UNISON wins 3.8% pay rise for Clarion Housing Group members

Hat tip @unisonclarion "Members accepted last week in a ballot supported by 88% a 3.8% pay rise from April negotiated by @unisontheunion @Clarion_Group local reps with help from regional and national officers. 

#Teamunison @UnisonHAB 

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Hat tip @LincsPolUNISON

InUNISON - "There for you" winter fuel fund opens on 31 January

 

Check out the new site https://www.in-unison.org/ (which is run my members for members) for my post on member applying for winter fuel grants. 

"One of the very best things about UNISON is the practical solidarity that members show for each over, by raising money for our hardship fund "There For You"

On 31 January "There for You" will be launching its "Winter Fuel" grants programme. The fund will offer grants of up to £200 and is designed to help the union’s most vulnerable low-income members.

Our current Tory Government under Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has allowed energy prices to shoot up completely out of control. While "There for You" cannot help everybody suffering from fuel poverty it will make a difference to many members and their families.

Due to low pay in public services we have thousands of our members who will be eligible, so please also ask your branches to make sure they get this information out to members and they apply as soon as possible (as funds are limited)

Will I be eligible?

• You must be a UNISON member and have paid at least four weeks subscriptions at the time of applying;

• you do not have savings of more than £1,000, which includes rolling bank balance;

• only one application per household will be considered;

• you/your partner are responsible for household fuel bills.

And either …

you are on a low income:

• for a single person, this means under £18,200 per annum/£350 per week;

• for a family this means under £26,000 per annum/£500 per week.

Or …

you are in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• housing benefit;

• universal credit.

For further information and how to apply click on this link

inUNISON - How do we organise our retired members?

Check out this article inUNISON on how can we organise our 160,000 retired members.

Denise Wilson 2 min read

How do we organise our retired members?

UNISON has over 160,000 members - more than 10% of our overall membership, so it’s no surprise that there is frequent talk of how we can be organised, especially as regards helping branches.

The Retired members organisation in UNISON is not a self-organised group (SOG). SOGs are for working members, so retired members are seen rather as a special category of membership. But there are many similarities, with branch, regional, and national levels of organisation, our own conference, and also relationships with external organisations through such groups as the TUC Pensioners Committee and the national pensioners’ conventions. So, not a SOG, but we do organise ourselves in a very similar way.

Many of us active retired members are also keen to assist our branches beyond the retired members organisation. And we know that many branches would appreciate help, especially with the current pressures on time-off and activist workloads.

There are three quick tips that I’d like to offer. For the more established and effective branches, these are probably standard operating procedure, but for those trying to build, or rebuild, their retired members organisation, I hope you will find them useful.

Tip 1. Work towards building a stronger relationship between the rest of the branch and the retired members. Something as simple as the branch secretary or another senior branch officer attending a retired members meeting a couple of times a year to listen to concerns and to report on branch business can make a real difference. The rulebook makes provision for the Retired Members Secretary to sit on the Branch Committee, but that can be quite limiting and formal.

Tip 2. Using the branch annual planning process can also help. Involving retired members reps in discussions about the branch year ahead means a chance to identify potential common activities, and allow for planned involvement of retired members. This should also mean a calendar of meetings and events that everyone gets to see and work towards.

Tip 3. Run a skills/interests survey amongst retired members. This can identify common interest groups and skills that the branch might be able to benefit from.

We all have to start somewhere, and there’s never been a more pressing time.

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