Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Five–Nil: Victory for Members in London UNISON Regional Council AGM.

For the fifth year in succession ordinary UNISON members secured a clear sweep in the Regional Council Officer (RCO) elections. The disUnited Ultra Left (and one other) were routed and Gloria, Conroy, myself, Monica, Lynn and Emma were elected as the Regional lay leadership executive.

We won’t know the exact margin of victory until the figures are published tomorrow but going on the results of the declared vote in the rule amendment debate I suspect that the margin will be our best ever.

Formal and heartfelt commiserations of course to the losers.

I will post further details about the AGM soon. I have also been promised a special guest video on Friday about some sort of other important UNISON news.

Can’t wait!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dont worry John the finance is mainly adding and subtracting so the fact that you cant do % wont matter too much....

Anonymous said...

FIVE MORE YEARS !!!!

MANDATE TO WEILD THE ICE PIX

LETS CLOSE DOWN THEIR BRANCHES NOW

John Gray said...

Hi Anon

That’s a relief

Anonymous said...

Loved the standing ovation for the class warriors NOT

I counted five

Bye Bye

Anonymous said...

NO! We don't want to close down their branches. It's not about depriving the members of decent democratic trade unionism, it's about cutting out the extremist parasites who leech our funds, energy, and membership. These are a tiny (and growing smaller) unrepresentative bunch of idiots who should be removed, but let's be there to support the members.

TonyC said...

John,

Cngratulations to you and all those in London standing up to the unrepresentative ultra left.

The misnamed 'Socialist Workers' and 'Socialist' Parties have no interest in UNISON other than to promote their own organisations.

There is very little working class or socialist about either of these middle class led and politically hollow organisations.

They are parasites outdone only by their 'Labour' apologists, fellow travellers, sycophants and useful idiots such as Rogers and Thompson

TC

Anonymous said...

Agree with Tony C

Perhaps national office should consider taking action in some London Branches where these ultra mad people are trying to key in to resources?

Anonymous said...

John,

This is an excellent result and one that is richly deserved for all the hard and consistent work that has been put in over recent years.

The bankruptcy of the fringe left is true now in the four key areas it really matters: their level of membership, their level of wider support, their ideology, and their resources.

And - cortesy of the Idiot 4 - we now have a legal judgement that states the views of Socialist Party members "conflict with the fundamental rights of others, and the dignity of the individual, and are not worthy of respect...in a democratic society".

I would contend that now makes SP members unworthy of membership of UNISON.

Carlos

Anonymous said...

I have to say I was outraged by the heckling of speakers who oppose any Tot line

I dont understand why stewards didnt throw them out

its totally unacceptable to heckle the way they did

when will action be taken

we dont heckle their one more general strike calls

Having said that at least Nick V, Jon R and George B tried to shut them up -
without success, but they tried

We cannot tolerate anymore hissy fits or we have the moral high ground heckling of speakers

Anonymous said...

we won

thanks Lesley for your support
as I was filling in my form I was told I was a sell out by one person from Local Government - who I had never met before - but seemed very angry

who do these people think they are, who do they represent


so rude

julie

Anonymous said...

This is all bizarre and despressing. I don't support the far left but is crowing about beating them really worth much?

Many UNISON branches barely function, including in London, with pitiful turn outs at AGMs, extremely low densities and little to no involvement of the vast majority of members. Many branches can't even fill their branch committee officer positions, which shows how weak they are, and this is certainly not just the case for branches led by the far left by any means. In fact other branches are probably even worse on average.

Rather than hark on about the far left you say yourself are irrelevant why not concentrate on what you have done and what you will do.

Given that membership density figures have remained abysmally low over the past four years, given that most London branches are in a terrible state and given that as a national union we lost the pensions dispute and most areas have had to take real pay cuts over the past few years it doesn't seem to me that you have much to crow about. Why not actually sort out the problems of our union which show no significant signs of getting better.

One of the candidates statements says "Unfortunately no regional young members have taken place this year due to low attendance". It is also the case, I believe, that for god knows how long all the regional meetings haven't been quorate. So you've led the region for four years and it's still in this state? Don't think you should be patting yourself on the back too much.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 21.40 -
This is a long uphill struggle about revitalising the region and regaining the members' confidence. This is not something that will happen overnight. But we must take heart from the fact that at regional council level the members are rejecting the politics of insanity.
A dead fish rots from the head, and we've put a stop to that - there's no question we need to reinvigorate our branches, but we've got a good start, and active members is not something the trots EVER wanted.
In fact I'm wondering if it's not too early to declare Trotskyism dead and buried in our union!

Anonymous said...

Everyone is saying the far left is irrelevant and as far as I know the far left has never run the national union, correct me if I'm wrong. Yet you blame them for the state of our union? It's toy town politics.

Even in London, where this "dream team" have won, and won for the last five elections, things aren't getting any better, with branches in a terrible state. Rather than rejoicing in "another victory" why not look at the view from the average member who would see this report and the comments as insanity.

As it happens the vast majority of members won't have known the regional AGM even took place, let alone have any input into it. Even the general secretary election gets less than 20% of members out to vote.

I don't see any good starts, I see our union in a terrible state, with big defeats over pay and pensions and pay cuts year after year. What exactly does this good start mean in reality?

Stop banging on about something that you yourself say is dead and buried and talk about practical and positive things. There are many branches in London where the far left have had no implementation for years and years, yet they are in a dire state. Surely the current leadership has to take some blame for that and say why nothing much has changed over the past four years.

Anonymous said...

Wrong the region is now growing in membership and stewards. It is supporting real activists and providing relevant training and practical support. Trade unions need to increase density and build networks of stewards. The ultra left are a cancer in the labour movement. They tie our arms behind our back with their foolishness. As the recent ET found in the case that they took against the union “they hold views that were "repugnant in a democratic society" as they were seeking to deprive other individuals of their rights and freedoms by imposition!” No wonder so many members and activists leave because of them.
The union is constantly undermined with their one strike fits all, revolution now if only we had a mass rally - mentality. They owe their loyalty not to their union but to their central committee. In any clash they have to do what they are told, leave or are expelled (e.g. President of CWU).
This is unforgiveable. In the AGM they deliberately try to shout down and heckle delegates who say things they don't like - to bully and intimadate them. They do the same in branch committees. No wounder people will not come to council meetings. The employers (and other unions) laugh at us for putting up with them . Until they change or leave the union this battle will just continue and continue and if you are really anti-ultra then you join us and stop sneering from the sidelines.

Anonymous said...

the trots ran london and lost £2m and the london weightiung strike
never again

Anonymous said...

If that is true give me the membership figures from four years ago compared to now. And also the number of stewards four years ago compared to now. I assume you know as you have confidently state that they are growing.

And stop banging on about the far left, it comes across as paranoid and obsessive.

I'm doing plenty of local UNISON work with a lot of results, not on the side lines at all. I just don't buy that the current union leadership either nationally or regionally is doing a good job. In fact I think they are doing a very poor job.

As I said in the big majority of branches the far left have no input at all and don't exist. Yet most of those same branches are often in a terrible state and don't function properly.

Anonymous said...

you are the one claiming that things are doom and gloom. you prove it. what a pathetic comment from any anonymous commentator to claim “I'm doing plenty of local UNISON work with a lot of results”. i think if it looks like a trots, walks like a trot, waddles like a trot – its a trot. i also think it sounds you are also a member of the paid up sour grapes brigade. stop whining and bleating just get better organised next year.

Anonymous said...

well done to all who stood and congrats to the winners.

The significant issue is the long running problem of inquorate Regional Councils -and in the last 4/5 years every RC bar the AGM has been inquorate. This is not only a wasted opportunity for activists to input into the regional policy/work via motions but also indicates a real lay democratic deficit in the region. I note that finally a questionnaire has been sent out asking about attendance at RC but Regional Committee should be asking for quarterly reports on numbers of attendees vs those registered to attend, branches attending and not attending (and seeking to support those who don't/can't attend for whatever reason). That data exists and does not need a questionnaire.

It is clear that under the right circumstances the regional officials can ensure a quorum -such as having Service group AGMs on the same day as the RC AGM -and it is not rocket science to look at something similar around the other Council meetings -indeed suggestions were put forward by Barnet LG some years ago. RC should not just be about elections but about how we -as activists -want the region to be, what we want the region to do and enable us all to meet together, network and make links that allow us to build a consensus about a way forward - a way to work together across service groups to make sure we will have the mutual local support of all unison members when we need it to fight against the cuts we know are coming.

One of the real challenges for the elected officers this year would be to ensure that we have at least one quorate RC other than the AGM -it used to happen, it can happen again if the will is there.
kat

Anonymous said...

The trots in Lambeth, otherwise known as lambeth militants (or militia?) claim that they have recruited lots of stewards, they forget to tell us what they do and how many of them are tories? apparently their main man is a tory?? Confused? Well its all about the trot wagon!

Anonymous said...

i will miss him and his girlfriends face on the back of the bus

hay whats £10,000s compared to a valentine card

its the thought that counts

Anonymous said...

The only Pay cut we would have got in health is if we had listened to the bonkers Trots

who said we should reject a three year pay deal (REMEMBER OR SELECTIVE MEMORY)

luckily our members knew better and on average as a result we are 2% a year better than the Trots would have had us.

Dont think we need any lectures from TROTS

Anonymous said...

what action will be taken against the regular hecklers at regional council

it cannot go on