Unions21 Anniversary Conference 2013

Date: 8th March 2013

TUC Council Chamber, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London

To register CLICK HERE.

STARTS 9.00 am with Keynote Speakers:
Frances O'Grady - TUC General Secretary
Jon Cruddas MP - Co-ordinator of Labour's Policy Review
Other speakers: Sue Ferns (Chair), Owen Jones - Writer, Manuel Cortes - General Secretary of TSSA, Scarlet Harris - TUC Womens Officer, Ian Lavery MP - Chair of the TU Group of MPs, Ros Bragg - Director of Maternity Action, Sam Smether - Grandparents Plus, Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism.

This all-day event is the 20th Anniversary Conference of Unions21. Lunch is provided. A £50 delegate fee can be paid via paypal or an invoice sent to you or your union after the event. For more information email dwhittle@atl.org.uk

AFTERNOON SESSION 1: Sharpening the Sword of Justice
FORMAT:

- 90 SECONDS PER SPEAKER TO PRESENT A POLICY IDEA (up to 15 speakers)

- 2 MINUTES Q&A PER POLICY

- ONE VOTE

- ONE TOP POLICY

YOUR CHANCE TO PITCH A POLICY IDEA TO HELP UNIONS TURN THE TIDE….

Union campaigns have changed Britain for the better. Unions are listened to by politicians and employers. In this session we’ll hear from advocates for a variety of issues that could be the focus of the next big campaign for unions. Ideas will be pitched in 90 seconds, followed by up to 2 minutes of Q&A. The audience will vote on which idea or cause they think should be Top of the Policies.

To have the chance to present your 90 second policy idea on the on the day, 

Send to PragRad Chair, John Slinger john.slinger@pragmaticradicalism.co.uk

Soggy West Ham LabourDoorstep

Picture is from this morning's street surgery and doorstep in West Ham Ward, Newham, London. I had a traditional Councillor surgery in Vicarage Lane Community Centre beforehand.

During which I tried to help a constituent who is being forced to move due to the Tory Bedroom tax. S/he is a single parent in a 3 bedroom property with 2 young daughters who are now expected to share a bedroom, so s/he has to uproot them from friends and schools to move to a 2 bedroom.

When the children get older, will be be able to rehouse them in a 3-bedroom? Or will they have to share a bedroom until they leave home? Roll on General Election in 2015.

It began to rain a few minutes before we met up for the doorstep and continued off and on for the rest of the session. There were 4 of West Ham ward Labour Party finest,  Cllr Ron Manley, Secretary John Whitworth, Julieanne Marriot, Adam Tyndall (and of course me).

Things were a bit slow to start with lots of people out but eventually we picked up a new Labour Party member and lots of case work relating to recycling, parking, abandoned vehicles and I was even involved in trying to work out a land title problem between neighbours which was over 40 years old.

Hat tip pic Adam of Julieanne, John and John "on the knocker". 

Do You Hear the People Sing? London UNISON Regional Council AGM results 2013

REGIONAL COUNCIL AGM 2013

ELECTION RESULTS

The results of the elections held at the Council AGM on 6 February 2013 are given below.  The elections were conducted, in accordance with the Regional Rules, under the single transferable voting system (STV) and were carried out by the Electoral Reform Services.

REGIONAL CONVENOR (1 to elect)

HANSON Gloria	121	Elected
THOMPSON Marsha Jane	65

DEPUTY REGIONAL CONVENOR (1 to elect)

LAWRENCE Conroy	117	Elected
WATKINS Phoebe	70

REGIONAL FINANCE CONVENOR (1 to elect)

GRAY John	124	Elected
SANGARAPILLAI Vinothan	62

                       

REGIONAL PUBLICITY OFFICER (1 to elect)

BENTLEY Lynn	116	Elected
CASHMAN Ruth	69

REGIONAL EQUALITIES CONVENOR (1 to elect)

GREEN Yvonne	125	Elected
LAWLER Gabrielle	58

REGIONAL YOUNG PERSONS CONVENOR – 1 Vacancy

SMIKLE Michaela

Automatically elected  Clean sweep. Hat tip Youtube link to CS

"Ambitious Enough? The future of workplace pensions"

On Tuesday morning there was a TUC seminar on workplace pensions Chaired by Assistant General Secretary, Kay Carberry. Keynote speaker was Minister for Pensions, Steve Webb MP.

In his speech he promoted his vision of "Defined Ambition" pensions.  He thinks that Defined Benefit (DB) schemes are finished outside the public sector but wants something better than Defined Contribution (DC). Problem with DB is cost to employer and volatility, while problem with DC is uncertainty and protection against inflation.  He wants something that is not as good as before (DB) but better than the minimum (DC).

He suggested that employers may pay an insurance company (as a company perk) to protect the value of a DC scheme so that on retirement you would get at least your contributions back. He also said that what employers want with pensions is a level playing field and they don't want to pay more than competitors.

My question to him was that are we just trying to reinvent the wheel? If workers need certainty and inflation protection then the answer can only be DB. A reformed DB, where you look for example at employer caps in contribution (I forgot to mention smoothing). In Japan nearly 100% of pension provision is still DB, while in South Korea which has amongst the worlds longest life expectancy they are still opening new DB schemes. If companies want a level playing field then introduce compulsion.

He replied that he did not know why DB was still so prevalent in Japan. He thought it may be related to inflation? He also said it would be inconceivable to get political consensus in the UK  to agree to DB pension compulsion in the UK.

Which I would agree with. It will be impossible to get consensus from right wing Tories. That is why the next Labour Government with a decent Parliamentary majority should just do it, because it is the right (or rather left)  thing to do.

You can check out my twitter comments on the rest of the seminar here 5 February 2013.  There were some really fascinating contributions from other panel members: Doug Taylor from "Which?"; Professor Orla Gough from Westminster Business School and Craig Berry from the TUC.

I had another chance at a question towards the end of the seminar, where I asked the panel that there is a lot of interest currently in "Predistribution" and the concept of a living wage, since the taxpayer should not be spending money subsiding bad employers who pay poverty wages. So should we in the pensions world be also talking about a "living pension" and not allowing bad employers who don't provide one to subsidised by taxpayers as well?

Not sure if I got a full response from Panel. Craig Betty was supportive but  DWP civil servant, Mike le Brun, who took Steve Webb's place on the panel said that individuals will have to take more responsibility for their own pensions. In DB they were passive but in DC they must be active.

Which would seem to contradict his Minister comments about the problem with DC being that individual workers cannot understand the uncertainty and the inflation risk.

If the best brains in the Treasury and the City of London cannot accurately predict return and risk then what chance does Joe Public have with their DC pensions?

“Affordable, Safe, Adequate, Secure Housing for All”

This is my speech to the UNISON London Regional Council AGM yesterday moving motion 3 on behalf of my branch.

"Council, Convenor; John Gray, Housing Association Branch, moving Motion 3 on “Affordable, Safe, Adequate, Secure Housing for All”

Council, for years we in this union, the biggest union representing those who work in the sector, have warned of a crisis in housing. Our fears were largely ignored.

Council, this crisis is now an emergency and I think every single one of you in this room knows it and many of you indeed suffer from it, while all of you, will know victims of this housing emergency and the suffering they endure.

This motion calls for affordable; safe; adequate and secure housing for all.  Lets know look at what this means and the reality that our members, their families and friends now face.

First affordability of housing:Not only are house prices out of reach for the many, but even if our members can afford to buy, they cannot get a mortgage, because they cannot afford the 25% deposits, often needed for a decent rate. The average deposit in London for 1^st time buyers in £66k . How can workers on low incomes, who often haven’t had a pay rise in years save £66k deposit, on top of all the other costs of buying a home?

Recent research by UNISON has found that we have far members living in private rented housing than social housing.  Even if you have a reasonable income you cannot save for a deposit for a mortgage because private rents are so sky high. The median rent for a 2-bed flat in Greater London is £288 per week. I repeat a 2-bed flat costs £288 per week. Many of our members on minimum wage or even living wage don’t earn that much in a week

While this Tory led government has announced that Social Housing target rents in the future will now be set at 80% of Market rents. 

Safe: We have in this country criminal and gangster Rachman landlords who prey on vulnerable tenants. They enforce their conditions of tenancy with the baseball bat.

Adequate: We still have huge overcrowding in London. We have in many boroughs, the scandal of beds in sheds of landlord gardens. In many households there is nowhere for kids to do their homework, teenage brothers and sisters have to share bedrooms;

Secure: This government is doing away with security of tenure for tenants. The homeless have had the right to secure tenancies removed; new tenants will face fixed term not lifelong tenancies; while private tenants, whose rents are above local area housing allowances are being thrown out by their landlords.  

All tenants who rely on housing benefit in the private and public sector face eviction due to the benefit cap and spare bedroom tax.  Which will mean UNISON members who like me, work in Councils and housing associations, will be expected to go to court and evict tenants who have one bedroom "too much", people who have lived there all their lives and may have been exemplary residents.

The answer: A mass house building programme. In London there are huge amounts of Brownfield land with planning permission to build homes but what we don’t have is the money, the investment.

Yet construction has seen the greatest decline in recent years and is this decline is dragging down our Economy and our GDP. Despite huge numbers of unemployed building workers being paid to stay at home on the dole, instead of making homes and paying taxes and having wages to buy services and create demand and create further jobs.

We need to license and regulate all landlords. Private and public sector. Get rid of the gangsters; get democratically elected and accountable worker and resident representatives on Housing Association Boards.

Rents must be fair to tenants and landlords. Why is it that in much of the world such as Communist USA, revolutionary Switzerland and Red Germany, they have regulation and rent controls but in UK  rent controls is somehow a “dirty word”.

Council, we need to stop this class cleansing of poor people, we do not want in this country, an outer belt of extreme poverty and deprivation on the outskirts of our more prosperous cities. This is a recipe for turning an emergency into a disaster.

Council please support this motion. I move.(it was passed by Council and will find out tomorrow if it was selected as one of the two regional motions to UNISON National Conference).

The Church of England and Marriage

The Irony. Hat tip Stroppy on FaceBook

VICTORY: For London UNISON Centre Left

The Greater London UNISON Regional Council AGM took place today and I am pleased to report that the forces of light and reason yet again soundly defeated the Evil Ones (aka "the miserablists") and re-elected the Convenor Dream team headed by Gloria Hanson and Conroy Lawrence.  Lynn Bentley as Publicity Officer; Yvonne Green as Equalities Convenor and myself as Finance Convenor.

Many thanks for all your support London comrades!

In the meanwhile enjoy this great video and music.

Labour Party vision for the Voluntary and Community sector

Guest post by Jonathan Slater, UNISON Labour Link officer for the London Voluntary Organisations Branch on the Link meeting last week at the House of Commons with Shadow Minster for our Sector Gareth Thomas MP.

"As a Labour Party and UNISON member who works in the charity sector, where I represent the needs of voluntary and community sector in Lewisham, I have long wanted to hear the Labour Party’s response to the ‘Big Society’ agenda of the Coalition Government, which for many in the sector has become toxic with the enforced cuts and experiences of charities taking part in the work programme where they were used as ‘bid candy’ by private sector organisations, as well as gagged from going public about its failures.

When I got elected last year as the Labour Link Officer for UNISON’s Community and Voluntary Organisation Branch which represents members who work in charities across London and who pay the political affiliation, I was very keen to bring them together to hear what the Labour Party’s position was nationally on the voluntary and community sector.

Therefore I invited Labour’s spokesman on civil society and also Chair of the Co-operative Party Gareth Thomas MP to address my members on Tuesday 29th January in Westminster. In his speech to my members he mentioned the increased demands of charities in supporting the most vulnerable members of our communities through the welfare changes, which include the important role they had to play in campaigning for them which makes them distinctive such as the Child Poverty Action Group, regardless of whether they are in receipt of public funds.

Also he highlighted that the current 160,000 charities are under huge financial pressure because of the enforced cuts by the Coalition where according to Charity Commission figures 7,394 charities shut down last year where they are suffering a triple hit with cuts of over 45 per cent in central government funding, local councils being forced to cut their VCS budgets, and a significant reduction in donations from the hard-pressed public.

According to the National Council of Voluntary Organisations recently estimated government cuts to the sector at £3.3bn by 2015. Gareth also touched upon the empty rhetoric of the Big Society where the Coalition Government has talked up the opportunities for charities to win contracts to provide government services. In reality he said it appeared that many charities are not able to compete on a level playing field with bigger private sector businesses able to take on more risk when they bid for the same contracts such as the work programme.

 In terms of Labour’s approach procurement would be designed in a better way to allow smaller charities to bid for public services where if awarded them wouldn’t be publicly gagged. A particular focus though would be on legislated to require banks to reveal where they lend to community organisations and those who don’t compelling them to lend to local financial organisations which benefits the community based on the Community Reinvestment Act passed in the United States. The Act encourages commercial banks and savings associations there to help meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighbourhoods.

Finally Gareth said Labour would enforce the living wage across the board. Despite this he encouraged charities to look to become social enterprises which were more financial sustainable where they wouldn’t be reliant on central or local government, where when Labour is returned to government in 2015 they will be facing much more challenging economic circumstances than in 1997.

The other speaker was John Gray, who is the Community representative on UNISON’s National Executive Committee, who talked about the importance of members who pay the political levy to become active in the Labour Party as activists and to stand as local Councillors and MPs in order to argue and campaign against Austerity, both at a national and local level, as well as for decent pay and conditions.

John also argued that employers who don’t recognise trade union shouldn’t have access to public funds and for businesses to have worker representation on their boards. Finally he urged Gareth to think about moving towards sectoral pay panels, particularly those for low paid workers.

Overall I felt this event was not only positive in bringing my members together where we can start to campaign for some of the issues highlighted at the event as well as against the austerity cuts but also to know that the Labour Party are the best option for the voluntary and community sector in being able to deliver public services on behalf of the communities they represent. At the same time the sector need to appreciate that the economic circumstances will be challenging in 2015 and therefore need to find other non-public sources of funding to become more sustainable and independent for the future.

(afterwards we had a social in the Weatherspoons in Whitehall. I will post my speech sometime soon)

Why does David Cameron HATE the Working Time Directive?

There is so much rubbish spread about EU Employment legislation.

Don't get me wrong, the EU is in many ways a basket case and needs radical reform.

But the reforms that David Cameron and his ilk usually bangs on about are  getting rid of decent EU employment protection measures such as the Working Time Directive.

Trying to persuade lowly paid staff who depend upon overtime to think again and not opt out of the working time directive can be one of the most frustrating tasks that union reps try to carry out. 

Yet, at least they have a choice (of sorts) about whether or not to work these hours and they would agree that they would like to keep that right. The same with having the right to have at least one day off per week, at least 20 minutes dinner break every shift, 4 weeks paid holiday and 11 hours rest a day. These are basic, decent rights of any civilised society.

We have got to win the argument at work that if the Tories get their way they will repeal all these essential measures and more. Ask your colleagues if they want the right to have a dinner break and the right to paid holidays? or should their employers be able to dictate that they work extra hours as they see fit with no day off?

I think I know this answer. But we now need to be making the case to all our members.

UNISON Eastern Region Community Service Group AGM & Seminar 2013

Last weekend I was in Bury St Edmunds for the Regional SGE Annual General Meeting and Seminar.

UNISON nationally is divided into 13 different regions. Eastern Region comprises the big English Counties of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

The Community Service Group is the part of UNISON for the voluntary sector and Housing Associations. Community is the newest but third biggest Service Group in UNISON.

There were 16 Community branch delegates from all over the region. I work in London Region but my employer has offices in 4 different UNISON regions and we had three Eastern region delegates present at this meeting.

First there was the business AGM. Their excellent Chair, Henry Meiklejohn, went through minutes, accounts, elections, work plan, constitutional amendments and motions. Afterwards I was their guest speaker. I spoke on the current state of our sector, which is pretty disastrous, due to cuts in Supporting People budgets, welfare reforms and certain rogue employers leading and cheering this Governments race to the bottom; what we can do about it now to defend members and provide quality services but also where we should be aiming for in the long term to transform our sector.

I will post an edited account of my speech soon.

There was a wide ranging and constructive Q&A afterwards then we broke up for a meal which was followed by even more debate in the hotel lounge and later in the Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange (which is now by a complete coincidence a Weatherspoons bar)

The following morning the seminar began with a presentation by Simon Watson, who is a UNISON National Officer for Community. He gave a comprehensive overview of our Service Group history, structure and plans for the future. One delegate made a point that he had heard Simon 2 years give a similar presentation on Community but since then a lot of the obvious gaps highlighted have since been filled.

There was a fascinating talk on the history of politics and trade unions by Community SGE member, Peter Todd. He made it clear that trade unions must grow up and stop talking about the past but find new ways of doing things.

UNISON Local organiser in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Catherine Ward, led a workshop on strategic campaigning. Analyise, identify issues, plan, set targets but most of important to stop, think and evaluate. Be prepared to develop new tactics to fit new strategies.

Next Regional organiser (and Head of Community in Eastern Region), Nalin Cooke, talked about organising and recruitment in our sector. He referred to the key techniques that the Barack Obama campaign used to motivate supporters: Use “Anger, Hope and then Action” to galvanise support.

We then had a role play where we had to interview each other and act a meeting with a non union member and try to persuade them to join using the Obama principles. Afterwards each group had to demonstrate what we had discussed in the role play.

One Group (mention no names) played out this role play:-

Union rep: did you know that your employer is planning to kill your first born son? 

(ANGER)

Non member: NO!!!! OMG what can I do about it? 

Union rep: don’t worry; together we can stop this 

(HOPE)

Non Member: Fantastic, but how? 

Union rep: Here is an AK47 and the home address of your CEO. 

(ACTION)

Now, will you join the union? 

(Joke, repeat Joke)

I really enjoyed speaking at the AGM and participating in this well organised and thoughtful Seminar. Our Community Service Group is finally finding its feet and establishing itself throughout the union.

(Thanks also to Theresa for all her hard work in organising this event). 

Picture credit to Ian Kalinowski