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STOP Mass privatisation of schools
The Council Trade Unions have responded to the news that up to 35 Barnet schools rated by Ofsted as ‘outstanding’ are being strongly “invited” to be fast tracked into becoming Academies without any consultation.
Underneath the political hype and spin the reality of what it means to become an academy is very different. Once again politicians are promoting ‘political dogma’ without thinking about the long term consequences.
- There is no evidence of a public clamour for the creation of new academy schools. A recent public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos MORI found that 96% of parents did not want state-funded schools to be run as academies.
To read full press release click HERE
Once upon a time in a land far far away …………in ‘Make-Believe Land’ 2010
Once upon a time in a land far far away …………in ‘Make-Believe Land’ 2010
Person A learns his colleague Person B is in financial trouble and could lose everything. Person A lends Person B money to help. Person B promises to pay back with interest when things are better. Person A does not check why Person B found himself in financial problems he just felt he should help. Person A did not check if Person B had learnt the lessons of why he found himself in financial problems.
Two years passed and Person A is now in financial trouble. Person A may have to sell his home and lose his job. Person A has not asked Person B if he can pay back some or all of the money he lent to Person B.
Person B is doing very well, making profits and enjoying life. Person B knows Person A is in trouble but has not offered to help out. Person B is angry that Person A has not sorted out his financial problems and is demanding that Person A sells his house and lose his job in order to pay his debt.
Person C works for Person A. Person C may lose their job their home and their pension because Person A lent money to Person B. Person C asks Person A to ask Person B for the money they lent Person B. Person C doesn’t understand where the money which was lent to Person B has gone?
Are you confused?
Person A is the government
Person B is the Banks bailed out by the Government.
Person C is you the Public sector worker.
Final Question:
Knowing what you know now would you lend Person B money?
It is all quite simple really. We want our money back and we want it now! Sign up to our petition.
Pass it on to your colleagues, friends and family. £1.3 Trillion is a lot of money Banks should feel the pain not you.
Cuts to services, cuts to jobs, cuts to pay, cuts to pensions!
We are going to be consulted on
· Should your service to be privatised?
· Should your job be privatised?
· Should you have pay freeze/cut for the next 5 years?
· Should your pension to be closed?
Last week the Local Government Employers’ Circular – “Reducing Workforce Costs” was published.
Some of the headlines include :
· impose a pay freeze if there is no contractual entitlement to an annual pay award or increment
· Temporary suspension of incremental progression
· Percentage reduction in salary through collective agreement with unions or by individual agreement in order to achieve a saving on your wage bill
· Consider re-negotiating terms and conditions such as severance packages
Fightback
You keep nothing if you don’t fight for it.
What you can do
1. Sign our petition online here http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bankers/
2. Print off the petition and ask work colleagues to sign it and hand in to the UNISON Office.
3. Sign up new UNISON members in your team
4. Attend the Emergency Branch Meeting on Thursday 1 July 12.30 – 1.30 pm Conference room 3, Building 2, NLBP.
5. Sign Robin Hood Tax petition and encourage colleagues and friends to sign.
‘selling off the family silver!’
Conversation allegedly overheard by someone travelling on the tube in Bank Station (it would have to be!) in the City of London.
Banker 1: We need to start selling our public assets particularly those in the public sector.
Banker 2: Why?
Banker 1: Because we are in a financial crisis, the economy is on the verge of collapse. The public gave us £1.3 Trillion (£1,300,000,000,000,000) which is nice of them. We don’t have to pay that off yet. Thank God they are not asking for it back.
Banker 2: But why sell off our ‘family silver’ so cheaply?
Banker 1: Don’t be silly! We have a £1.35 Billion (1,350,000,000,000) Public Sector debt we have to pay off.
Banker 2: I don’t understand? Why don’t the government ask for the banks to help out?
Banker 1: Because we are banks silly! We don’t lend them money! It’s too risky! They might not pay us back and what would that mean for our bonuses?
Banker 2: Bonuses? You still getting a bonus?
Banker 1: Of course. Why shouldn’t we get our bonus? We take all the risks? Without us the economy would be in big trouble
Banker 2: But the economy is in big trouble, that is why the public hates bankers! Anyway I still don’t know why the sell off?
Banker 1: OK, OK listen. We got to keep the attention off the banks and back on public sector. The property portfolios of public sector are worth Billions of pounds. Thanks to our two banker mates running the Government (David & Nick) their job is to misdirect public’s attention from us to the public sector debt. By selling off council properties, especially schools the government will be able to halve the debt. They are seen as saviours, we take a cut from our friends in the multinationals who buy up the assets, everyone is a winner!
Banker 2: Not everyone surely.
Banker 1: Well no, but we are a bank not a public service! We have shareholders to answer to. Remember the banker’s motto ‘greed is good’. The Mugs just got to take the pain that is just the way it is? Any way how long you been a banker?
Banker 2: I’m not a banker. I’m one of the mugs!
Awkward silence…………………..
Schools belong to the community, they are a public asset. We should not be selling off public assets on the cheap. If you want to know more about why academies are not a good idea click on this link to the anti academy alliance http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/
“I want our £1.3 Trillion we gave to the banks back…now!”
£1.3 Trillion (1,300,000,000,000,000) public money given to the banks.
£153 Billion (153,000,000,000) the Public Sector deficit that is driving the Con-Dem Governments Cuts Agenda
If I didn’t know better I sometimes feel politicians almost relish the massive cuts packages they have been promoting for almost a year! Now is not the time to panic. Scaring citizens that we could be worse than Greece is just the act of a bully hoping that when they announce the cuts we will all roll over and accept anything they propose.
We must not roll over. Public Sector workers are not Mugs
As public sector workers we cannot let the Government politicians treat us as mugs. When I return from UNISON Conference I hope to report that our newly elected General Secretary will have a plan for how we are going to defend public services and jobs. We have no alternative but to resist all talk of cuts. We have to involve ALL our members. I don’t know if it is just me but I am getting increasingly irritated by politicians talking about cuts in the public sector. What annoys me the most is how they talk about cuts to jobs and job creation in the same sentence! Just how does making 300,000 jobs redundant create jobs?
Locally we have three key issues:
Budget Cuts as a result of £6.3 Billion announced in the Queens Speech
Future Shape projects
Emergency Budget 22 June and the massive cuts which will follow.
Look out for news of our Emergency Branch Meeting 1 July meeting on the Cuts over the page.
Best wishes
John Burgess (Branch Secretary)
We want our £1.3 Trillion back we gave to the banks!
Barnet UNISON to be privatised!
Yes you read right! News just in that Barnet UNISON looks set to be privatised.
Barnet Council has attracted national media attention with its easyCouncil tag, well it looks like the private sector liked the look of the branch and decided to make a bid or maybe did not like the branch and decided to buy it and close it down!
A shocked and bewildered branch secretary John Burgess was caught on camera outside the Town Hall after spending lengthy talks over the future of the UNISON branch and said:
“You can’t make it up. We had no indication that our service was up for privatisation. We thought easyCouncil meant other services not ours! I am shocked but will be issuing a press release once I have had chance to talk to my officers!
We have lots of questions for instance where is the Business Case for this decision? We were not part of the Options Appraisal in fact we did not know that an Options Appraisal was taking place. We demand to see the Options Appraisal. We have heard rumours that TUPE Plus was not included which leaves our members at the mercy of private sector. Not just their Pay, Annual Leave but Pensions as well. We don’t even know if the private company will recognise trade unions it is just unbelievable. What about data protection issues for our members? This company could export this service out of Barnet and out of the UK which means existing legislation protecting data will be unenforceable! In the dire economic climate exporting jobs out of the borough seems madness at a time when the borough is experiencing rising unemployment.
Where was the consultation with the staff? What resources were given to other service delivery options especially the in-house bid? How can this decision deliver value for money and ensure democratic accountability? We are a Trade Union a democratic organisation our members vote for their reps how we can we demonstrate openness and transparency about decision making and service delivery if the private sector and their shareholders are ‘calling the shots!’ It is unacceptable to use the defence of ‘commercial confidentiality’ to hide details of business cases from our members and we will fight it all the way. It is member’s money and they need to see how and where their money is being spent.
We will oppose any attempt to turn our branch into easyUnion. We have seen leaked documents suggesting that there would be a significant shift in to the way members paid their subscriptions e.g. a standard charge for a first meeting with a UNISON rep with further charges if representation is required.”
I am seeking urgent meetings and asking for the Options Appraisal decision to be overturned. We are clear that if an Options Appraisal needs to take place it needs to do so in partnership with the Trade Union and its members. We know our service and so do they, we should be working together to put our own in-house bid. We would expect this bid to be resourced.
As you can imagine this has all come as complete surprise. In light of concerns we have had about the process I need to speak to our national union about whether we can seek a Judicial Review over the decision to privatise our branch.
I would like to send a message to all trade unions across the UK. It appears that belonging to a trade union is seen as threat to the financial institutions that seem to still have the power and influence to decide Government Policy. What is being proposed in Barnet maybe part of a more sinister coordinated campaign to break the trade unions forever. I could not help but be concerned about anti-union frenzy in the media over the BA dispute. What next? Will it be illegal for a worker to withdraw their labour? I look forward to messages of support for our struggle.
Please Note: Barnet Council has been carrying out a massive transformation entitled Future Shape, we have had no indication that the privatisation of the Barnet UNISON branch was in any way connected.
To read more information on this shocking development click here
Welcome to the Barnet UNISON Twilight Zone
Welcome to the Barnet UNISON Twilight Zone. You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas.
You’ve just crossed over into the Barnet UNISON Twilight Zone.
The story of our branch being privatised has not happened.
What is happening is our Council Services are at risk as a result of the recent 6.3 Billion budget cuts package and the likely level of cuts to funding to the Council as a result of the emergency budget on 22 June.
Fire Sale of the Public Sector?
It is important that the process of deciding what the Council does and doesn’t do in the future is open and transparent. Whilst Ministers ‘spin’ the myth that there are thousands of residents looking to set up co-ops/social enterprises etc to run services the reality is very different. Banks are not lending, and if they do, it is likely to be to multi-nationals e.g. IBM, Mouchel, Capita, BT. In the knowledge that the Government are announcing their intention that the Public Sector debt must be cut back, the multi-nationals are circulating the public sector like sharks waiting for big public sector contracts to keep them afloat. It is the multi-nationals which will be looking to run our schools and it is easy to understand why. If they take over a school it means they take over the property (currently the schools are owned by us the public). Schools are one of the last massive public property assets and if the ‘Fire Sale’ goes ahead they could all be gone by the end of the Con-Dem first term in Government.
The Trade Unions have a responsibility to organise. But to organise in a way that they have never done for a long long time. In the past there has been too much rhetoric from General Secretary’s about joint working. History is clear that they have not delivered except for one day in the defence of the Pensions in the Public Sector. That was only one day. The fight over the survival of Public Services can only be won by working within our own communities.
UNISON response to the Children’s Services Restructure
RE: UNISON response to the Children’s Services Restructure
I recognise that you provided an updated version to the Trade Unions last Friday, as this has not been circulated to the workforce our response is based on the original proposal. Please find enclosed UNISON alternative proposal to the Children’s Services Restructure. Our proposal is based on the widespread responses from UNISON members working in Children’s Services.
It is important in these stark economic times, with the ongoing criticism of the number of senior management posts and high salaries in the public sector, that we avoid top heavy management structures. Our proposal has only 3 senior management roles as opposed to the 5 in your proposal.
To read full report click here