"Bloody foreigners, coming over here, saving our lives"

Hat tip my UNISON Police staff comrade Tony Green for this brilliant photo from 2018 reminding us that so many of our front line NHS (& Social Care) heroes were not born in the UK. 

"Bloody foreigners, coming over here, saving our lives!"

Hat tip my UNISON NEC colleague @Mr_Tony_Green. 

Report on UNISON NEC meeting 18 October 2017

"This report is intended for members of the UNISON Community Service Group Executive and for branches with Community members. Please circulate it to anyone who may be interested.

UNISON National  Executive Council (NEC) is elected biannually by our 1.3 million members via a secret ballot.  

I have been the elected “General Seat” representative for Community members (Housing Associations and Voluntary Sector) since 2011. I work for a large English Housing Association.

The NEC meets in the conference chamber of the UNISON centre in London usually 4 or 5 times per year (and daily during our National Delegate Conference).

On 18 October there was 60 NEC members present (and 6 apologies). 12 NEC members teleconferenced in from elsewhere in the UNISON centre and one member via video conference from SW England (pilot).

The UNISON President, Margaret McKee chaired the meeting and welcomed NEC members and National UNISON officers.

Our General Secretary, Dave Prentis, started this meeting with a tribute to the former General Secretary, Rodney Bickerstaffe, who had passed away earlier this month. Dave described Rodney as a very close personal friend and a “Giant of the trade union movement” whose greatest achievement was the introduction of the National Minimum Wage and who also helped found UNISON. There will be a private family funeral  but UNISON will celebrate his life at a future event.

The NEC stood for a minute's silence in memory of a number of colleagues who had passed away since the last NEC meeting.

Next was a positive report on organising by NEC sub-committee Chair, Chris Tansley. Despite all the problems of cuts and redundancies it looked likely that UNISON would have net growth for the year.

A majority of the growth was in the private and voluntary sector (including Community).  They recognised that it was difficult to organise in that sector. But it is not all doom and gloom compared with some other unions who are facing massive losses in membership.  The number of our young members is also beginning to grow. 

In the general debate on the report I made the point how difficult it was to organise in the Community sector even in large employers, who may have staff spread thinly in hundreds of different locations all over the UK, across all UNISON regional and branch boundaries.  Former president Maureen Le Marinel said Community will be biggest service group in union if outsourcing continues.

This was followed by an update report on Service Group Pay campaigns and  National Industrial Action. The TUC/UNISON lobby of Parliament the previous evening had been largely successful and UNISON had written to Tory MPs in marginal seats reminding them that there was more union member in their seats than their June 2017 majority.  The “Pay Up Now” campaign is being coordinated across all service groups. There are separate political and industrial  campaigns.

During a long (and at times rambling) debate on the pay campaign, I pointed out that it should be possible to carry out successful industrial action in support of more pay but only if we do the groundwork first and explain, encourage and organise our members. UNISON has a number of large well organised and well led branches up and down the country, who can deliver effective action However; we also have poorly organised branches with very low membership densities. We want to run a successful campaign like the Public Pension dispute and not the last disastrous 2 day local government pay strike. 

It was agreed that we need to measure what action members are up for but also ask where are the other unions?  

The NEC finally decided to offer “advice” to service groups to consider consultative strike ballots. The sectors have autonomy over pay claims and rightly the NEC cannot instruct them.

After a short lunch break there was a finance update which was generally good but we are still but losing higher paid members who pay more in subscriptions.

In his General Secretary report, Dave Prentis reported on the many victories that UNISON had achieved recently in various parts of union. Such as a successful outcome to the Glasgow Janitors dispute which saw a 6% pay rise. A victory in Salford which saw an 11% increase for Social Care workers. A recent resolution of a difficult Teaching Assistant dispute in Derby which had just been accepted by a 62% ballot and course the fantastic UNISON legal victory over employment tribunal fees.  

He warned us that there is still a serious threat to UNISON over changes to DOCAST (union subscriptions taken out of pay) and to the political funds which must remain a top priority.

Afterwards there was a discipline report and verbal update on our insurance partner UIA. Minutes of the last meetings approved and committee reports noted.

Next meeting 6 December 2017.

John Gray

UNISON Community NEC member

John.Gray2012@icloud.com

Hat tip ace photo of NEC top table to my Yorkshire & Humberside colleague Tony Green Blog.

(Please note that this is my personal report only. If you are a Community member and wish to discuss this report or any other issue with me then please email me. Also, if you want me to come and speak at any branch or regional meeting about Community issues then let me know and if I can, I will )

Tony Green's UNISON NEC blog

A welcome to new UNISON NEC member Tony Green on his excellent new blog. I shall look forward to some friendly blogging competition in the coming months!

"In June I was elected as the Yorkshire and Humberside male seat representative on UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC). This is the first time I have stood to be a member of our NEC, so I am sure you can understand when I say I am quite proud to have won the election! I am extremely grateful to those members who voted for me and to those branches who nominated me. I hope I can increase both next time.

This election saw a big shake up of the NEC with a lot of new members being elected, replacing some experienced members of our union such as our own Wendy Nichols who has been a formidable voice for our members on the NEC for some time.

Elected Presidential Team 2017-19

The first meeting of the 2017-2019 NEC was immediately following the National Delegate Conference in Brighton in June. This meeting was to elect our lay presidential team for the next two years. I was pleased that Margaret McKee was elected President, Gordon McKay was elected Senior Vice-President and Josie Bird was elected Junior Vice-President.

Margaret has been a catering assistant at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for 38 years. She has been an activist for most of that time as well as Joint Chair of her branch for the past 10 years. She was also awarded the TUC women’s gold badge at the 2016 Congress in recognition of her union and community work. Gordon is from UNISON’s Ayrshire and Arran Health Branch and has worked as a Mental Health Nurse for 30 years. Josie is Branch Secretary of the Newcastle City Branch and has been employed as an administrative officer in Newcastle for 16 years. You may also know her from her work on the Finance Committee.

First NEC Meeting

The first full NEC meeting was on Tuesday 4th July at the UNISON Centre in London. The first part of the day was made up of appointing members of the NEC to a number of strategic and functional committee’s. I was selected by the Presidential Team to serve on the Staffing Committee and Development and Organisation Committee.



The second and last part of the day was to hear the General Secretary report, which was presented by Dave Prentis. He spoke about how members have been suffering under the public sector pay cap and how the public debate should not only be framed around our uniformed emergency services, but around all public sector workers; many of whom are often not seen.

You can see more details here: Union gears up for a summer of campaigning

The General Secretary took a number of questions from members of the NEC, although some were statements rather than questions. I do hope to see less personal statements and more focus from some NEC members next time so we can concentrate on representing our 1.3 million members.

I am in the process of writing to UNISON branches across Yorkshire and Humberside to let them know how I intend to communicate with members over the next two years to keep them updated on my NEC activities. I also welcome invitations from branch committees to speak and take questions.

Tony Green".

UNISON NEC Elections 2017: Yorkshire & Humberside

Regional recommendations for Yorkshire & Humberside region. As well as regional NEC reps members can also vote for all National seats and for their own Service Group

National (vote for all)

Black Members

Kebba MANNEH Male Seat

Elizabeth CAMERON Female Seat

Manjula KUMARI Female Seat

Young Members

Andrew ANDERSON General Seat

Disabled Members

Angela HAMILTON General Seat

Kim SILVER Female Seat

Service Group (you will belong to one of these depending on your job)

Community

Denise CHARLES Female Seat

Healthcare

James ANTHONY General Seat

Gordon McKAY Male Seat

Sinead LIDDY Female Seat

Jenny FORBES Female Seat

Higher Education

Dan BEARD General Seat

Liz BAPTISTE Female Seat

Local Government

Janet McKENNA General Seat

Peter CREWS Male Seat

Wendy NICHOLS Female Seat

Lynn POULTON Female Seat

Tony Green UNISON NEC Candidate Male Seat Yorkshire & Humberside

"I want to a build a union that looks after you - I know the pressure you, your families and your colleagues are under. So I will always stand up for you, and ensure that UNISON properly supports our members both inside and outside of the workplace".

Tony Green Male Seat Yorkshire & Humberside