Not received your ballot papers yet? Call 0800 0857 857 UNISON NEC Elections 2019 #UNEC19

If you have not received your UNISON NEC 2019 ballot papers yet to your home postal address then ring 0800 0857 857 to ask for another set of ballot papers to be sent out.

You do not need your UNISON membership number and you still have time to ask for replacement ballot papers and to return them.

UNISON members can vote for their Regional candidates (e.g London if you work here),
their Service Group (e.g Community is you work for a housing association or voluntary sector)
and Self Organised Seats (e.g Black and Disabled members)

Once you get your papers my personal recommendations are :-

Regional Seats

Service Group Seats

Health - General Seat - James Anthony; Female Seat- Pat Heron; Female Seat - Jenny Forbes-Reid; Male Seat- Gordon McKay

Local Government - General Seat- Maggie Griffin; Female Seat- Maxine Rowden; Female Seat- Kati Conway; Male Seat- Peter Crewes

Community - General Seat- John Gray; Female Seat- Denise Thomas

Higher Ed - General Seat- Dan Beard; Female Seat- Katie Hall

Energy – Tracey Wainwright

Black members seats

Male Seat- Ash Dobi
Female Seat- Manjula Kumari
Female Seat - Sandra Okwara

Disabled members seats

Female Seat- Katrina Murray

Young members seats

Female Seat - Kendal Bromley-Bewes

Vote Members First: UNISON NEC elections 2019

Picture collage from last weekend at the UNISON Community Conference in Southport (for our members who work for Housing Associations and the Voluntary Sector). It was great to get support from activists and to hand our leaflets and to ask for support from delegates.

Denise Thomas and I are standing for the two UNISON NEC seats for Community. Check out our joint request to branches to nominate us here https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2019/01/unison-nec-elections-2019-nominate.html

NEC Elections 2019: Community General Seat & Female Seat Nomination Request (2)

John Gray & Denise Thomas
RMS 3083288 RMS 8688788

further to https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2019/01/unison-nec-elections-2019-nominate-john_8.html

If you are a Community UNISON member please ask your branch to nominate us. They have all been sent our nomination requests. 

We deserve a Pay Rise!

Care and support staff wages in particular are under threat as unscrupulous employers deliberately underbid to win contracts then try and do their upmost to destroy TUPE protections.

Many Housing management organisations are cash rich after years of rent rises yet still refuse to give their staff decent pay rises. In the voluntary sector employers are funding the National Living wage by attacking terms and conditions and increasing workloads.

Both of us as NEC and SGE members have been working and campaigning with branches and regions to oppose these measures. We believe that Community members must play our part in opposing Austerity and arguing for an alternative economic policy. We need to pull together and get rid of the current UK government

We also support the Community specific campaigns below such as:-

 Better funding & resources for branches that support Community members. Community workers often work for small employers and in isolated workplaces.

 Campaign for Inclusive Workplace policies by employers

 No public money for “union busters”. Any employer that does not have a trade union recognition agreement should be barred from grants or contracts from local or national governments.

 Sector Wage Councils. Set up to decide the pay and conditions of all staff by collective bargaining including a living wage minimum for all Community workers and agency/sub-contractors.

 UNISON Ethical Care Charter. All employers must be called upon to support and sign up.

 Better governance and democracy. Increasingly many of our employer management boards are run by highly paid unelected and unrepresentative “elites”. There should be union employee representation on all Community Trust or management boards, especially remuneration committees (if applicable)

 Defend Pensions. Protect the Social Housing Pension fund and the Pension Trust from further cuts. Access to a decent defined benefit pension scheme for all.

 Better health & safety at work in particular protecting members by supporting the “End Violence at Work” charter.

 Recruit & train more activists to support members

We believe that we would both work together well as your Community NEC team. While Denise’s employer is a charity, John’s is a housing association, so we represent and complement both of the major sectors in the Community Service Group.

If you would like either of us to come and attend a branch meeting or hustings (under UNISON election rules) then please let us know and if we can, we will be delighted to come and speak.

You can contact Denise by denise_thomas2@msn.com or John on john.gray2012@icloud.com

Part 1 was https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2019/01/nec-elections-2019-community-general.html