Category: News

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Last year Southwark Council made the decision to bring back their Revenues & Benefits Service in-house.

On Wednesday 15 May Southwark Cabinet committee agreed to bring their Customers Services back in-house.

To view report click here

John Lister on NHS

to view click here

First of a number of videos from the Barnet Alliance meeting.

Nick Grant (NUT) speaking on Academies

click here

Barnet Trades Council are organising a mass community meeting on

Thursday 23rd September

7-9pm, Emerald Suite, North London Business Park (NLBP),

Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1GN

Speakers invited include :

Alasdair Smith, Anti Academies Alliance,

John Lister Health Emergency

Shirley Franklin, Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition

Ken Loach, Film Director

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.

To view newsletter click here

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.