Chuka Umunna Streatham PPC at UNISON Labour Link Mobilising Black Members Event

Picture collage from event on Monday evening with Streatham Labour PPC, Chuka Umunna, guest speaker to a mobilisation event in our national HQ of black members sponsored by UNISON Greater London Labour Link. I was there as Chair of that committee.

The aim was to encourage members to volunteer to campaign for Labour in the General Election. The event was run by my ace London Regional Council Officer colleague, Liz Baptiste. Other speakers included our Assistant General Secretary, Liz Snapes, Acting London Regional secretary Stephanie Thomas, London Labour Link committee member James Beckles and National officer for Race Equality, Margaret Geer. 

Chuka gave an excellent speech on why we all must support the Labour Party which was warmly received. He is bright, articulate and has the gift of powerful persuasion. 

It was a bit of a speech fest with Stephanie, Liz, Liz, James and Margaret making the case for Labour and for becoming active in the campaign and making it clear that there was an alternative choice in British politics. 

The best (and only way) to progress equality for all is if we all vote to elect a Labour Government on June 8. 

Nearly all of the UNISON members and their guests present filled out a form to volunteer for Labour in the General election. Result!

Greater London UNISON Labour link Regional Forum 2017 (and Eastern Region)

Pictures from recent Regional Labour Link Forum in central London.  Labour Link is the UNISON political vote that supports the Labour Party.  I chaired the meeting and after opening remarks, introductions, workplan, financial report (don't ask) we moved on to motions.

My branch had submitted a motion on building a new national consensus on why we need to build affordable and decent homes for all. This motion was moved by our ace branch officer, Mitsy Harmon-Russell, and after some minor amendments on restrictions on rent levels (which were accepted by our branch with qualifications about how the motion was about building a national consensus and not just a wish list) was accepted unanimously. Another motion submitted by Lambeth branch on "Labour is the Party of the the NHS" was also passed overwhelmingly.

The meeting was then joined by UNISON Eastern Region Labour Link, who also had their annual forum next door. Tracey Grant and I co-chaired the rest of the meeting. We were joined by our guest speakers, National UNISON Labour Link secretary Keith Birch, Daniel Zeichner MP and Chuka Umunna MP (to give a joint Parliamentary report).

Keith talked about the continued threat from the Tory trade union bill which was designed not only to to attack unions but also to starve the Labour Party of funds.

Daniel is a well respected former UNISON Labour link national official who was elected for the first time as MP for Cambridge in 2015. He is now shadow Labour minister for buses and is their most energetic supporter.  He pointed out that nationally more people in this country rely on buses for their transport needs than trains. This fact is rarely mentioned during the often wall-to-wall media coverage about commuter railway problems in the South East of England.

Chuka is the MP for Streatham, London and a former shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He gave a powerful speech on how he believes we can still win the next General election and also the hypocrisy of the other opposition parties who are attacking Labour for accepting the democratic decision of the electorate over Brexit when before the referendum they were attacking Labour for opposing having a referendum in the first place.

In the Q&A Chuka was challenged by delegates concerned by the actions of the Parliamentary Labour Party towards our leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Chuka accepted that this was a fair criticism of the PLP before the outcome of the second leadership election but since then it is now accepted that Jeremy is the leader and should be supported. However, that does not mean that there should be no criticism of those who advise him. He pointed out that The Times had leaked before the recent budget that the Tories would be breaking a manifesto promise by raising National Insurance for the self employed but this was not written into Jeremy's speech on budget day and was a lost opportunity to attack the Tories.

The forum ended on what I thought to be a positive and constructive note. The Labour movement family is like all families. At times fractious and argumentative, with all sides convinced they are right and have been wronged but we must all put this aside since we share a common enemy and a common solution. The Tories are our enemy and our common goal is the election of a Labour Government. If we unite, it is still possible and we can still do it.

UNISON Greater London Black Workers Parliamentary reception

Picture collage is from last month's Parliamentary reception for UNISON Greater London Black Workers. The meeting was on behalf of Labour Mayoral Candidate, Sadiq Khan, was a great success and oversubscribed with a 150 names on the waiting list. Margaret Greer, the Regional Black workers Chair opened the meeting and introduced the keynote speakers

It was sponsored by UNISON London Labour Link (which was why I was there). Sadiq had a clash which meant he could not attend so our regional Political Officer, Steve Terry, read out Sadiq's speech.

First speaker was new MP, Rupa Haq, who described what it was like to be a newbie MP, the lack of black and female MPs in Parliament and the importance of staying in Europe and electing Sadiq as Mayor of London.

Next was Chuka Umunna MP, who asked the room why should they get involved in the political process? Because change will never come about if you do nothing. We all have to be part of working for change. He also stressed the importance of staying in the EU and supporting Sadiq.

Other speakers included Chair of National Labour Eleanor Smith, UNISON Race Equality officer Khadiee Campbell and London's very own, Conroy Lawrence.

Nearly everyone signed the yellow form (middle right) volunteering to help Sadiq in the forthcoming battle for Mayor. 

"Rights at Work" UNISON Labour Link event at House of Commons

This is a fantastic picture from last weeks' London UNISON Labour Link "Rights at Work" event for our members who live in Ilford North CLP. The event was organised by Lilian Greenwood MP (who use to be a UNISON national officer and is a great friend of our union). We had speeches on "Rights at Work" by guest speakers Chuka Umunna MP, Ilford North Candidate Wes Streeting and Shadow London Minister, Sadiq Khan. West Ham MP, Lyn Brown, also came to speak to members and their guests.

Workers in this country need to understand that the Tories in the last 5 years have decimated our employment rights. They have doubled the amount of time that an employer has to get rid of you without you having any rights for unfair dismissal; they have watered down TUPE protection if you are transferred to another employer who wants to slash your terms and conditions - and if you want justice at work, it could cost you at least £1200 up front, to even appear before an employment tribunal. 

Yesterday evening I chaired an "Equality at Work" event sponsored by London Labour Link for our LGBT members at the House of Commons which I will post upon soon.

West Ham Labour Party GC and "a lot of love" for Royal Mail Strike 4 November

At our monthly West Ham Labour Party General Committee meeting last Thursday evening, we had Ryan Ward as our guest speaker. Ryan is a steward for the union CWU and has been a postal worker for the last 25 years. He had been up since 4.30am that morning.

Ryan spoke about the privatisation of Royal Mail and the strike to defend pay and conditions on Monday 4 November.

He criticised the luke warm support & private briefings against the CWU from some senior Labour figures compared with the grass root support shown at the Party conference last month.

The Sun (which Ryan regrets is read by some postal workers) has reported that Royal mail staff will pocket £3,000 in shares then go on strike. The truth is that they will not get any shares for at least 3 years! They will also lose the shares if they strike.

Royal Mail has not had a national strike for 3 years and the average pay is around £300 per week with little chance of overtime.  His partner also works for Royal Mail for similar money. Most of his wage is taken up with rent to a private landlord and on the rest they have to bring up 3 children.

He asked Party members to go to the picket line on November 4th to show support. Following this West Ham CLP TULO officer (and UNISON NEC member), Kim Silver, thanked Ryan for explaining about the dispute and offering the support of local members and trade unions. Party activists are also planning to hold stalls in Stratford High Street to support the dispute. Ryan was pleased with Kim's statement and said it was not often you got such support nowadays for this sort of action. 

In the Q&A that followed Ryan criticised Chuka Umunna MP for ducking out of a question on TV  whether Labour would re-nationalise Royal Mail if they won office. He thought that a commitment would have helped put off investors. He answered a question about what the CWU realistically expected from strike action by pointing out that the strike was about pay and conditions and that privitisation is not inevitable. Railtrack is now publicly owned again.

I made the same point to Ryan that I made to Andy Burnham MP the night before (see link) that we need to make the case for public ownership and the public sector ethos. Private companies are good at making things such as cars or smart phones but they are rubbish at running natural monopolies such as Royal Mail or health services such as hospitals.

After Ryan spoke we later had our MP Lyn Brown give her Parliamentary report (this is private and confidential). Lyn  was congratulated at the meeting for her recent appointment as a Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government. 

Later I noticed this tweet from West Ham ward member and 2014 Forest Gate North Labour Candidate, Seyi Akiwowo, ‏"A lot of love in this room tonight for Ryan and his colleagues at Royal Mail @ WestHamLabour GC". 

#Lab13 - Responsible Capitalism and Workplace democracy. Giving workers a real voice

This interesting lunctime fringe had been sponsored by the Fabians, TUC and PIRC. Chaired by Seema Malhotra MP.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady started off by saying some of her members think that "responsible capitalism" is an Oxymoron! But her main point was why is corporate governance in the UK so peculiar and out of step with the rest of Europe?  Where employee representation on company boards is common place.

We need to rebalance Labour and Capital. Frances quoted a terribly condescending and even insulting comment (which she described as "patronising twaddle") from the CBI about why in the UK British employees aren't good enough to being represented on boards.  Workers keep being told that they are the organisations "greatest assets". Yet the arguments being made against employee representation remind her of those made in 19th century against getting rid of the property qualification in order to vote.

Chuka Umunna MP believes that it is all about balance. Do we want a mixed or a laissez faire economy? Leading businesses started talking about this debate before we did in Parliament. Things have got to change. Need to promote the long term. Value investment in people and skill up. Look at the damage done to BP reputation and profitability after the oil disaster. It is in companies self interest to have good governance models. 

Tom Powdrill from PIRC thought that the governance mascot was Lord Myners. Why did shareholders not stop the banks from destroying themselves? Excessive executive pay levels are being driven to the levels found in financial markets. Since oversight is not by shareholders but by fund managers and hedge funds who naturally will think such levels are appropriate. Need a dose of reality. Tackle the problem up stream before a decision is made.  UK Companies already invest in Europe where employee representatives are widely accepted -so why don't they support similar models over here?

Nita Clare from the IPA (see previous post here) was Tony Blair's advisor on trade unions and before that a national officer for unison for 17 years. Good businesses know the value of stakeholders. The CBI quote is now quite old fashioned.  She stressed the importance of the supply chain to business. If there is a fire in a Bangladeshi factory it is no use saying "nothing to do with us".

There has been a death of deference and trust at work. 60% of employees surveyed said they don't trust managers. Management style is critical. If you have a culture of fear in any organisation, private or public, then it will fail. The Social partnership approach in Germany will be difficult to adopt in UK

My question to the panel was similar to the one I made before was how is it that I am an employee representation on a £900 million pension scheme and I sit on a joint committee on health and safety that looks after the safety of thousands of workers but I cannot sit on the management board or remuneration committee of my organisation?

Chuka Umunna MP at Joint London & Eastern Region UNISON Labour Link Forum

Picture of the joint meeting with UNISON Labour Link Greater London and Eastern Regions.

At first each region had held their separate annual meetings then we met up to hear the first guest speaker Richard Howitt MEP. Next was Chuka Umunna MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Chuka gave his usual very polished and competent speech ripping into this Tory led government.

As a former employment law solicitor he pointed out how the Tories are rolling back basic protection for all of us at work. They have already raised the limit for claiming unfair dismissal from one year to two years; introduced fees to take out an employment tribunal claim; got rid of independent lay judges; capped compensation awards and attacked TUPE as well as 3rd party harassment claims.

In the Q&A he dismissed a question from the miserablist who was rabbiting on about some silly nonsense that Chuka was supposed to have said (and had clearly not).

I asked Chuka about a recent interview with Ed Miliband during a visit to Denmark when he was reported to have been asked does he support the high public spending and taxes they have in Denmark being replicated in the UK? (obviously a trap question). Ed was quoted as saying that no he doesn't, but he is interested in copying their high skill base and training. My question was how can you have a high skill base and training without high public spending paid for by higher progressive taxation?

Chuka replied by saying he wants people to have more skills and training and a more equal society but he thinks that people in his constituency simply don't have the money to pay more taxes at the this moment. They are struggling to survive.

UNISON London Labour Link Forum 2013: Decent Pensions for All

Picture from last week's UNISON London Labour Link annual forum in the UNISON HQ.  I chaired the Forum meeting with Gloria Hanson (see to my left).

It was a good business meeting where we discussed with Link delegates from London branches the financial report, this years work plan and motions to the National Forum.

Gloria took Chair when I moved this motion on "Decent Pensions for All".
 
"This Forum notes:-

That many private employers providing public services across all Service Groups have in recent years announced plans to stop offering a decent defined benefit scheme to new members or stop existing members building up further pensionable service.

Some employers and pension providers are planning to massively increase employee pension contributions. This will make them unaffordable.

The reasons given are that they must protect the fund against rising “pension liabilities”. This is nonsense.  It is well known that due to needlessly overcautious assumptions by many schemes and inflexible accounting practices, the “costs” of defined benefit pensions have risen in a totally artificial manner.  This has meant that pension schemes appear to have high deficits when in fact this has nothing to do with their underlying strengths or weaknesses.

Properly run and regulated defined benefit pension schemes are as affordable today as they have ever been. Most defined contributions schemes will not result in members getting adequate benefits when they retire. Our members will die in poverty and the taxpayers will have to subsidise bad employers for their poverty pensions.

If in the future decent defined benefit schemes are only to found in the traditional public sector then this will under mind their long term future.

This Forum calls upon Labour Link :-

To support and campaign to save all defined benefit pension schemes that we have members in from closure.

To lobby the Government to change accounting practices .

To examine the case for employers to be encouraged to seek alternative defined benefit provision in our sector and what role the Labour movement can play in this provision. In many other countries trade unions provide pensions.

To ask Labour Link to campaign within the Labour Party for a decent defined benefit pension for all".

It was accepted unanimously and selected to be one of our two regional motions submitted to the National Forum.

Afterwards there was a special joint meeting of London and Eastern England UNISON link members with guest speakers Richard Howitt, Labour Member of European Parliament and Chuka Umunna MP Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Which was followed by Q&A's which I will post upon later.

UNISON London Labour Link Forum 2011

This photo is from the Annual London Labour Link (APF) Forum meeting held last month in the Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament. I was jointly Chairing the meeting with our Regional Convener, Gloria Hanson.

The Forum is the annual meeting of UNISON London Region Labour Link (APF) branch delegates.
To my right (speaking)  is Joanne McCartney, GLA member for Enfield and Haringey and to my left is our keynote speaker Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary State for Justice.

We also had as speakers Karen Buck MP, MP for Westminister North and Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform: Margret Hodge, MP for Barking and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (picture right)

Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and our final speaker, Chuka Umunna, MP for Streatham, member of Treasury Select Committee and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband (picture below).

All the speakers were well received and there was a good Q&A debate afterwards.The Forum passed a motion from the Housing Association Branch on "the Death and Rebirth of Public Housing" and "Fighting the Tory Cuts" by Waltham Forest LG Branch (which attacks the wreckers who are trying to split the opposition to this Tory led ConDem government).  Both these motions have been sent to the national forum meeting.

The importance of the TUC March on the 26th was made clear by everyone who spoke.

We also got UNISON members from Ekaya Housing Association who are facing massive pay cuts to lobby the guest speakers.

SERTUC Rally: organising to defeat public service cuts (and splitters and wreckers)

Yesterday there was a successful and vibrant Labour movement rally at Congress House about grown up trade unionists organising with others to defend public services.

There were a few problems which I will return to later. This official trade union rally of affiliated trade unions and trade councils from all over London and the South East was organised by SERTUC. Who had spent a lot of time, money and energy organising an event to unite the Labour movement against the Coalition cuts and to be a springboard to organising against them.

The Rally started at 12 noon. There was an excellent and diverse line up of speakers. I was there with London UNISON convenor Gloria Hanson and other delegates to the SERTUC Council meeting that had been held immediately beforehand. Trade union branches who had marched to the Rally arrived at about 12:10 with their banners.

At about 12.30 Gloria and I were concerned, since numbers seemed a little light and many UNISON members that I expected to be there were missing. I went out to look for them. I knew the march had finished at nearby Bedford Square, which is just around the corner from Congress House. I went there and was astonished to find that a separate rally had been organised by the “NSSN” (aka as SPEW - Socialist Party of England & Wales) in Bedford square with speakers and a PA. There was around 300 people present I guess, The speaker’s at the time were busy happily attacking trade union leaders and “New Labour” (don’t think they actually understand that there has been change of government).

I went looking for London UNISON members. I said hello to an old UNISON Hackney mucker but most UNISON members I found actually thought that this was the SERTUC rally. I pointed the way to Congress House. I eventually found a bunch of London UNISON members having a chat together about 75m away from the main SPEW rally and gently chided them to come to Congress House as soon as possible.

When I got back to the Conference hall it was pretty full. CWU leader Billy Hayes gave a passionate speech about how hard work and organising had saved the Post office from privatisation in the past and will do so in the future.

FBU President Mick Shaw spoke about the cuts that fire-fighter’s have already faced across the country and that there is nothing less to cut. Today’s strike action in London by fire fighter’s is as much about protecting the service to the public as about stopping them all being sacked and re-employed on inferior terms and conditions.

Brand New Labour MP, Chuka Umunna, gave an assured Labour movement family speech (I’m trying to upload it to YouTube but having a few technical problems) pointing out the real differences between Labour and the ConDems.

Other stuff I found interesting was that the annual interest rate on new government debt (gilts) is 1.8%... in 1945 National debt was 250% of GDP yet we then went on to create the welfare state... the NHS, nationalised Coal and Steel and a mass public house building programme... the journalists who vilify trade unions would not be able to write a sentence if they had not been properly taught by trade union members.

RMT leader Bob Crow gave his usual high octane, finger waging and podium thumping speech. Great fun to listen to and highly entertaining if you are a trade union activist and but essentially empty and forgettable to everyone else (except for the hat – which was memorable). This is a problem. Which I think Bob knows.

By the time Steve Hart, the London UNITE regional secretary came to the rostrum the wanabee alternative SERTUC organisers had turned up and made the mistake of trying to repeatedly shout him down (as they do – it reminded me of a London UNISON AGM). Steve stopped and just took the abuse for about 30 seconds then laid into the “Peoples Front of Judia” and the “wreckers and splitters”. To which the hall erupted into loud clapping and cheers . This shut ‘em up and Steve continued with his attack on the real enemy – the ConDems.

Why do we put up with these Rule or Ruin sects?

SERTUC regional Secretary Megan Dobney spoke next to close the conference. The usually mild mannered and consensus Megan asked the idiot fringe present to “shut up and listen for a change”. She pointed out that the unions must either change government policy or change the government...from 1920-1960 national debt in this country was never less than 100%...72% of the cuts will come from purse not from the wallet.

On 26 March we need to have a successful TUC March against the cuts....in SERTUC there are about 1/3rd of all trade union members nationally...we need therefore to get at least 1 million members from SERTUC on that march, if we cannot even do that then we will risk losing the battle... we must not forget the elections next May.

Everyone must remember the discipline and commitment by this Government to their manta that this recession was left to them by the Labour Government...we must show the same discipline and commitment to our manta and show that this recession is due to a global banker’s crisis - not ours.