"Mum quits NHS pension to pay soaring bills before dying leaving orphaned kids penniless"

Hat tip Daily Mirror on this awful story of NHS Cleaner Judith Thorpe, who cancelled her pension due to rising bills and then later died from Covid last month. She was a widow supporting her 16 and 13 year old children.

Since she cancelled her pension to pay the bills, this meant that her children lost out on its life assurance (and also a possible monthly payment until they finish full time education).  

Many workers do not realise that their pension also provides life assurance and with public sector pensions, income protection for dependents. 

Low pay and high inflation will mean many workers will be tempted to cancel their pensions but I always urge union members to be aware of possible consequences. 

In the local government pension scheme, it is possible to reduce your contributions by 50% but still retain full life assurance benefits (but obviously your income when you retire is reduced). This is a last resort but if you have no choice but to reduce outgoings then this is something to think about. 

We so desperately need a Labour Government in power to protect people from such misery. 

"Woman hopes to make history by becoming first female boss of major trade union" Daily Mirror

 

"For more than 150 years trade unions have campaigned for better conditions and workers’ rights.

But no major industrial union has ever been led by a woman.

Christina McAnea is hoping to change that. She is standing to be the general secretary of Unison.

If she wins, she will be the first female boss of one of the big four: Unison, Unite, the GMB and Usdaw.

Ms McAnea said: “There’s an ­opportunity to make history here.

“What is more extraordinary in a union where 80% of the members are women, I am still the only woman standing. I am amazed by that.”

Ms McAnea is hoping to succeed Dave Prentis, who has led the 1.3 million-strong union for 20 years. She said there is still a ­“1970s view of what leader should look like”. Unison’s ­assistant general secretary said: “When I was doing hustings there was this ‘we should be more like the miners’ union’.

“Really? In a union of 80% women, where members are providing public services, many are low-paid so going on strike is a big issue, there’s still an old-fashioned view of the heroic male leader.”

Ms McAnea said of her leadership credentials: “I think I am the best person because I can point to a track record of delivery. I am probably one of the most senior negotiators in the country, male or female.” Those ­negotiations included leading the ­opposition to NHS reforms. And she was involved in the first national strike by health workers for two decades to force Jeremy Hunt to raise staff pay.

Ms McAnea was born in Glasgow into a working class family. She left school at 15 and went to ­university in her 20s.

She was inspired by ­firebrand Scottish trade unionist Jimmy Reid. Her union career began at GMB. And she is now frontrunner to take over as Unison boss, with the backing of 216 branches – ahead of closest rival Roger McKenzie on 104.

TUC Congress 2018: Tuesday Day 3

Still catching up on posts about last week's TUC Congress. After a "late night" on the Monday following the UNISON TUC delegation social (and aftermath) I was in Congress for the 9.30am start on the Tuesday but a little slow on "twitter" for some reason.  

I was really pleased at Congress for the support for "Show Racism the Red Card’s Wear Red Day, which this year will be on 19 October.

Lunchtime, I went to the "digital transformation for unions" fringe where Chair, Jenny Andrews, of Unions21 made it clear that we have to learn from Darwin survival of the fittest theory and as a movement either "adapt or die" to digital change (I sort of agree but not totally). 

Alison Charlton from UNISON digital team spoke about the quote that when digital transformation is done right, it is like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly but when it is done wrong, all you get is a really fast caterpillar.  She also made a really important practical point that don't just ask what people want from digital - but instead ask what is the problem & what do they want to achieve?  Her role as a professional is to provide the digital solution.

Ali Melanie from the NUS said the next big human rights issue will be on our data rights. People are still trying to grapple with the concept of "Ethical digital". He answered my question to the panel on how to deal with all the digital "babble" out there by saying we need to try and compartmentalise the information that unions send out to make it relevant. 

When an assistant general secretary from a more "traditional" union (who many years ago I was on an WEA Employment rights course with him) asked how he can digitalise union circulars sent out to members? Ali asked in apparent all seriousness "what is a circular?". 

I was interviewed by Dr Jeong-Hee Lee, a researcher from the Korean Labor Institute about collective bargaining in Local Government! We also discussed the UK Labour manifesto on this topic. She interviewed me a few years ago when she was researching her PHD. I was given a lovely gift for taking part in the survey. A traditional Korean image on a USB stick (see bottom right on college).

Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP, received a standing ovation after announcing to Congress on how he will be able to pay for nationalisation & public services. He has found the Tory Government Magic Money Tree in the Cayman Islands. He will dig it up and bring it back to UK to be planted!

In the evening I went to the "People's Museum" for the Daily Mirror fringe on the fantastic "Wigan Pier Project". It tracks where the author George Orwell went in the 1930s when he was researching his famous book "The Road to Wigan Pier". George wrote about the hunger and poverty he found at this time, while the project has followed in his exact footsteps and compare his findings with the dreadful child poverty, homelessness and unemployment in modern day Tory Britain. 

Your country needs you...to VOTE (register by end of today Monday 20 April)

You have until the end of today, Monday 20 April to register to vote for the General Election. You can go to your local Council or go to https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

It takes around 5 minutes and you just need your national insurance number (on pay slips, tax and pension notifications etc)

Remember all those who died or suffered to give you this right to vote.  Do not disrespect them.

No Vote: No Voice

"Bomber Command and conquering the Nazi war machine"

I would recommend this posting by Geoffrey Goodman who is a former industrial correspondent for the Daily Mirror and also served in the RAF in Bomber Command during the Second World War. Hat tip Tribune magazine.

"I suppose it was a most poignant moment for me. Having served with the RAF during the war, I attended a service at St Clement Danes, the RAF church in central London, some 20 years ago where the Queen unveiled the statue of Sir Arthur Harris – Bomber Harris as he is usually labelled. That event was accompanied by jeering protesters whose unapologetic cry was: “Harris was a war
criminal”.

I was both shocked and surprised at the outburst of venom against Sir Arthur Harris. The raucous tones pierced like shrapnel. As a non-believer, I had come to that church two decades ago simply to salute comrades who had been among the 55,573 bomber crewmen killed as they flew to counter-blitz Nazi Germany. That was 44.4 per cent of Bomber Command’s entire aircrew force of 125,000. Were we war criminals, simply obeying orders regardless? Was the whole thing an astronomical waste of lives, British and German? Could it be that some of our fellow citizens actually regarded our war-time service as an act of murder?

Many of my fellow RAF mates, like me, were committed socialists. So was everything we did in dropping bombs on German towns, cities as well as specific military targets an unpardonable debasing of our socialism? Had we simply conformed by obeying orders? More to the point, I wondered those 20 years back, did these protesters believe there was an alternative, apart from surrender? Were we being accused, by definition, of being accomplices simply by obeying orders from this man Harris – whom some of our crews used to label “Butcher Harris”?

In fact, was the entire Bomber Command an army of “war criminals” submissive to leaders such as Harris? Such were the reflections which, inevitably, sifted through my mind during that St Clement Danes Church service two decades ago.

All of which tended to emerge again, recently, when the same Queen, 20 years older, unveiled the magnificent, long overdue, monument to Bomber Command on the edge of London’s Hyde Park.
Except, this time there were no protesters crying out “murderers”. Check out rest of article here.