Wednesday, February 09, 2011

UNISON London Regional Council AGM 2011

This morning is my third Labour Movement AGM in less than a week.  I have at least 4 more before the end of the Month.  At the London Regional Council AGM, the forces of light and reason will be battling with those of the destructive left who wish to destroy any chance of building real unity in the movement against the cuts - for example they want to hand all powers over Council finances to highly paid Chief officers to do as they see fit. 

I think we need now more than ever a Sensible Left lay leadership in the region who can unite the union across all our Service Groups and face the coming challenges of cuts, privatisation, reorganisations and direct attacks on our union.  We need an experienced, successful and proven leadership who will put the union first.  

So support Gloria and her team.

Gloria Hanson - Regional Convenor
Conroy Lawrence - Deputy Regional Convenor
John Gray - Regional Finance Convenor
Monica Hirst - Regional Equalities Convenor
Lynn Bentley - Regional Publicity Officer
Emma Rolland - Regional Young Members Convenor

UPDATE: Victory for Sensible Left slate. Full sweep. Report to follow.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what happened?

John Gray said...

Victory for Centre left slate. Full sweep. Report to follow.

Anonymous said...

Hooray! The other lot must be despairing if they can't even get sufficient support in what they believe are favourable conditions.

Anonymous said...

Why no comment on the recent Employment Tribunal unison lost? Unfair dismissal wasn't it. Seems that the "sensible" left are no better than the managment that are carrying out the cuts.

Anonymous said...

Unfair dismissal? What utter dipsticks. The Anti-union pro Tory courts 4 have not been dismissed?

Is this what SPEW are putting about?

UNISON should/will appeal against all such bourgeois and class enemy decisions.

SPEW are just hypocrites to pick and choose which ET decisions they think are correct. They hatred it when they lost the last one because they were found by an ET to be repugent etc (they never appealed)

Most of them are on highly paid bosses rates.

LOL

Anonymous said...

Excellent! Well done everyone.

As for the United Peoples Front, had to laugh at this found in a message board where ppl were discussing the result of the tribunal "Kaz was our guy for my work place and the place has gone to shit since we had his support!"

Anonymous said...

Just a couple of facts and no other comment:

UNISON was found to have unjustifiably disciplined the four contrary to section 64 of the Trades Union and Labour Relations Act 1992.

So far UNISON haven't appealed.

The four have appealed to EAT the decision of the first ET.

We all need to be concentrating now on fighting the cuts and working together.

Anonymous said...

Why no mention by the SWP of the SPEW 4 decision?

Anonymous said...

07.11 Fact - the Gang of 3 have withdrawn their appeal to EAT and there will no unity with those who publically attack the union and take internal union disputes to the Courts. It’s their call.

Anonymous said...

Bosses wages! A Library Assistant, Social worker , Housing Officer and Welfare Rights Officer.

Behave!

Just a bit of information on the Greenwich UNISON Office since it was taken over by the Region. There is only one elected Official left now as they have all been ground down by the complaints from members. The office hasn't been cleaned since March 2010 - it's filthy and stinks and it's very very rare if people can get through on the phone or an e mail is answered. The "pro tempe" Branch Secretary has an in tray a foot high because he's rarely in the office . There have been no elections since March 2010 even though the AGM is due. No meetings of Stewards or Branch meetings which used to happen monthly and bi monthly. The Stewards structure has gone. So much for bringing Democracy and organisation to Greenwich UNISON. Oh and it would be really good to know what's happened to the £450.000 we had in our strike fund before the take over. Maybe John with his position can find out.
Oh and to the person who said the branch was shit with Kaz in Leadership- our membership went from 1500 when he started to 3500 approx when he was forced out - and we gained the best Single status deal in the country with payouts for low paid workers and no cuts in pay and conditions - YEs -----you are right he was shit!!!

Anonymous said...

Behave

cept for poor old B they are all on PO plenty.

your discription is of the branch pre "dawn raids" not now - we can ring the office and speak to someone.

The £450k has proabably been saved from being used to fund SPEW.

Poor old unite - they don't know what will hit them. warning - wreaker about

best single status deal London in Newham neg by UNISON RO

Anonymous said...

PO Plenty!, let put it in prospective shall we non of them will be paid anything near as much as the average UNISON RO the highest paid of 4 likely to be paid around £10000 less then an RO.

Anonymous said...

The commenter at 10:57 forgot to mention that the pro-temp branch sec completely sold out the members on car allowances, has done absolutly nothing on the contract changes the council are trying to force through and that all the stewards, not just the SP ones, have joined Unite along with all gorunds maintenance workers and library workers. People in Greenwich are joing Unite in droves because pappiet and the rest of the UNELCTED bureaucrats in the office are just plain useless.
Thanks to the actions of the regional leadership Greenwich Unison is dead in the water I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

the local unite brnach is finished. most of their members left unison when the trots ran it cause they were always playing revolution and going on strike all the time.

now the trots are in charge of one of the unite branches (and trying to witch-hunt the only non-trot leader) all the former unison members will leave unite and go back to unison or not join.

great result for the trots!

Anonymous said...

Hey SPEWer - the social worker manager (boss) and the welfare rights team leader (another boss) is paid more than RO.

Anonymous said...

Will Unite subs now be used to pay for bus adverts featuring the "dear leader" on the back of buses and paying for 4m high colour placards showing him condescending manual workers?

Stuart said...

I'm just thankfully I'm not a member of UNISON (Unite member). It seems that the union is intent on ripping itself apart. The left may have, I think, an outdated strategy and needs to adapt its tactics to the cuts. The right seems intent on expelling and denigrating union members wherever and whenever it can. Sad.

Sandra said...

Stuart
I am a real Unite member and I do wish that you lot will leave Unite, GMB and Unison and go off and form your own union of extremists and see how you get on. No doubt the workers will all flock to your cause and you will have your revolution.

You are just doing your best to destroy the trade union movement. Shame on you for doing the tories work for them.

Anonymous said...

Well said Sandra. These weird sects and cults should have no place in real trade unions.

John Gray said...

Anon 12.04

I know you are too cowardly to use your own name but if you attack named officers who cannot respond back you comment will be deleted.

Resubmit your childish nonsense by all means without naming any full time official.

Stuart said...

Sandra,

Whoa - calm down. I too am a real Unite member. I pay my subscriptions and like any other member am entitled to participate in the running of the union. The same should hold for UNISON and the GMB.

Your hysterical ravings do you no credit. At which did I indicate I was a revolutionary or a member of a revolutionary group or as the next equally excitable comment suggests 'weird sects and cults'. I renounced organised religion some years, thank you very much, and I'm also not a member of any far-left grouping if that is what they meant.

Here is my advice to you. Lie down in a darkened room and wait until you feel less hysterical.

I am more than happy to continue this discussion as you have made wild inaccurate statements. Do let me know.

Stuart

John Gray said...

Dear Stupid Anon 12.29

Which part of

"I know you are too cowardly to use your own name but if you attack named officers who cannot respond back you comment will be deleted.

Resubmit your childish nonsense by all means without naming any full time official".

don't you understand?

Kaz defends himself on this blog by making similar daft anon comments as you.

RO’s cannot respond.

I want to publish your comments because you obviously don't realise what a fool they make you appear.

Anonymous said...

Just a couple of things:

Kaz has never written on this blog.

He is a Welfare Rights Officer on
P02 not a Team Leader.

Anonymous said...

Sandra

To quote a former GS of Unison - if it walks like a duck, if it sounds like a duck, if it quakes like a duck...it's a duck.

"Stuart" Why don't you believe the rank and file Unison members in London who have decisively defeated SPEW and their lies by over 75% at their AGM?

Anonymous said...

Hi Kaz

Since you could only know if you hadn't posted on this blog if you were Kas.

PO Plenty 2! Principle Officer Grade 2!!! - and you call yourself a worker!

You are a boss - no wonder you act like a boss.

Glen is paid even more to be a boss.

No wonder London region rank and file activists at the AGM last week have shown SPEW the door.

Andrew said...

all those who support SPEW or SWP are supporting cranks and cultists who have no place in modern day trade unionism.

They should go off and form their own unions and political parties and they can continually argue, strike, lobby, demo and split as much as they like.

We don't want you in our unions. so please go forth and multiple and leave us grownups to get on with the real world.

Stuart said...

Anon 20.56

"Stuart" Why don't you believe the rank and file Unison members in London who have decisively defeated SPEW and their lies by over 75% at their AGM?

Well I wasn't aware I had to answer an unspoken question. My original point was that from my perspective as an outsider, not a member of UNISON or the Socialist Party, the union appears to be intent on spending more time on internal disciplinary matters than defending the jobs of its members. Hence my original belief that this is somewhat of a sad situation to be in.

Anonymous said...

So Stuart despite the fact you are not a member of unison and you know nothing about what has happened you have chosen to attack my union. When the elected Unison delegates in Lodnon who know what is happening rejected the SPEW arguments and their candidate for RC last week by the highest majority in over 6 years.

Shame on you for doing the Tories work and attacking a fellow trade union when you do not even know the facts.

I for one would never dream of attacking another trade union in public.

Stuart said...

Anon 20.25

You are right - my brief foray and comments into the world of UNISON's politics is at an end. Your are completely correct - the internal affairs of UNISON are the responsibility of UNISON members. As such I will look forward to you denouncing Sandra (also a Unite member) with the same venom.

You are right that your efforts should be directed towards defending the interests of your members. I look forward, as a silent observer, to see that take place.

All the best,

Stuart

Anonymous said...

I thought that Sandra was talking about Unite?