UNISON London Regional Council: Speakers on Camden Parking Strike; Rise of the New Far Right & Legal measures to fight mental health discrimination at work

I was little late turning up to the Greater London UNISON Regional Council on Thursday, so missed the guest speakers from Camden UNISON on their dispute with Parking Contractors NSL on poverty pay (see UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, on their picket line). 

However, I did hear a speaker from Hope Not Hate give a thought provoking and deeply disturbing analysis of the rise of a new poplar far right front and neo-Nazi terrorism in the UK (and beyond).  

On the one hand membership of British Nazi and Fascist parties such as the BNP has collapsed but we are now seeing the largest numbers of people in decades on the streets supporting campaigns led by new far right groups. 

The thug and serial convicted criminal ,Tommy Robertson, has a huge social media presence, far in excess of any anti-fascist group. 

The speaker correctly pointed out that we cannot fight modern day fascism with the tactics of the 1980s and simply screaming "NAZI" at people attending marches since they are genuinely angry at the Manchester bombing, is not going to do anything positive. 

We have to work out how to defeat this new social network of individuals, who do not belong to traditional far right political parties but are being radicalised by Nazi websites, here and abroad. 

Going on anti Nazi demos and protests are tactics and not a means to an end. We need to get a better and more effective modern message to counter this threat. 

Final speaker was Ann-Marie Christie from Thompsons solicitors, who since this was World Mental Health day, gave a  practical update on possible employment law and personal injury measures that union reps could use to protect members at work. 

Friday Sectarian: "Peoples United Front of Judea and UK"

"United Left

I understand that the departure of the led officer/activist for the United Front, Jon of the Rogers, means that the 'organisation' is searching for a new name. 

So I am suggesting that the Peoples United Front of Judea and UK could be an alternative? Call me old fashioned but more people will then be able to identify with them and join when they have very little else to do?" 

Hat tip Nick on his view on battle for Ultra left permanent revolution slate for London UNISON Regional Council elections 2014. SPEW & LRC V SWP/PR/AWL and the various other bonkers extremists.

Future Directions Striker speaks at UNISON London Regional Council

Yesterday was the UNISON London Regional Council meeting chaired by our Regional Convener, Gloria Hanson.

The first speaker was Alan Tate (left of picture) from the Communications union, CWU, who spoke about the privatisation of Royal Mail.

There was no need to do this - Royal Mail had been transformed in recent years and was making money. Why can Railtrack be publicly owned and still able to access the capital markets for investment but Royal Mail could not? The tax payers have been ripped off not only by the below value share offering but the loss of huge Royal Mail property assets across the Country.

CWU will go on strike November 4th if they cannot reach a deal on pay and to protect pay and conditions.

Next speaker was UNISON Senior National officer (not in picture) Donna Rowe-Merriman, who briefed us the Higher Education joint union strike over pay, which will take next Thursday 31 October. The pay claim is affordable and HE institutions can afford to pay more but choose not to while thousands of their directly employed staff are not even paid a living wage but exist on minimum wage rates. Further details of the strike action and regional rally's to follow. 

Final Speaker was Karen Shadwell (2nd from right), UNISON member of Rochdale branch. Karen is a disability support worker with high needs clients. She works for an organisation called "Future Directions" who are cutting her pay by nearly £100 per week.  She and her colleagues have been on strike for 29 days in recent months. Check out my past posts related to this dispute here, here and here. She was supported at this meeting by UNISON Local organiser, Karen Ellis.

Karen was an inspiration and received a standing ovation at the end of her speech. She had been up at 5am this morning in order to get here in time and was very nervous beforehand since  this was her first ever speech to such a meeting. Her speech was excellent. As her UNISON NEC member for Community, I offered her and her colleagues my support.

We have recently agreed in London for a donation  to the strike fund and sent a message of support. You can send messages of support and donations to Helen Harrison, branch secretary, Rochdale UNISON, 46 Richard Street, Rochdale, OL11 1DU. Email: unison@rochdale.gov.uk. Cheques can be made payable to Rochdale UNISON.

UNISON and her Future Directions had been to talk at ACAS on Friday and Monday. Hopefully a satisfactory result will be reached.

(2nd from left in picture is our London Equalities Convener Yvonne Green and behind her a bit obscured, Karen Ellis ). Hat tip photograph Karen Westwood.