Good news, bad news and the same challenges - trade union membership statistics

Check out this article by TUC Carl Roper.  TUC Membership grew last year for the 4th year in a row. There are still huge challenges, particularly in the private sector but the recent announcement that Uber has recognised the GMB is really positive news.

Good news, bad news and the same challenges - trade union membership statistics

Clarion UNISON newsletter on Staff Survey – Trade Union Recognition

Staff Survey – Trade Union Recognition  On Tuesday 10 January, the head of HR confirmed to the unions that Clarion and Latimer staff would all receive a survey, via email, on the subject of trade union recognition. All staff were sent a link to the survey today (11.01.17) via email. It allows staff to express a preference for a Staff Forum or a recognised trade union. If you opt for a union, a further selection opens up inviting preferences for Unison, Unite or another union. The three unions (GMB, UNISON and UNITE) have developed a positive working relationship within Clarion and Latimer. We are disappointed that your employer has chosen to try to divide us, by asking you to specify which union you would want recognised. We also feel that asking this question will put off people with limited knowledge of trade unions, as they will not know which union to pick and will not respond to the survey or select Staff Forum. The employer refused to allow us to put a statement out to all staff to accompany the survey. We had no input into the question being asked. They did not give unions access to former Affinity Sutton staff. They also turned down our offer of talks at ACAS, a neutral and independent mediation body.    Please vote in support of union recognition   We do not accept the validity of this survey and have real concerns about the way results will be reported. However we have decided that staff should still vote in the survey and demonstrate their support for trade union recognition. We are interested to see the results.   We are drawing up plans for a submission to ACAS, requesting a fair and transparent survey, with the support of both the unions and the employer. We would ask ACAS to help facilitate this.   We will continue to campaign for joint recognition of Trade Unions. We will be approaching all stakeholders, including 176 local authorities and over 400 MPs and Assembly Members, to ask them to encourage Clarion to take a reasonable approach to the issue of trade union recognition.

All Staff Benefit from Trade Union Recognition   Whether you are a member of a union or not, you will benefit from trade union recognition. During the recent reorganization “Fast Forward Circle”, the unions entered into dispute with the employer over the proposed changes to terms and conditions as part of the reorganisation. Circle originally proposed to set salaries through a market review every two years. However, after negotiating with the unions, Circle revised this to allow collective bargaining every year. Pension-matched employer contributions were also increased from 8%, as originally proposed, to 12% for those who have served for five years or more. Circle also abandoned plans to abolish ‘income protection’ – a benefit for those who are sick for more than six months, as a result of talks with the unions. Mark Rogers, chief executive of Circle Housing, said at the time “We are pleased to have come to an agreement with our recognised trade unions on a new set of terms and conditions… as a responsible employer we changed some of the areas that mattered most to our staff having listened to their feedback.”   Affinity Sutton and Trade Union Recognition  Broomleigh was a housing association that became part of Affinity Sutton and now Clarion. Some former Broomleigh staff will remember having trade union recognition for some years, until Affinity Sutton moved to derecognise the unions. During the period of trade union recognition, staff received far better pay increases than they have since union recognition was removed by Affinity Sutton. Ridgehill and Downlands also merged into Affinity Sutton and staff tell us they enjoyed much improved pay offers and terms and conditions, prior to losing trade union recognition.

Trade Union Recognition in other HAs It is normal for Housing Associations, with their ethos of cooperation, partnership and social value to work closely with Trade Unions. Clarion will be unusual if it breaks that link. Here for example are just some of the Housing Associations who have Trade Union Recognition Agreements with UNISON: L&Q, Hyde, Metropolitan, Amicus Horizon, Nong Hill Housing Trust, Family Mosaic, East Thames Housing Group, One Housing, Cross Keys Don’t be at a disadvantage, support trade union recognition for the joint unions.

Upcoming Workplace Meetings Here are dates and times of upcoming joint union meetings: 13.01.17 - Tower View, Kings Hill, Firefly meeting Room - 12.00 - 14.00 17.01.17 - Gee Business Centre - 12.00 - 14.00 - Cheshire Room 18.01.17 - Bishops Stortford - Innovation House 12.00 - 14.00 20.01.17 - Haywards Heath - Venue TBC - 12.00 - 14.00 We will be adding other dates and doing targeted emails to relevant members with updates. Please keep looking out for these.

Your rights to advice and representation UNISON wants to make clear to all its members that if there is a period of time where we do not have recognition with Clarion Housing Group, or Latimer, your individual rights to advice and representation are not affected. You will still be able to receive advice and representation from UNISON Stewards and staff as before. Recognition relates to collective bargaining and some other issues, but we thought it was important to make this clear at this stage. If you have any questions, please get in touch: Email: l.baldock@unison.co.uk                Phone: 07432 735 157 Email: b.wakefield@unison.co.uk            Phone: 0781 712 0556 If you have questions about the proposed merger, or the current Circle reorganisation, please contact John Gray on John.Gray@circle.org.uk

Facebook, Twitter and Website  Please like and follow to receive updates "Like" us on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/clarionunison "Follow" us on twitter here: https://twitter.com/unisonclarion Or visit the website here: http://bwakefield1.wixsite.com/unisonclarion Please encourage colleagues to do the same.

UNISON signs Recognition agreement with Outward

A good news story.  Joint UNISON convenors, Adam Zadaane and Wendy Lavington are seen in photo with Outward CEO Peter Little (centre) about to sign a trade union recognition agreement with my UNISON branch.

In my personal view any employer that refuses to recognise trade unions and therefore does not respect basic United Nations Charter human rights is unfit for running any publicly funded social care or housing service (or anything else in the private sector for that matter). 

Well done to Outward for wanting to work in partnership with their staff and their union representatives. 

Also, great work by Outward UNISON reps and our branch staff.

UNISON Press release "The trade union UNISON has signed a recognition agreement with care services provider Outward, who provide care and support services to vulnerable people across ten London boroughs.

UNISON members working for Outward will now be able to negotiate and bargain with their employer over their pay, terms and conditions, and all other important aspects of their working lives.

Housing Associations Branch Manager/Organiser Josephine Grahl said: “We’re delighted that UNISON members at Outward will now benefit from formal recognition in their workplace.”

“Care and Support workers do an extremely important job and, thanks to the government’s austerity agenda, come under constant pressure to work harder for less. They need a strong union who is prepared to defend their rights at work.”

Outward CEO Peter Little said: “We’ve always valued good communications with our staff and this agreement will strengthen our working relationship with UNISON. We look forward to working in partnership with them.”

UNISON convenor Wendy Lavington said: “The recognition agreement has come about because of the hard work and organisation of our members at Outward. Membership has doubled over two years and there is a real groundswell of enthusiasm.”

For more information contact Josephine Grahl, UNISON Housing Associations Branch Manager/Organiser, on 020 7697 4030/4031 or info@unisonhablondon.org

Notes for editors

UNISON represents 1.3 million workers employed in the public sector, by private contractors and in the not-for-profit sector, including over 20,000 members in housing associations. The UNISON Housing Associations Branch represents over 3,000 workers in social and supported housing across Greater London.

Assaults on Housing staff survey: Why health & safety is a trade union matter

My grown up job is a housing officer in East London. It was about 10 years ago during an eviction in a flat which had been taken over by violent criminals that I was assured by one of them that he would come back and put an "axe in my F......... head".

Thankfully such direct threats of violence against housing staff doing their job are rare - but they do happen.

Well done to Inside Housing for their latest annual surveys of assaults and abuse on housing workers.  They report some horrific stories and accounts of at best incompetent or at worse callous responses by some employers.

After a 22% increase last year there is a welcome 3% decrease this year. However, it is pretty clear that there is a massive problem with under reporting of incidents.

I was quoted in the article "John Gray, who represents housing staff (they should have referred to my branch role not NEC) of Unison, says this issue is often raised by members of the union. ‘There’s a cultural problem,’ he says. ‘Staff feel that if they put a complaint in about a resident, the organisation is so pro-resident they would get the blame for causing the problem.’ This, he points out, is not the way to keep staff – or tenants - safe. If a resident is threatening staff, it is a good bet they are also threatening their neighbours.

And candid assessments by housing professionals cast some doubt on the reliability of the figures supplied by social landlords who told us they had no incidents of verbal or physical abuse to report this year. ‘There’s nowhere where it’s zero,’ is Mr Gray from Unison’s assessment. ‘Zero means that stuff is not being reported.’

I had quite a long interview with Inside Housing. I also mentioned that Housing organisations that report little or no assaults, or do not collect data, are clearly failing in their legal duty to protect staff and putting themselves and senior managers at risk of criminal prosecution. 

Organisations and senior managers face unlimited personal fines and imprisonment for failing to have an effective health and safety management system in place. A failure to properly record, investigate and respond to assaults which is later linked to a death or serious injury will (and should) result in the risk of jail for the CEO and senior management team. 

The best response to violence at work is trade union recognition and a partnership approach by employers and workers towards health and safety. Research quoted here by UNISON has shown that having trade union safety representation can cut workplace deaths and accidents by up to 50%.  

It is better to work together to prevent the problem occurring in the first place than letting workers be harmed then punishing those who allowed it to happen.