UNISON Community NEC elections 2013: Nominate John Gray & Isobel McVicar

NEC Community Seats Nomination Request
John Gray & Isobel McVicar
RMS 3083288 & 5260001

8 January 2013

Dear UNISON Branch Secretary

We believe that your branch is entitled to nominate candidates to the two Community
seats for this year's National Executive Council elections. We request that your
branch considers nominating John Gray for the General Seat and Isobel McVicar for
the Female seat.

John has been an activist in UNISON for many years and held a number of branch and
regional positions including Treasurer, Health & Safety, Welfare, Labour Link,
International officer and Assistant Secretary. He is now the Branch Secretary of the
Greater London Housing Associations Branch which has nearly 3500 members.

Isobel has also been a longstanding UNISON activist holding positions of Assistant
Conditions of Service Officer, Publicity Officer and Branch Secretary in the Glasgow
City Branch and International Officer in the Manchester Branch

In 2011 we were the first ever elected Community members to be represented on the
National Executive Council. While on the NEC John has served on the Policy and
Development Committee, Trustee on the UNISON staff pension fund and National
Labour link. Isobel has served on the Finance and Resources Committee and the
International Committee.

Community members are facing amongst the very worse cuts in jobs and attacks on
their pay, pensions, terms and conditions by this Tory led Government.

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

While many Housing management organisations are cash rich after years of inflation
plus rent rises yet still refuse to give their staff decent pay rises.

Many Community members belong to the Pension Trust or the Social Housing Pension
Fund. Some employers are using flawed and discredited accounting measures as an
excuse to try and close their schemes or raise contributions to unaffordable levels.

Both of us 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 also believe that there are a number of Community specific campaigns that
UNISON should be pursuing such as:-

• Binding Sectoral Pay Boards - 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.
• 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)
• Access to a decent defined benefit pension scheme for all.
• No public money for anti-trade union employers. Community organisations that
do not have trade union recognition agreements should not be allowed to bid for
grants or contracts from local or national governments.

We both work together well as your Community NEC team. While Isobel's employer is
a small charity, John's works for a large housing association, so we represent and
complement both of the major sectors in Community.

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 John on 07977 285 297/john.gray2012atbtinternetdotcom. Or Isobel on
07876 561 643/izzymcVatbtinternetdotcom
Yours faithfully

John Gray & Isobel McVicar
(I'll be posting on other NEC nominee recommendations during the next few days)

"Unions support workers, supporting themselves"

I think that eventually the penny will drop. Due to the decline in trade unions bargaining power wages, benefits and pensions for the majority of working people are now lower. This has indeed led to higher government spending  and taxation to keep them out of desperate poverty.

Note that the vast amount of this spending was on supporting families in work who needed tax credits and housing benefits.

To make things worse, the decline in wages led to increase in household debt as workers made up for their reduced spending power to top up their pay on the "never, never".

I am constantly told by financial experts that the real problem for the British Economy is not our national government debt (which is relatively low compared to the past) but our high domestic debt.

Now that access to debt is restricted the decline in real wages has resulted in reduced demand. So we face  - decades of recession.

How do we increase demand and drag this country out of recession??? How do we reverse low pay?

When will the tax evaders alliance demand greater rights for trade unions to reduce dependancy on the state? :)

Hat tip picture to the ironically named "Union Thugs" Facebook page

UNISON Labour Link CVO Branch Parliamentary Meeting

UNISON Greater London Community and Voluntary Organisations (CVO) branch are holding a meeting in the House of Commons with Shadow minister of Civic Society Gareth Thomas MP on Tuesday 29 January 2013.

I am also speaking at the meeting as the Chair of Regional Labour Link.

Afterwards there will be a reception at a local hospitality (Pub!).

The CVO Labour Link Officer, Jonathan Slater, is organising the event. Attendance is for UNISON Labour Link members and strictly by invite only.

Jonathon has opened the invitation to all UNISON Housing Association Labour Link members and I will be sending out an invite to them tomorrow.

We may also be holding a Parliamentary lobby for UNISON member's on another issue earlier that day. Details to follow.

Many thanks for Jonathan for organising what what looks like to be an interesting event. Labour Link officers   in all branches should think about organising something similar. We need to get our ordinary members, who are bearing the brunt of the attacks against not only their pay but the the services they provide, to tell their story to their local MPs. 

The Iron Lady

I watched tonight for the first time the film "The Iron Lady" which is about the life of former Tory Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

It was an historical drama and not a documentary. While I would certainly not agree with all the political interpretations it made, I enjoyed watching it.

Thatcher today is very much still a divisive  figure: a hero to some and a hate figure to others.

Under Margaret Thatcher, male unemployment in my part of North East Wales, following closures in the local Steel works and textile factories reached 33%. It was an horrendous time and she seemed to give the impression as PM that she didn't care and just a price worth paying!

So I should really hate her, but I have always preferred to dislike rather than hate. The key thing in politics is to attack what politicians do and say rather than their personalities.

Forgetting the politics (if you can) I was pretty uncomfortable with the scenes in the film around her current  supposed mental health and the involvement of her children, grown up or otherwise. It was more than a bit off I thought and it was simply wrong in my view of the film to bring this up.

The actual acting by Meryl Streep was simply superb and incredible. She was Margaret Thatcher.

As regards to any lessons we can learn from this film for the "left"? Well, yes there is. We all know that there are many working class Tories such as Thatcher and we cannot just ignore them and pretend they do not exist.  It is no use just knocking people who share these beliefs we have to find ways to win them over.

The real lesson from the film is that the "left" needs to learn from Thatcher (of all people) that if you have real self-belief and self-confidence in your arguments it is possible to succeed and bring about fundamental change.  

Vic Turner: Pentonville 5 and Newham Labour Councillor

Vic Turner, the veteran trade union leader and Newham Labour Councillor passed away on December 30 aged 85.

Vic was born in Custom House, Newham and lived in the area all his life. He was the youngest from a family of 7 and was told to join the union the day he started work at the local docks with his father and brothers. He became a member of the Transport & General Union and the Communist Party.

Vic is seen in photo being carried by supporters after being released from Pentonville Jail in 1972. He and 4 other dockers had been jailed for ignoring a court order to stop "illegal" picketing at a container site in Chobham Farm in Newham (now I think part of the Stratford Olympic site).

The Tory government of the time led by Edward Heath had been forced to release them from prison due to the threat of an effective general strike by trade unions led by the TUC.  This was rightly a huge victory at the time for the trade union movement. The Tories did unfortunately learn from their defeat in future battles with the unions.

After being made redundant from the docks, Vic worked for Newham Council and later become a Newham Labour Councillor from 1994 to 2006. He had the reputation of a hardworking and dedicated Councillor. In 1997/98 he was the Mayor.

I only met Vic the once (I think) many years ago and at the time I was not really aware of who he was so I wasted the opportunity to have a proper chat with him about 1972 for a now forgotten conversation. My loss.

Vic's funeral I understand will be on January 18 and will take place at City of London Cemetery and Crematorium in Manor Park.

Check out tributes here; here and here

UPDATE: Vic Turner's funeral will take place at 2.45 pm on Friday, 18 January, at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium.

Vic Turner's family have confirmed  that if  you wish to send funeral flowers they should be sent to 51 McGregor Road, Custom House, E16 3LL.  Donations in lieu of flowers should be sent  to Cancer Research UK.  They are not being dealt with by the funeral directors, so should be sent directly to the charity.  Either on-line via www.cancerresearchuk.org or by post to Cancer Research UK, Angel Building, 407 St. John Street, London EC1V 4AD.

The reception after Vic's funeral will be at the "Princess Alexandra" pub, 219 Barking Road, E16 4HH - between Canning Town flyover and  the The Abbey Arms, Plaistow.   

Myths and Misconceptions about Welfare

A very good report in the indie about voters being "brain washed by Tory Welfare myths".

I would go further and say these are not myths but deliberate lies and distortions being put out by this Tory led Government to justify ideological attacks on the most vulnerable.

Not only on the chronically sick and the unemployed but mostly the working poor who depend upon the state to top up their employer poverty wages.

Actual benefit fraudsters should be dealt with harshly as they are thieves and criminals. However, so should the many City and business thieves who in practise steal far more from the public purse, yet rarely end up facing the justice at the Criminal Courts they deserve.

UPDATE: Check out Channel 4 FactCheck here on more Tory welfare porkies.

Bond Bubble Burst

This could be yet another disaster for ordinary savers thanks to our dysfunctional financial services industry.

This morning I read a newsletter from a respected firm of pension solicitors highlighting 10 key issues for 2013.

Number 8 was to beware of a possible "bond bubble". The concern is that bond prices (government loans called gilts or other traded loans to companies) are so over priced that soon there will be a "crash". Gilt yields (due to high prices) are currently at a 200 year low.

If this happens then the value of personal pensions for many people approaching retirement who will tend to have most of their money invested in bonds will be devastating.

It's complicated because a fall in gilt prices should mean an improvement in annuity rates (the amount of money you will actually get each year if you retire on a personal pension) and will also help out defined benefit schemes. But there is no doubt that if you are in a standard "lifestyle" personal pension plan (which most people in "normal" times should be in) then in the 5 years before your retirement most of your money will be moved away from long term savings in equities and into bonds and cash. A predicted 40% crash in bonds would be a disaster.

As always, wealthy or financially sophisticated investors will avoid the risk. Joe Public will not. This is another reason why individual defined contribution (or defined ambition) schemes are not the answer to the pension problem in this country.

With individual defined contribution schemes (personal pensions in all their shapes and sizes) ordinary individual savers have to take all the risk over their pension fund asset allocation and investment strategy. That is not their job. That is not what they are good at in life. Their funds are usually far too small to be able to afford the expert and ongoing advice needed.

While most trust based collective defined contribution schemes can afford this advice and will hopefully will put in place measures to protect members I cannot see how they will be able to fully protect those about to retire if bond prices collapse. The "market" is not the answer to everything.

The answer is of course decent modern defined benefits schemes for all.

Berlin 1939 and Berlin 1945

My late father (another John Gray) carried out his national service in the RAF in Germany 1947-1948 as a Aircraft Technician.

I picked up an envelope of postcards and photos he had collected during this time from my sister Lucy during the New Year holiday.

I had remembered that he had a set of postcards titled "1939 Berlin 1945". In this set were photos of prominent and historic buildings in Berlin before the War and after. As a child looking at these cards I can remember being horrified by the devastation.

My father wrote on the inside of the pack "I spent a weekend in Berlin while based at RAF Gatow. The photo's speak for themselves. Thank God we didn't lose the War".

(click on collage to bring up detail)

New Pensions Crisis on Way...Millions will get Pension Boost

This morning (2 Jan 2013) I noticed that the entire front page of the Daily Express newspaper (see online page to right with picture of smiling grey haired pensioners) was taken up with this banner headline "Millions Will Get Pensions Boost".

I thought at the time that it was unusual for a tabloid to be saying anything positive about pensions. So I had a look tonight at the online version and found that due to the recovery (or sorts) in the price of shares that the deficits of pension funds had been reduced and the value of private pensions increased.

Which is good thing but hardly news since the recovery of the markets is well known. However, there was a link under the article to another Daily Express article written a whole 2 working days earlier (28 Dec 2012 see left with picture of unhappy grey haired pensioner) with the headline "New Pensions Crisis on Way". 

This alarmist article predicted the end of private pensions by 2050! Now I have posted on a similar misleading article on the "end of pensions" here.

But my point is no wonder people are genuinely confounded and confused by pensions when there is so much inaccurate and sensational misreporting by the media and in particular the tabloid press. Are pensions a good thing or a bad thing? How can you tell on the basis of this coverage. This is one of the reasons why so many give up on saving for their retirement and will end up dying in poverty.

The real problems with pensions is that employers either don't contribute anything or only grossly inadequate amounts and that many of the saving products on the market are simply rubbish. Bad value, insecure, nonsensical accounting and the final pension amount totally at the whim of the stock markets and government policy of the day.

The answer of course is decent modern defined benefits schemes for all. 

Happy Hogmanay and Blwyddyn Newydd Dda 2013

Happy New Year 2013! From deepest darkest Sleaford in Lincolnshire.

Hagmanay was a bit of a let down this year. I was struck by a bad dose of Man flu yesterday.

So instead of going out with the family to a party in a local village hall, I saw in New Year on the sofa with Chilli, my sister's 10 year border terrier and Lill, her psycho cat.

This 2008 post "Happy Hogmanay and Blwyddyn Newydd Dda" (and same picture as left) on a past grayee New Year is one of the top 10 most popular posts on this blog.