Re-elected to UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) 2023-25

This morning the biannual UNISON NEC election results were announced and I was pleased that both Denise Thomas and I were elected (after a one term 2 year gap) representing (Community Service Group) all Housing Association and Charity UNISON members.  

Respect to my tfrc opponent for my seat, Kevin Jackson, who has acted well in this contest, unlike in my view, many members of the the slate he endorsed  (1677 vote for me to 1539 for him)

This photo is from the Community Service Group Conference held last year in Glasgow, when there was a series of walkouts at the conference of delegates, disgusted that the tfrc President was chairing despite the well known complaints against him by numerous unison female members of bullying.  

He has now gone from the current UNISON NEC. I believe after these elections that the next NEC will be more balanced and will reflect (what we use to call all the time and still should) rank and file UNISON members.

In the meanwhile there is a serious dispute with my employer over pay claim, closing Defined Benefit pensions and trade union victimisation. Today I have been in touch with two senior elected metropolitan Council representatives about this dispute, who are horrified about what is being done. More to follow. . 

Oh well... let’s have a nice cup of tea (UNISON NEC results 2021)

This morning I found out that I had not been re-elected as a UNISON NEC member for Community.

Which was a blow but I offer sincere congratulations to my opponent Kevin Jackson on his election. 

Kevin is a former long serving Chair of our Community Service Group Executive and someone who I have worked with closely in the past and is experienced, sensible and pragmatic. 

I lost by 251 votes on a 5.1% turnout out of 84,487 eligible voters but such is life. 

11 years ago in a similar Community election we had at that time a 9.1% turnout (still very poor)

I am used to fighting elections in our Labour Movement family. Most I win but some I lose. If you cannot accept losing any election then don't stand in the first case. 

My fantastic Community running mate, Denise Thomas, also lost but rest assured we are going nowhere and look forward to remaining active and a possible (very probable) rematch in 2023. 

My condolences to the many superb candidates who were not elected on this occasion and I would suggest that people do not totally accept the rather OTT (in my view) analysis of the results expressed in some of the more excitable sections of social media. 

In the meanwhile check out my mentor George Orwell, on how to make the perfect nice cup of tea http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

Re-elected to UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) for Community Members (who work in Housing Associations & Voluntary Sector)

I was really pleased to learn today that I was re-elected for the 5th time, with my best result yet, as a UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) Member for Community (representing 77,000 out of 1.3 million members who work for Housing Associations & the Voluntary Sector).

Many thanks to my opponent, Kevin Jackson, who was a serious contender and acted completely appropriately during the election (unlike some of his slate).

The icing on the cake was that my running mate, Denise Thomas, was also elected as a first time NEC Community member (with a huge majority).

I will blog further on these elections but I feel so far that is the new NEC has a clear majority of pragmatic, labour movement family, left of centre, real people as its representatives.  

UNISON Community Conference 2017: Day 2 (& many thanks to Kevin)

Collage from last week's day 2 National UNISON Community Conference in Bournemouth. Check out first 24 hours here.

Steve Reed MP gave the keynote speech for the seminar and took no prisoners from those who said in the Q&A that it was possible for Councils to pass "legal no cuts" budgets.

I gave a presentation at workshops on "Democratising Housing Associations" with my London Regional Officer, Colin Inniss.

Our long serving Chair of our Community Service Group, Kevin Jackson, (top left)  announced that he will be stepping down this year. He told me that he will be expecting a blog post on this since I did one for his predecessor! Kevin has been a fantastic Chair and will be hard to replace.

Both of my UNISON branch motions were passed. I spoke on the one regarding Housing Associations on behalf of the SGE. A number of branch members spoke on a number of different motions.

There were many fine speeches but I remember the most the personal contributions from a number of delegates, who were from Eastern Europe and were obviously very concerned about their future in the UK following Brexit. They were all care and support workers. How disgraceful that they fear for their future, when they provide so much desperately needed care for our elderly, sick and vulnerable.

There for you - UNISON Community Seminar 2014

The next speaker at the seminar was Julia Grant, the head of UNISON "There for you" - our registered charity for members which has been around for over 100 years. It is in the top 500 charities and in the last 18 months there has been a 400% increase in our members asking for help.

Julia said that research had shown that next to seeking employment protection at work; welfare support and services was the 2nd reason given by non members on why they would join UNISON.  Julia thanked branch welfare officers and regional committees for all their help in dealing with the huge increase in case work..

A growing area for help is for victims of domestic abuse where members need to leave the family home. Julia's team can agree emergency help over the telephone to put food on the table or make sure their house is kept warm - until they can assess the application form. UNISON Winter fuel and school grants are very welcome even though only they are only £40-£50, this is enough to buy new shoes for children.

They also run a "Well being" programme for the long term sick which can help with breaks for the sick or disabled members and their carers.

There is a 24/7 Debt telephone line programme which will undertake a full fact find and provide for free a "full range of solutions to problems".

Working with Credit unions who charge far, far, far less in interest than payday loans and other loan sharks is a new development.  Branches can work with employers to encourage payroll deductions which can result in very quick access to loans for members.

This was well received presentation and in the Q&A many thanked Julia and her colleagues for the work they do and wanted to know more about how to access the services for their own members.

(picture of Julia with our Community SGE Chair Kevin Jackson)

UNISON Community Conference 2013: Day 2

The second day of Conference started off with a 09.00 meeting of the Service Group Executive (SGE) to plan ahead the days business. (See Day one, Bedroom tax rally, Speech by Joe Irvin and my pension speech)

In the morning there were a number of workshops and taster training sessions arranged on:- introductions for new delegates; TUPE & transfers; campaigning & public speaking; how to recruit a member; violence at work and negotiating & leadership.

As a branch secretary I spent the first part of the morning taken up with last minute change of branch delegates authorisation and working out how to confirm to the necessary proportionality requirements.

I then chaired the workshop on recruitment and was impressed how serious and thoughtful delegates were about this key and fundamental role.

During lunch we went to the Manchester bedroom tax rally (see report here). Then after lunch the Community seminar session ended and the actual Community Conference started.  This was chaired by UNISON President Chris Tansley.

There was about 21 motions to discuss and debate on various issues and concerns facing our members in Community. My branch delegation spoke on a number of motions including our composited motion on a "Living Wage plus" and "Save our Pensions". I also spoke on the pensions issue on behalf of the SGE.

Out of these 20 odd motions there was really only one motion regarding the big Community specific  branches meeting up to discuss their issues at the expense of all other branches that caused any sort of a stir.

It does make you think what is the point of having a motion based conference that consists of moving, seconding and debating, motion after motion that nobody opposes? I think we need to think again about what we do at conference since I suspect most delegates did not think this was a good use of time and resources.Especially since we completed all of conference business on the Saturday afternoon when we had Sunday morning timetabled for it as well!

We had a social and raffle in the evening. This raised money for the Presidents project "Hope Not Hate". Where I won tickets to a County cricket match, which of course being North Wallian I gave away (to my branch chair who despite being Irish is a cricket fanatic) and a UNISON Community bottle opener and stopper! We then went to China Town for a London region meal and one or three beers.

The next morning I went for a run (aka slow jog) around the nearby canals and much to my surprise came across a recreated Manchester Roman fort gatehouse!

This is the 3rd UNISON Community seminar and conference and while it is not all perfect, I really think we are going from strength to strength. We do have a long journey ahead but I am confident we will achieve it.

(Centre picture of Community NEC member, Isobel (Izzy) McVicar speaking about health and safety in our sector UPDATE: See UNISON press release on safety issue in our sector and UNISONactive take on conference).

UNISON Community Conference 2013: Day 1

This is the seminar and conference for UNISON Community members who work in the Voluntary and Housing Association Sector which opened Friday afternoon in Manchester and finished (early) 5pm Saturday.

The first speaker was Karen Jennings, UNISON Assistant General Secretary seen in picture with the Service Group Executive Chair, Kevin Jackson and National Officer Simon Watson.

Karen describes herself as an unusual trade unionist since she is softly spoken. Her message however was pretty forthright and direct. The next few years are going to be tough and we are going to have to fight to protect members but if we cannot improve our union density then we will have no voice and no strength.

Next speaker was James Meadway, from the New Economics Foundation on "The Financial Crisis". James started off by hoping he would not depress us too much. I thought that he didn't and actually he raised hopes by pretty much abolishing the Tory led Government case for austerity and gave delegates the ammunition for arguing that there is a different way of running our economy. The last thing you should in a recession when there is no demand is cut government spending. What should be done instead is reverse austerity; redistribution of income; import less and democratise finance (break up banks).

After this we had a presentation by West Midlands Community branch about the highs and lows of setting up a regional wide branch.  That is a single branch for all UNISON members in the region who work in our sector (Voluntary organisations and housing associations).  Hats off to regional activists and staff who have obviously worked their socks off to get the branch up and running and to the National union for being prepared to seed fund it. It is still early days but it is a leading model of branch organisation and every other branch with community members can learn from it.

Finally there were separate regional meetings of delegates to welcome everybody and explain about conference business (speaking on motions, picking up voting cards, split votes etc) and a chance for branch representatives to decide what motions to support and to plan who will speak on what).  The London meeting also had a far ranging debate about putting our Community world to rights.

Despite the rain, a Friday night in Manchester City centre is always a good night out and I ended up with my Wexford born Branch Chair in a St Patrick's Day (or rather week) beer tent outside the Town Hall listening to live Irish music and drinking Guinness. Not sure it was the best preparation for my pension’s speech the following day...

Update: see UNISONactive take

UNISON Community e-news: Voting YES in LGPS ballot is "vital"

Community e-news

July 2012

UNISON’s e-newsletter for the Community service group

Vote “Yes” in the LGPS ballot

The leadership of UNISON’s Community service group is urging members to vote “YES” to accept the proposals for a new Local Government Pension Scheme.

Service Group chair Kevin Jackson said: “This is a vital vote for all our members in housing associations and charities.

·         If you are in the LGPS, then it’s a good deal, especially for part-time workers.

·         If you are not in the LGPS, then keeping a high quality scheme for public service workers will help put the brakes on other employers who want to ‘dumb down’ pension schemes.

·         If you are being TUPE-transferred then the “Fair Deal” for pensions is being beefed up to give you more protection too.

“Not all members are in the LGPS.  But we have to ballot everyone in employers which have some members in the LGPS.  We are also working hard to protect the Social Housing Pension Scheme and other pension schemes.  A high turnout in the ballot will send a message of strength to the government. 

Make sure you vote!

The ballot runs from 31 July to 24 August, and members can vote by post or online.  There is more information on www.unison.org.uk/pensions/lgps.asp.

Pensions: Fight to keep schemes! and “auto-enrolment”

Members in the Social Housing Pension Scheme (Pensions Trust) need to be aware that their employers have been sent letters about the deficits in their pensions schemes which is causing some employers to panic and start talking of closing the scheme or massive increase in contributions.  There has also been some outrageous scaremongering by some financial “advisors” to schemes.  UNISON is arranging an urgent meeting with the Pensions Trusts.  In the meanwhile if your employers starts talking of any changes to your pension scheme please contact your branch and UNISON’s pensions unit immediately and ask your employer to send copies of what is being proposed.

Remember – the current pension so-called “deficits” are valued in a completely discredited and inaccurate manner which even the current Pensions minster has recognised is wrong and needlessly “killing” good pensions schemes. Remember closing a pension scheme does not get rid of any deficit - in fact it can make things worse.

Finally, for everyone, “auto-rolling” for pension schemes is starting from the end of this year. Nearly all employees who are currently not in a pension scheme will be automatically enrolled into the employer’s scheme or a state scheme. Now this may be “good news” for those not in a scheme but we are concerned about some employers who currently have decently funded defined contribution schemes (“final salary” or “career average” schemes) may be tempted to cut existing employer contributions, since they are worried about an increase in the pension bill from more people being in it.  We have to fight this as well. Pensions are expensive.  Employers’ have to realise that unless they want their staff to retire in poverty they have fund pensions properly.

Pensions are obviously not boring nor are they as complicated as you think. We need to have at least one UNISON Pension Champion (or contact) in every employer.  If you are interested in being a “Pension Champion” let us know and we will sort out some training for you on the role in the very near future.

Contact: pensionsm@unison.co.uk

(top two stories on pensions in this months Community e-news. Check out rest of news here on
campaigns and research against cuts and austerity; pay deals and employer reports from around the country; activity in regions; and a new chair for your service group executive).

UNISON Community SGE says goodbye to first Chair

This picture is from the UNISON Community Service Group Executive meeting earlier this month at the UNISON Centre. In the middle is  Stephen Brown, who was our first ever Chair of what is now  the 3rd biggest Service Group in UNISON. Stephen was our senior lay activist who did more than anyone to bring about our own sector specific internal organisation.

Stephen was a thoughtful and considerate Chair who always sought to bring about consensus and agreement whenever possible. However, as branch secretary of Quarriers UNISON branch he helped organised and fight his employer over proposed massive pay cuts which resulted in strike action.

Stephen was recently made redundant but was successful in an interview with UNISON and will start his new job soon. A result for the union I think.

Left to right in photo is our new National officer, Simon Watson (who took over from Mike Short); Kevin Jackson from Eastern region, who has taken over as Chair; Head of Community, Dave Johnson and finally but not least our top assistant national officer for Community, Jane Ellis. Who is also we understand planning to leave for a new job in Eastern Europe.