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Democracy at stake in Hammersmith & Fulham

News

Barnet UNISON members who attended our branch meeting last month heard speakers from Essex and Hammersmith describe what was happening in their boroughs.

 

These Branches were invited because Barnet, Hammersmith and Essex are often quoted together as possible pilots of what council services will look like under a Cameron government.

 

What is happening in all three boroughs is very different which is why I am shocked to report that three branch officers including the Branch Secretary, have been de-recognised at a time when the whole workforce have been dismissed and re-engaged on inferior terms and conditions.

The issue has been brought to Parliament through an early day motion

See link below

http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2008-2009/2116.htm

Please encourage your local MP to sign this motion.

The next five years are going to provide very challenging for staff working in public services. Our country has a proud record about democracy and belonging to a trade union is one of them. Trade Unions must be allowed to represent the views of their members. Attacks on trade union reps are an attack on democracy and must be condemned.

In Doncaster the UNISON Branch Secretary Jim Board was suspended for giving an interview on Channel Four.

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/09/16/112581/doncaster-strike-threat-over-unison-officials-suspension.html

The response from local UNISON branches, General Secretary and the region swiftly brought the suspension to an end.

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/09/22/112653/doncaster-council-reinstates-childrens-worker-jim-board.html

I fully expect to hear news that a similar response both nationally and regionally will bring an end to the de-recognition and allow the democratically elected UNISON officers to carry out their legitimate duties to represent their members.

I can report that UNISON members are currently being balloted on industrial action in response to the dismissal and re-engagement on inferior contracts.

I will ask for an update from the branch.

Barnet UNISON Schools Conference a clear success!

Local

“Very useful. A good chance to let UNISON know what sort of practices are going on in schools. Nice to feel listened to!”

“As this is the 1st meeting, I think that it is too early to comment, as the sessions, if continued will develop, as and who attends”

“I found the amount of support available (on staffing and learning) brilliant”

“Reinforced my understanding of issues involving school support staff”

“I found it enlightening”

“Good to know we are not alone”

This was just some of the positive feedback from those who attended our schools conference. The last comment has a particular resonance. Schools support staff are certainly not alone. We have some 900+ members in schools and yet a lot of you feel alone! 

This has a lot to do with the way in which we organise in schools. It is difficult for you to attend meetings and we do not have representatives in every school – but the issues are so similar… This conference was an attempt to break through that and we have agreed to  

ü      organise meetings in some of the schools present at the conference.

ü      organise a meeting specifically for caretakers as they have yet to have their jobs looked at following the schools remodelling exercise.

ü      Send out the job descriptions for Levels 1,2,3,4 T.A s

ü      Organise a meeting for Nursery Nurses to discuss the key worker aspect to their role. 

It was really shocking to hear how many colleagues are being held at Level 1 T.A. when in fact no one should be on this level for more than a few weeks! This is just one of the issues we will be tackling throughout the year. Colleagues attending were also shocked to hear about the proposed transformation of Whitefield School to National Challenge Trust Status. Whitefield School is one of the first schools we will be holding a meeting. We will be writing more about this campaign to all our schools members. 

Many colleagues found the feedback from National UNISON speaker, Christine Lewis, very informative and people really liked to hear about the training opportunities which are available through the council on the Return2Learn scheme.

There will be another conference which will take place during the next half term. Make sure you don’t miss the next one. Contact the Barnet UNISON office if you are reading this and want us to come to your school and hold a meeting.

 Prize winner receives her min laptop!

Council Unions launch DRAFT Public Services Manifesto

Local

The current and potential new government have made their intentions clear for public services in th enext 2- 4 years.

Marginalisation and anti union propaganda has been unleashed on the Postal workers union. How revolutionary is the postal workers union request for ACAS?

In the Council we are starting to see evidence of marginalisation of our trade unions not just in Future Shape but other work related issues directly affecting our members.

We have agreed a DRAFT Manifesto for Public Services which is being supported by Barnet Trades Council.

To view click here

 

 

 

Report back from Lambeth UNISON

News

What is your name?
Jon Rogers

What UNISON branch?
Lambeth local government

What is your branch officer position?
Joint Branch Secretary (jointly with Nick Venedi)

Have any of your services been privatised? Please explain?
Lambeth was scene of what was at the time the largest privatisation in the history of English local government in 1997 when almost all our then remaining in-house manual workforce was privatised to a “joint venture company” part-owned by the Council. This proved a failure and the contracts are now with a range of different private contractors. We have had some successes in bringing privatised “white-collar” services (such as Housing Benefit and Legal Services) back in-house.

Do you know if there are any plans to share services with other public sector organisations in your borough?
We have not heard of any detailed proposals yet!

Do you have any privatisation proposals in your borough?
At the moment our ALMO (Lambeth Living) is proposing to privatise our emergency caretaking service, our Concierge service and the estate cleaning service (in those parts of the borough where it is still in-house). We have got the Council to agree to pay a consultant from the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) to work with us to try to respond to these proposals – and this work is underway right now.

What do you think will be the big challenges for public Services over the next four years?
We will face spending cuts and further privatisation proposals, as well as the shared services agenda. At the same time a future Tory Government will probably mount new attacks upon our trade unions for which we need to prepare.

What is your message to Barnet UNISON members?
Your branch is leading the way in showing how we should respond to the coming challenges and other branches can learn from this – but we cannot fight one borough at a time. We need to work together and to make the official structures of our trade union work for us as best we can. Right now I think we can make use of the national Union’s Million Voices for Change campaign to provide a coherent theme nationally for the fightback in local government and beyond. The Peoples Charter also provides a national framework, supported by the Trades Union Congress, for our local demands and campaigns.

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