Open Public Service' agenda: Turning the tide on privatisation using the new UK Public Procurement Regulations fringe #uNDC14

This post is a little late but this was one of the most interesting fringes at UNISON National Conference this year (#uNDC14).

The meeting was chaired by Jane Carolan (2nd from right) UNISON NEC.

First speaker was Dave Watson (2nd from left) who is the Senior UNISON Scotland Policy officer. Dave argued that while the public sector in Scotland is important, a third of the Scottish budget is actually spend on the private and voluntary sector. There has been a Scottish Procurement Reform Act which was intended to be "business friendly".  UNISON had argued for "10 asks" to be in the Act. Not all were agreed but preventing trade union black listers and tax dodging companies bidding for public contracts is in there as is (indirectly) a Scottish living wage.

Dave then gave the best bit of advice on dealing with lawyers that I have ever heard. Don't ask your legal advisers "what is legal position?" Ask instead "this what we intend to do - so can you advise us how to do it".

Former head of the Socialist Health Association (SHA) Richard Bourne (left of photo) was next. He saw  procurement as a "weapon". He didn't see European legislation as being the real enemy since it is fairly liberal. The problem is the Tories. While Councils are quite good at it, health is "crap" at procurement. They tend to be arrogant, not open and transparent and with no accountability. They find it almost impossible to get it right - so challenge. There has been a number of successes.

3rd speaker (see photo middle) was Chris Durnall, who is a top trade union activist, fellow Community Branch Secretary and member of our Service Group Executive. She works for a national Children's charity. Chris reported on the onslaught in our sector of attacks on terms and conditions, reductions in numbers and lower grades. Our members have suffered cuts in pay of up to 40%, Defined benefit pensions are a distant memory and employers treat staff as "costs" not people.

We need a political approach. Commissioners, employers and unions need to work together. We need political and industrial pressure to bring about a living wage and better pay. We need an Ethical care policy with full costs recovery. Move away procurement and return to grant funding and wage councils. A strong union is the best thing we have to protect members.

Matt Dykes (right of picture), Senior policy officer at the TUC was the last speaker. He spoke about "Social Procurement" with agreement about models being used for bids. He wants to see Freedom of Information applied to all with "open book accounting" . All contracted out staff ought to be on NJC (local government) terms and conditions. There is no significant evidence that outsourcing works. There is now a trend for "in-sourcing". We need a Social Value Act. Public opinion is on our side. There is a lot of support within the Labour Party (such as John Trickett MP) but we have to convince their Treasury team that it is value for money.

There was not that much time for a Q&A but I remember Dave Watson explaining that in his experience the cost of a Living wage is cost always exaggerated. In the ones he has been involved in it has only been 1/3 the estimated cost.

Woolwich Ferry on route home from #uNDC14

Off message but last Sunday I was on my way home to East London from UNISON NDC conference via a weekend recovering in Worthing. The traffic approaching the Blackwell Tunnel was bloody awful so I decided to take the scenic route home to Newham via the Woolwich Ferry.

Only one car ferry across the River Thames runs during the weekend, so there was a bit of a wait but it is far, far better than being stuck in slow moving traffic. If you need to cross London by car and you are not in a rush,  then I always recommend the Woolwich Ferry. 

The views across the river while waiting or on the Ferry are always beautiful and magnificent. Of course the whole of East London needs another bridge or tunnel across the Thames but that is another matter.

After the week that was - UNISON Conference #uNDC14

On Friday afternoon after the close of the 2014 UNISON NDC conference at Brighton, I went to nearby Worthing for the weekend to recover.

On Saturday I went for 10.5 mile walk across ancient iron age forts in the South Downs. The weather was simply glorious, very warm with blue skies but there was a nice cooling breeze.

You could see Brighton in the far distance. I had spent the last 4 days from 9am to 6pm in what is fundamentally, a very large shed with up to 2500 other people. Walking outdoors in shorts, sandals and tee-shirt in beautiful countryside was a real treat. It was strange to start the day without a standing orders committee report mind!

It had been a very successful conference and we are now clearly taking the fight over low pay to the government. We were I think on the whole united and "in UNISON". Bizarrely one of the few disputes in the conference hall originated in the squabbling and infighting following the demise of the extremist so called "United left" group.

While I may wish the ultra left trotskyist "permanent revolutionaries" will stop fibbing their manta at the end of every speech that "their union money is going to the Labour Party" (the truth is that it is only from members who choose to pay the Labour Link levy), I enjoy their distinctive sleep inducing "house style" of speaking, which in the absence of hard liquor makes listening to them bearable.

While none of the motions that I was due to speak on behalf of the NEC came up high enough in the agenda, I did enjoy listening to the debates and the fringes. I was able to help out my branch delegation with speech writing and chaired the Capital Stewardship fringe.

A highlight of conference for me was the election by the NEC of Eric Roberts (London Ambulance Service branch secretary and Health NEC) as a new UNISON Vice President. Eric is a London comrade and top trade unionist. I look forward to him being President of the union in 2016.

I will post further reports on Conference as and when I write them up. 

Roll on UNISON Conference 2015 in Glasgow.

Composite A - Organising in fragmented workforces #uUNDC14

The shy and retiring, Doreen Davies, speaking yesterday on this important motion to the Community Service Group and the future of the union.

"President, Conference, Doreen Davies, Greater London Housing Association branch speaking in favour of Composite A.

Conference, my branch is a community service group specific branch which organises in over 130 different employers in the Housing and voluntary sector in London and the South East delivering public services from over a thousand different workplaces.

We also have to organise in employers who have staff who work 5 different UNISON regions and are members of a number of different branches apart from ours.

Not only are our members fragmented physically and geographically their pay and conditions are frankly a dog’s dinner. We have members who are on former local government, health, private, spot rates, Hay, profit sharing, minimum wage, living wage, permanent contracts, agency contracts, zero hour contracts, shifts work.

Imagine how difficult it is to draw up pay claims and defend members against proposed restructures when you have so many different branches to consult. Remembering that many traditional sole employer branches are fully committed to trying to protect their core membership and have little or no spare resources or facility time to respond.

Conference, we must ensure that our structures are fit for purpose. The reason for our existence as a trade union is to organise and bargain on behalf of our members who deliver public services. While I agree that we must continue to fight for us to be employed directly by democratically elected public bodies we must wake up and smell the coffee and make sure that we can deliver for our members in the here and now.

This fragmentation is not only just a problem for our union it is an organising opportunity. At a time when our membership numbers and income is under threat as never before we must look long and hard at our structures and indeed target employers which are large enough to support networks of stewards to self organise and defend members.

Conference, let us indeed have a national and regional plan. Let us have a collective solution to help tackle a private sector nightmare. Conference, please support this composite".