Pay - doing nothing is not an option

On Thursday a national pay summit was held at UNISON head office with representatives in attendance from all regions and service groups. Co-chaired by President Wendy Nichols and NEC Policy Chair Jane Carolan, the seminar was opened by General Secretary Dave Prentis who set out a context of Government long term 1% pay restraint, relentless public services cuts, vicious attacks on tax credits and the huge threat posed by the Trade Union Bill. https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2015/09/special-unison-summit-plans-to-tackle-pay-freeze/

In a speech outlining the challenges facing UNISON branches and members in local government, SGE Chair Glen Williams posed the big question to delegates - 'Does anyone here think doing nothing is an option in terms of a pay campaign?' With national pay disputes progressing in further education and probation, the local government NJC claim recently submitted as well as an all member consultation on a 2.5% two year offer in Scotland, that question will be answered soon enough (full speech below).

Can the leadership debate re-engage Labour supporters?

It is sad to see process overtaking politics in the Labour leadership debate, especially because the campaign had at least contained something about visions and policies and how best to deliver on them.

That is what has engaged the thousands who have turned out to hear Corbyn. Many of them are young and have been enlivened by a political debate on austerity that has been completely missing from the mainstream (except perhaps in Scotland but even there we detect a gradual awakening that SNP rhetoric and policy on that issue are two different things).

Engaging so many people in that debate surely can’t be a bad thing. So has it re-engaged disaffected Labour supporters?

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.

Kenny Bell remembered

On the 4th anniversary of his death, Colombian human rights organisation Nomadesc has produced a video tribute to the late Kenny Bell, Newcastle UNISON Branch Secretary and deputy Regional Convenor Northern Region.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlJ6Kwy3bTw&feature=youtu.be

UNISONActive on facebook

See our new facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/UNISONActiveblog We've had problems with the existing facebook page that we are trying to sort out.

4 October National March & Rally - programme confirmed

#4Oct British trade unions are facing a full frontal attack. Government spending on public services and the welfare state is being rolled back decades. It has never been more important for trade unionists to protest. The TUC has published details of the upcoming demonstration at the Tory Party conference in Manchester on Sunday 4 October:
https://www.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/no-austerity-yes-workers-rights-national-demonstration-conservative-party-conference

Click here or on the graphic for leaflets and posters to download and print.

A windfall for Fat Cats - Labour must oppose Corporation Tax Cuts in Finance Bill 2015/16

In the immediate aftermath of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s failure to oppose the Welfare Bill, its MPs with the sole exception of Dennis Skinner abstained on an amendment to decline a second reading to the Finance Bill 2015/16. As well as insuring income tax rates will not rise in the next 5 years, the Bill proposes a raise in the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million and further cuts in Corporation Tax (reduced in 2 stages to 18% by 2020). All of these measures will deplete public finances and intensify the squeeze on public services. http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2015-07-21&number=52&showall=yes#voters

What will the Tory Trade Union Bill mean for YOU?

Headlines on the new Trade Union Bill and subsequent blog postings have concentrated on the threat to strike action, through the new thresholds on ballots, and on the new laws regarding picketing and strike breaking. The ability of workers to exercise the right to withdraw their labour is under threat as never before, and opposition to the bill is rightly unanimous throughout the trade union movement. The current anti trade union laws in this country are outwith international law as defined in the ILO conventions and the changes make a bad situation worse.

As local stewards however it is easy to share the outrage and then assume that the impact on the way that we go about the everyday activities that we take for granted will be minimal. The grievances and disciplines, the representation over reorganisations, the local campaigning will all still continue as long as the members still have problems and we represent the workforce. The truth unfortunately is that our role will be significantly changed, and as UNISON is based primarily on lay organisation at a local level, we will be drastically curtailed in our ability to act on behalf of our members. The devil, as always, is in the detail.

Swimming through vomit

The debacle created by interim leader Harriet Harman on welfare has created Tory accusations of a split when we should have been putting clear red water between Labour and the Tories. Their vile attack on the poorest families and kids in the country is dog-whistle politics and all the more galling to allow the narrative to go on Tory territory as this is also an attack on the working poor – many thousands of UNISON members amongst them.

Piss ups and breweries spring to mind when a simple failure of the labour amendment would have been enough for the party to unitedly oppose these reforms based on being unable to support the bill un-amended – without the nonsense of asking for abstentions. Instead confusion ruled, Corbyn is being portrayed as a villain who created the split (utter nonsense but serves a purpose for Blairites and Tories to spin in this way) and we had just 48 MPs prepared to vote on the principles upon which they have been elected. This is the list of the Labour MPs who possess a pair.
http://labourlist.org/2015/07/48-mps-break-whip-to-vote-against-welfare-bill-full-list/

Quote of the debate goes to John McDonnell MP ‘I would swim through vomit to vote against this bill and listening to some of the nauseating speeches tonight I think we might have to’. Given the cowardice of some of his colleagues I propose that as their fitting punishment.

Anna Rose

Scotland after socialism?

Beneath the EU’s affront to democracy in Greece there is still the debate about whether Syriza reflects a shift to the left or whether it is just a singular reaction to a single issue which unites elements of left, right, middle and non-aligned. There is a mirror of this in Scotland as the debate around austerity always seems to end up as a debate about the constitution or national identity, as opposed to politics.
    The contradictions couldn't be more obvious. The words say: 'fight austerity, stop privatisation' and the actions bring privatisation upon privatisation and decimation of local government. Many are willing to excuse that as the result of failing to 'grasp independence' or because 'Labour did it before'. More worrying are those who actually support the service cuts, privatisations, tax freezes and business tax cuts as legitimate while still trumpeting an anti-austerity front.
   It makes for a difficult job for trade unions challenging these issues. Elements - sadly sometimes on the left - continue to try to characterise trade unions as part of the problem (the 'old order' or 'red tories') rather than the only realistic resistance we have to a mainstream political consensus that backs at least some level of austerity.
    In light of this, our attention was recently brought to a three paragraph blog from writer Ken Mcleod  which deserves wider distribution and will no doubt provoke some controversy but hopefully an interesting debate: