'?

Inter union rivalry has been a negative characteristic of British trade unionism for more than a century. The highly unionised teaching profession is strongly contested by 3 TUC affiliated unions and claims of the 'best', 'biggest' and 'largest' trade union feature on union websites and other communications. The NUT recently lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about an NASUWT job advertisement which included a claim to be 'the largest teachers' union in the UK'. The complaint was upheld and the NASUWT must not repeat the advert in its current form. The ASA has told the NASUWT to ensure it holds evidence to support such claims in future.
    A parallel situation arguably exists between Unite and UNISON with the former claiming to be 'Britain's biggest trade union' despite having 150,000 fewer paying members. But does size matter? The Con Dem Government seems to think so with Part 3 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 bringing in a new statutory requirement for unions to submit a membership audit certificate (verified by an independent assurer) to the Certification Office each year. The pretext for this legislation was that unions 'should reflect the will of their members' but in reality it is about marginalising unions from public life. And faced with such hostile state interference maybe it's time for unions to end one-upmanship and place greater emphasis on trade union unity rather than making competitive claims more befitting of mobile phone firms and supermarket chains?
http://asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2015/1/NASUWT/SHP_ADJ_261873.aspx#.VNUtNlZFDIX

A Prayer for the Loners by Keith Armstrong

The dejected men,
the lone voices,
slip away
in this seaside rain.
Their words shudder to a standstill
in dismal corners.
Frightened to shout,

Stop TTIP - the Trojan Treaty

#noTTIP Many hundreds of campaigners, including a contingent of UNISON activists, protested in Brussels over the past two days. The demonstration coincided with the latest round of talks on the proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). A giant wooden horse drew attention to the 'Trojan treaty' which threatens democracy and puts corporate profits above people.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/04/brussels-rally-denounces-massive-trade-deal-would-be-hijack-democracy

Vultures circling over Police Staff

Metropolitan Police proposals to transfer 500 'business services' staff in human resources, payroll and procurement to a new company Shared Services Connected Ltd, (75% owned by French multinational Sopra Steria and 25% owned by the UK government) could lead to 'the mass privatisation of civilian staff employed by police forces across England' according to a Tribune report by David Hencke:
http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2015/01/police-staff-for-sale-after-may/

Labour's public transport policy heading in wrong direction

When will the Labour Party learn a bit of municipal history? Announcements trumpeted as some kind of radical overhaul of bus regulations by the party appear to be yet another neo-liberal experiment of continued privatisation of what ought to be public services.

Prior to Thatcher’s deregulation of municipal buses councils ran good, reliable services, which served urban and rural communities alike because profit was not a motive. Fast forward to the Thatcher vision of a share-owning democracy and despite the language of ‘employee owned non-profit businesses’ the deregulation of the buses was de facto management buy-outs. The employee owners soon sold their former municipal shares to the highest bidder and flirted off to Spain to buy a villa on the proceeds - never to drive a bus again. The reality was an audacious asset stripping of local transport and replacement by big business to run are now not-so-local bus companies that have abandoned rural communities and less profitable routes and hiked up fairs.

So why would the Labour Party want to espouse as radical a rehash of a Thatcherite policy of non-profit bus companies and community transport. Transport is a complex and costly and risky services and needs to have at its heart the core capacity to deliver which the public sector has. This timid approach from Labour, which smacks of the big society ‘blue labour’ nonsense that has confused voters and stands for nothing but an incoherent plan on public transport policy, is a shameful indictment of the lack of vision in Labour policy making. I just wish these people would grow a pair and say what we really need is a return to municipal bus companies.
http://www.localgov.co.uk/Labour-vows-local-bus-service-shake-up-through-not-for-profit-operators/38043

Anna Rose

To a Waverer by Bertolt Brecht

You tell us
It looks bad for our cause.
The darkness gets deeper. The powers get less.
Now, after we worked for so many years
We are in a more difficult position than at the start.
But the enemy stands there, stronger than ever before.
His powers appear to have grown. He has taken on an aspect
of invincibility.
We however have made mistakes; there is no denying it.
Our numbers are dwindling.
Our slogans are in disarray. The enemy has twisted
Part of our words beyond recognition.

What is now false of what we said:
Some or all?
Whom do we still count on? Are we just left over, thrown out
Of the living stream? Shall we remain behind
Understanding no one and understood by none?

Have we got to be lucky?

This you ask. Expect
No other answer than your own.

MP's confirm poorest areas are worst hit by cuts

Councils in the most deprived areas of England have been hardest hit by cuts to their funding, Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has said. Austerity cuts have not been applied equally since 2010, with local authorities in the poorest areas seeing the biggest reductions. The MPs warned further cuts could undermine councils' financial stability and threaten statutory services.

Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge MP, said: 'These cuts have not hit all local authorities equally, with reductions ranging between 5% and 40%. Councils with the greatest spending needs - the most deprived authorities - have been receiving the largest reductions'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31012671

The Nazi Holocaust - never forget, never repeat

#HMD2015 Today, International Holocaust Memorial Day, is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Angela Rayner, UNISON's North West Regional Convenor, reports on a recent union study trip and states that 'there is no better way to understand the true nature of the Nazi genocide than to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, and no better way to honour its victims, at a time when the far right is a growing political force across Europe, than stepping up our fight against fascism and racism in all of its forms'
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-478a-Inside-the-factory-of-genocide#.VMdIOiRFC1t