UNISON "there for you" Covid-19 Response fund

"There for You is UNISON’s unique charity, set up to help members in difficulties – and this year, the COVID-19 crisis is making life harder for many of our already-stretched members.

Because more of you are struggling, There for You has set up a special fund to respond to calls for help needed especially because of the pandemic, with £250,000 set aside to help members.

Carol Sewell is a trustee for the charity – and a member of the union’s national executive council.

She explains that, for a number of weeks, a team including herself and head of welfare Julie Grant, have been looking “at how we can support our members in this time of need,” adding: “We need to ensure we’ve got money that can support people immediately.”

There for You receives donations, but at present, branches are finding that more difficult. For instance, Carol says, “branches can’t operate normally. A cheque might need two signatories and the lockdown makes that really difficult for one person to do.

“Logistics at the moment are really quite difficult.”

So a specific fund, administered centrally, can play an important role.

Carol herself appreciates the problems for members. She suspects she’s had COVID-19 herself – certainly, she can tick off a clutch of the symptoms.

“Headache, aching body, very lethargic and not eating – because I’ve had symptoms, I haven’t been able to work.”

She’s back in harness now though – working from home for her local authority.

“I live with my mum … she’ll come and have a little chat with me, bless her,” she says.

As a trustee, her background working for the local benefits office helps. “When someone asks you for help, they’re desperate,” says Carol, so she’s behind this new fund 100%.

“We need to give the praise to Julie and the members of the team for all the work they’re doing,” she observes. “They’re so dedicated.”

“It makes me so happy that we can support people.”

So what sort of reason might a member need help?

All of the following members were able to access grants of £250 from There for You, using the charity’s quick and easy COVID-19 grant application process.

Sheila is a care worker in a nursing home and had to take sick leave for three weeks as she had COVID-19 symptoms. She was paid statutory sick pay only for the time that she was ill, which left her struggling to pay her bills.

Her work is always challenging and the current health crisis has made additional demands on Sheila and her colleagues. The last thing she needed was financial worries on top of everything else.

 David works as a refuse collector for the local authority. His partner works in a local cafe and has been furloughed as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions. She is only receiving 80% of her salary, as her employer cannot afford to make up the balance.

Both David and his partner are on low incomes and have nothing left at the end of the month once they have met their commitments – they were both really worried about how they will manage.

 Lesley is a nurse working at a hospital some distance away from her home. She has been doing extra shifts to help during the current crisis, but her usual transport links have been reduced. In order to travel to and from the hospital, she is having to regularly pay for cab fares, which she is finding expensive.

Find out more here – and get access the application form

Keir Starmer acceptance speech (and results)

What a fantastic result (and such a relief). Keir is elected as Leader and Angela as Deputy by decisive margins (and to top it all Carol Sewell as new BAME Labour Party NEC member!). For the first time since the disaster of 12.12.19 I feel hope for our political future.

Last chance to vote for Keir Starmer as our Party Leader & Angela Rayner as our Deputy Leader

On this Thursday 2 April 2020 at 12 noon it will finally be over.

So now is your last chance to vote in the Labour Party Leadership elections.

Obviously there are now far more important matters to deal with than internal party elections but it is now even more vital than ever that we have competent and united Official Opposition leadership team holding the Tories to account.

I have voted for Keir as our leader and Angela as our deputy leader. I doubt that anything I say now will change anyone minds on the wisdom of that choice.
Most people vote in these elections during the first few days but there are many labour Party members and affiliates eligible to vote who have not yet got around to it.

So please vote (regardless of who you support since it is vital for our democratic process that as many participate as possible).

If the Party or your affiliate has an email address check your inbox and spam folder for a communication from labourelections@cesvotes.com. 

Please check and vote online. It only takes a few minutes.

If they did not have an email address you should have been sent you a paper ballot form. Which could be in a drawer at your home somewhere unopened. Fill it out and send back tomorrow morning (with a 1st class stamp and hopefully it will arrive in time).

Keir and Angela are the clear favourites but I was brought up in a hard trade union political school where we were taught that all elections are won or lost by a single vote. So don't take anything for granted, vote for Keir and Angela (and for Carol Sewell for the BAME seat if eligible).

The result is announced on Saturday 4 April. 

My Labour Leadership & NEC by election choices

I have just voted on line:-

Leader

Keir Starmer 1

Lisa Nandy    2

Deputy Leader

Angela Rayner       1

Dawn Butler           2

Rosena Allin-Khan 3

NEC By Elections

Johanna Baxter           X

Gurinder Singh Josan X

For BAME seat consider

Carol Sewell                X

Vote Carol Sewell for a strong voice on Labour’s NEC: Labour NEC BAME Rep

There is currently a mass of Labour Party elections and nominations. My UNISON NEC colleague (and friend) Carol Sewell is standing for the NEC BAME vacancy.

I know her as a softly spoken but strong willed trade union organiser and leader who is passionate about equality. A former respected Vice President of UNISON.

"Labour’s BAME members need a strong voice at the top of our Party, a voice that can be trusted, a voice of experience.

As the national chair of UNISON’s Black Members Committee I can bring my experience as a senior trade unionist fighting for the rights of BAME members in the labour movement.

I know my union is stronger because of its diversity and I am determined to fight for the same in the Labour Party.

Vote Carol Sewell for an experienced voice on Labour’s NEC

With decades of experience working providing Housing and Benefit services in Birmingham and Walsall, I know what savage cuts look like. I have seen the harm that has been done to Local Government and the vulnerable people in our communities that rely on its services.

I will bring my real life experience to Labour’s ruling National Executive and ensure that those who are often ignored are part of our Party and are properly represented.

Vote Carol Sewell for change in the Labour Party

Labour cannot take the votes of BAME communities for granted and I will be a champion for diversity and make Labour reflect all parts of our communities.

Labour cannot win if it does not change.

I want to see all BAME shortlists for introduced.

I want to see Labour tackling racism, wherever it occurs, both inside the Party and in our communities.

I want to see Labour Introduce policies at local and national levels that tackle inequality and challenge the status quo.

Vote Carol Sewell for unity in the Labour Party

Now, more than ever, the Labour Party needs to come together, to take on the Tories and make sure Brexit doesn’t become a race to the bottom.

If Brexit becomes an economic nightmare it will be BAME communities that suffer the most.

I am determined to use my experience of bringing people together to make sure Labour’s MPs, councillors, activists and members work to put Labour back in power and win the trust of the British people.

Carol Sewell, Membership number: L0121663

UNISON National Delegate Conference 2017 - Tuesday

My Conference day started with a short jog up and down the famous Brighton beach. The weather was hot even at 7.30am.

At 8.30am we had our first UNISON NEC meeting to discuss and (hopefully) agree on any outstanding matters or policy positions.

Conference itself starts at 10am on its first day.  Firstly there is the "welcome to conference" speech by the Senior Vice President, Carol Sewell. She introduces all our international guest visitors.

Followed by Standing Order Committee (SOC) reports 1 and 2 (it is a long standing tradition at NDC to play reference back ping pong with SOC).

This is followed by a presentation and vote on our annual report and our year end financial statement. Our first motion of conference was 18 "Stepping up the campaign against bullying and harassment".

During lunch I went to the UNISON "There for You" AGM as a NEC member of the charities board of trustees. After lunch there was another round of ping pong and further motions debated including the 55 "UNISON and the WASPI campaign" about the rip of pensions by this government for many women.

Our General Secretary, Dave Prentis, gave a very powerful speech during which he thanked our emergency workers for all they had done in recent times and talked about the unexpected loss of his comrade, our President Eric Roberts.  After the speech I could see from the NEC platform a number of delegates wiping tears from their eyes and there was a (genuine) standing ovation by Conference.

In the afternoon there were more debates. Conference finished at 5pm. On the way back to my accommodation I was stopped and "persuaded" to go an excellent fringe on "Pensions and climate change".

Mary Locke for Bournville (and Birmingham City Council)

The picture collage is from Saturday when I went to Bournville in Birmingham to help campaign for UNISON NEC member and NHS worker, Mary Locke, who is standing to be a local Ward councillor in the May 5 elections.

Yes, Bournville is the home of the Cadbury's chocolate factory and residents told us how they can sometimes smell the chocolate beans being roasted depending on the wind direction.

Mary is the nicest, most sincere and hard working UNISON rep I have ever met. She will be in my opinion, a brilliant local Councillor.

The ward currently has 2 Tory Councillors and one Labour (who is standing down due to ill health). Only one seat is up for election this year so it will be a straight fight between Mary and her Tory opponent.

Over 20 Labour Party activists turned up to help, including UNISON Vice President, Carole Sewll and the West Midlands Regional Secretary, Ravi Subramanian.

We were carrying out a survey of residents on local issues. It went down very well and I will think of suggesting doing something similar in West Ham. There was some 750 contacts made that day.

I enjoyed chatting to local residents, who by and large, were pleased to be asked their views on local issues. They were not shy in expressing themselves either!  I like coming to Birmingham and have been to see union members here fairly often in recent years and always look forward to it.

Apart from the Chocolate factory, Bournville is famous for being a "model village" built by the original Quaker owners of Cadbury for its workforce. As someone who works in housing I was impressed by the well built family sized homes with decent gardens. There is still no pub in Bournville due to its Quaker tradition.

After the canvass, many of us went for a meal at a local restaurant, which I think is a marvellous way to end such a day. Another thing I will suggest that we adopt in West Ham.

Check out Mary's website https://marylockelabour.wordpress.com/ and contact her to volunteer to help.

Reflections on UNISON National Delegate Conference 2015.

It's now been over a week since the end of UNISON National Delegate Conference (NDC)  in Glasgow and I have just about recovered from the traditional post conference lergy.

This is what happens after being locked up for 4 days in what is really a very large shed, with dodgy air conditioning and thousands of other people.

NDC is one of the largest trade union events in the world. It was announced at conference that there was over 3000 delegates and visitors. The largest number ever registered which is interesting considering the challenges that unions, especially in the public sector face.

There are my personal views and reflections of what I actually think was one of the most successful UNISON conferences I have been to even though of course I have just a few little moans.

I was there as an elected member of the UNISON National Executive Council for Community (Housing Association and Voluntary Sector). My region Greater London, had over 200 delegates and my Branch, Housing Associations, had 4 delegates and had 3 ordinary and one emergency motion accepted for conference.

Two of our delegates managed to speak during conference and the other two tried a number of times but were knocked out by other delegates moving points of order to push conference business on. Most UNISON branches do not send any motions to conferences nor do they have any delegates speaking. So our branch still did well to represent the views of our rank and file members but we need to think again how we arrange speakers in conference to try and make sure that important debates are not closed down too early simply because some activists want their pet motions to be heard.

I admit to be a conference junkie and enjoyed reading all the flyers and the newsletters and listening to all the debates, even to those who try to explain how the revolution and a land of milk and honey is just around the corner, if only we demanded a "general strike". If only it was so simple.

There was also some amusing calls for unity by those who then went on to attack the unions lay leadership, our national officers, the Labour Party and uncle Tom Cobley.

Others appear to not realise that Labour has been out of Government since 2010 and that the Tories were actually re-elected in May for another 5 years.

Instead of complaining constantly that the Labour Party is not going to be the 5th International, we should be making sure that our members are supported and encouraged to further our union aims and values within our own political wing.

The vast majority of speakers and debates were fantastic and UNISON should be very proud of its delegates and their informed, intelligent and often witty contributions about the great issues of the day.

There is a genuine debate to be had about the future direction of the union and how we support and protect our members and strive for change. I feel confident that we can win battles if we choose carefully and don't seek out cliffs to march over in search of more "glorious defeats".

Our General Secretary, Dave Prentis, made it clear that we were prepared to take on the Government. We survived 2010 and we will survive 2015. He promised to increase number of stewards, treble the number of fighting fund organisers, double our legal funds and take a national lead in campaigning and protest.

We also had fantastic international speakers and fringe events.  Brilliant stalls and exhibitions in the UNISON zone. We even had our own demo and lobby outside Glasgow City Hall in support of sacked SECC UNISON steward Robert O'Donnell and striking Glasgow Homeless caseworkers.

I chaired a fringe on the Local Government Pension Scheme and spoke twice as a NEC member. Firstly to move the composite on Pensions on their behalf and then in support of the re-prioritised composite on Housing. Both composites had motions from my branch incorporated in them. Last year none of the motions I was going to speak upon came up so I did not speak. Such is life.

I thought my fellow NEC trustee on the UNISON staff pension fund, Lucia McKee, was one of our great lay Presidents and chair of conference. Lucia was fair minded but took no nonsense and was a good humoured but to the point champion of conference. I am a cynic about some things at times but am so proud that UNISON continues to grow its activists and show time and time again that genuine working class women and men can prove to be great leaders of our union.

At the end of conference the new NEC met for the first time and we elected our President for the year, former school meals cook and long time Labour Councillor, Wendy Nichols. London Ambulance Service Branch secretary, Eric Roberts, is now the senior Vice President and West Mids, Carol Sewell, was also elected as the new Vice President.

I eventually got home in London just before midnight and have spent the last week since largely coughing and spluttering with conference lergy.