NEC
Elections 2017: Community General Seat & Female Seat Nomination Request
John Gray Denise
Charles
RMS 3083288 RMS
8688788
Dear Branch Secretary
Your branch is entitled to nominate
candidates to the two Community seats for this year’s National Executive
Council elections. We request that your branch considers nominating John Gray for the General Seat
and Denise Charles for the Female
seat.
Denise is currently the Cymru/Wales
Regional representative on the Community Service Group Executive. She has also
been a longstanding UNISON activist holding positions as regional Branch
Secretary and currently the convenor of Hafal which is the largest Mental
Health charity in Wales. She is an
active member of Ymlaen/Forward Branch which has over 4500 Community members in
over 400 organisations
John is currently the Community NEC General
seat representative and has been an activist in UNISON for many years and held
a number of branch and regional positions including Treasurer, Health &
Safety, Welfare, Labour Link, International officer and Assistant Secretary. He works as a Housing officer and is the Branch
Secretary of the Greater London Housing Associations Branch which has over 3000
Community members.
Denise has a
background as a support worker for women fleeing domestic abuse. As a Branch
Secretary she set up a steward’s network to mentor workplace activists and
representatives. On the SGE she has championed equalities and tackling low pay
in our sector.
John has served
the union as a NEC member on the Policy and Development Committee, Trustee on
the UNISON staff pension fund, National Labour link and is a trustee of UNISON
“there for you” (Welfare) fund
Committee.
Protecting Jobs, Terms & Conditions
Community
members are facing amongst the very worse cuts in jobs and attacks on their
pay, pensions, terms and conditions by this Tory led Government.
Care and support staff wages in
particular are under threat as unscrupulous employers deliberately underbid to
win contracts then try and do their utmost to destroy TUPE protections.
We deserve a Pay Rise
While many
Housing management organisations are cash rich after years of inflation plus
rent rises yet still refuse to give their staff decent pay rises. In the
voluntary sector employers are funding the National Living wage by attacking
terms and conditions and increasing workloads.
Both of us as NEC and SGE members have
been working and campaigning with branches and regions to oppose these
measures. We believe that Community members must play our part in opposing
Austerity and arguing for an alternative economic policy.
We also believe that there are a number
of Community specific campaigns that UNISON should be pursuing such as:-
- Sector Wage Councils. Set up to decide the pay and
conditions of all staff by collective bargaining including a living wage
minimum for all Community workers and agency/sub-contractors.
- Better governance and democracy. Increasingly many of our employer management
boards are run by highly paid unelected and unrepresentative “elites”.
There should be union employee representation on all Community Trust or
management boards, especially remuneration committees (if applicable)
- Defend Pensions. Protect the Social Housing Pension
fund and the Pension Trust from further cuts.
- Access
to a decent defined benefit pension
scheme for all.
- Challenging
poor health & safety at
work in particular stress
- Recruit & train more activists to support members
- No public money for “union busters”. Any employer that does not have
a trade union recognition agreement should be barred from grants or
contracts from local or national governments.
We believe that we would both work
together well as your Community NEC team. While Denise's employer is a voluntary
organisation, John works for a housing association, so we represent and
complement both of the major sectors in Community.
If you would like either of us to come
and attend a branch meeting or hustings (under UNISON election rules) then
please let us know and if we can, we will be delighted to come and speak.
Yours faithfully
Denise
Charles & John Gray
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