West Ham Labour Party AGM 2013 results

Picture is from the end of tonight's West Ham CLP AGM and of some of the new "dream team" Executive also celebrating the 65th birthday of the NHS.

58 delegates crowded into the Party rooms at 306 High Street, Stratford, E15. Best attendance since 1980s according to one delegate.

Can't think why? :)

For contested positions we had one minute hustings then ballot. It all went pretty smoothly.

From left - Julianne Marriot, new vice Chair Campaigns & Communications; Terry Paul, re-elected Assistant Secretary; Gordon Miller, re-elected Agent and new Vice Chair membership, Charlene McLean, re-elected Chair; Alan Griffiths, re-elected Secretary and Anne Easter, new Women's officer.

Not in photo was John Saunders, re-elected Treasurer; John Whitworth, re-elected political officer;   Winston Vaughan, re-elected as Equalities Officer; Kim Silver, re-elected as Trade Union Liaison officer; Ahmed Noor, re-elected as Social officer. Apologies if I have missed anyone out?

Kim and I were also re-elected to the Executive Committee as 2 of the 4 trade union delegates.

UNISON Welfare Bucket and Spade Appeal

"Our Very own Welfare Officer and UNISON steward Mitsy Harmon is doing a sponsored walk in aid of Unison Welfare’s Bucket and Spade appeal this weekend and has created a just giving page to make it easy for people to sponsor her. Can you publicise her page to the membership please as it’s a very worthy cause.

https://www.justgiving.com/Mitsy-Harmon

The bucket and spade appeal has been set up to provide a holiday for low paid members see more details below.

Bucket and Spade Appeal

The Bucket & Spade Appeal aims to raise funds for the family holidays provided by UNISON Welfare - There for You. Although there has been a huge growth in tourism a quarter of the UK’s population, including many families with children, are excluded from taking holidays, mainly because they cannot afford them.

Our family holiday service provides a much needed break to families whose very difficult circumstances mean they have the most to gain from the stress relief that a holiday can bring. Thanks to the many volunteers who have taken part in our sponsored events, and the support of branches, members and staff we have raised over £250,000 so far. All the monies raised for the appeal are held in a restricted fund to be used exclusively for family holidays.

(From Branch)

Auto-enrolment...the AMNT... and the Video

Why it makes complete sense to autoenrole into your Company Pension Scheme.

#UNDC13 Capital Stewardship fringe - Wednesday Evening

Picture from UNISON NDC Capital Stewardship fringe "time for members to govern their money" with UNISON national officer Colin Meech, Mo Baines from Greater Manchester Pension Fund (Chaired by NEC Jane Carolan in the middle)

Colin spoke about the need to bring the fund management of the local government pension (LGPS) fund "in-house"and stop being ripped off by City fund managers. He briefed us on the new governance arrangements of the LGPS which will probably come into effect in 2015 (we think).

Mo praised Colin for his work on pensions. He had been the first to point out why schools and hospitals use PFI to fund rebuilding when we have money elsewhere?

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) is worth £10 billion but it only has trade union  observers with no voting rights. The fund is looking into localised investments. It wants to build 240 homes for market rent. If you pay into a pension scheme then the area you live in should also benefit from scheme investments.

Mo said that fish always rot from the top. We should make sure that in the LGPS we change fund management from the top.

My question to both is that UNISON should consider regional networks of LGPS pension reps to encourage and give face to face support to reps? There use to be a national network of LGPS reps who actually sit on pension panels and committees, who could be consulted and give feed back on what they they need to help them carry out their duties.

Colin responded by saying there will be a national consultation forum. He warned us not to underestimate those who feed off your money. Do they want to give this up? There are huge vested interests. The LGPS has high fees plus hidden charges. You could clear pension deficits within 8 years if the LGPS was merged & you cut costs and raise performance.

Match Womens Strike Festival 2013: 125th Anniversary

I have worked near the former Bryant & May Match Makers factory in Bow, East London for 20 years and knowing how difficult it is to organise and represent workers nowadays, never mind 125 years ago, I would take my hat off to the Match Women who led the way and showed us all since what is possible.

AMNT at Pensions and Benefits Show (and pros & cons of fiduciary management)

This picture from the Pensions and Benefits show at the Excel Centre in London earlier this month.

The Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) had a stall during the 2 day event run by AMNT volunteers.

I only managed to pop in briefly during the Wednesday lunchtime to say hello.

Beforehand I went to a presentation on "Fiduciary Management" by MN.

They reported that in June 2007 the average DB pension fund was 124% funded! Now it is only 84%. The Fiduciary Management argument is that they can close this closing gap by pooling investment funds and cut costs and improve performance.

I think there is an argument that scale can achieve this but in the Q&A I questioned why they use the term fiduciary when actually they have no fiduciary duty to pension trustees? Their fiduciary duty is to their owners and shareholders. 

I think that this is a fundamental confusion. On a more positive point I did wonder whether this model could be considered as an option in the consultation currently taking place in the Local Government Pension Scheme? Individual LGPS could remain while they pool fund management?

Housing workers face more violence due to welfare cuts

Well done to Inside Housing magazine (again) for their recent survey of housing workers. 83% believe that they face more risk of violence at work due to welfare cuts and 41% feel less safe than they did 12 Months ago.

I had been interviewed by their reporter and was quoted "Housing officers are going to be expected to evict model tenants who have never caused any problems, who due to austerity and welfare reforms [are unable to pay their rent]. It is expected that tenants and their relatives are going to get angry.’

In a second article looking at a rise in verbal and physical assaults during the past 12 months there was a number of horrendous quotes from different housing staff who are shouted and sworn at on a weekly basis; kicked; punched; shot at with a air rifle; had a bowling ball thrown at them from a high rise; threats to kill; threats to burn down their homes and kidnap their children.

What is also worrying is that 75% of staff believe that their employer is not doing enough to protect them and 25% think it is pointless reporting such incidents to their boss since it would be a "waste of time". They also believe cuts in staffing levels have made the risk worse.

Until we can get rid of this Tory led coalition government unions and employers must work together to try and keep housing staff safe. We need more union safety reps who must be given sufficient time off to be trained, attend joint safety committees, properly inspect workplaces and constantly review updated risk assessments.

Employers need to put their hands in their pockets and fully resource their health and safety advisers, buy decent and up to date protective equipment for staff and most importantly - stop threatening to evict those tenants who cannot pay bedroom tax. There are other ways to collect debt and in many places there is no suitable smaller alternative accommodation to offer them.

West Ham Labour doorstep - Tennyson Road, E15 #selfie

I came back last night from the UNISON National Delegate conference in Liverpool. No rest for the wicked and was out again this morning for a Labour mobile surgery with Cllr Ron Manley, John Whitworth and Julianne Marriot.

The surgery went well. Most residents we spoke to had no complaints and many compliments about Council services in this area. 

Some residents were concerned about street cleansing and late night anti-social behaviour (ASB) by youths in the nearby park. I will speak to the Council ASB unit and the Police Safer Neighbourhood team about what they are doing about this problem and offered to meet with residents.

The #selfie Picture was taken by Julianne's mobile. (I didn't admit at the time that I hadn't have a clue what a selfie pic was)

#UNDC13 Pay & Privatisation Fringe - Wednesday Lunchtime

For some reason I forgot to take a picture of this lunch time fringe? First off was UNISON Assistant General Secretary, Karen Jennings, who opened this important fringe on Pay & Privatisation by making the arguments against the lies and propaganda of the Daily Mail & Taxpayers (aka Evaders) Alliance and dispel the myth that in the public sector "pay" is more than in the private sector. You have to measure like with like.

A recent report by Swansea University showed that in the public sector workers are actually paid 2% less than in the private sector. You need to fully job evaluate jobs in both sectors to properly compare. If you do this you see massive pay advantages in the private sector and especially in manufacturing.

Remember it is a fiction that the public sector are paid more.

UNISON National officer Gavin Edwards from the "Bargaining and Support unit" detailed what they can do to help branches and stewards. You can get background information and local reports on private sector bidders for public contracts and find out what has gone wrong with these contractors elsewhere. Email the unit and you will get a report back also they have access to the IDS pay data base so you can compare and contrast pay rates.

#UNDC13 Amendment E.1 Annual Life of Brian Wrecking Amendment - Wednesday

It was good to see that the attempt to sneak into the "Alternatives to Austerity" composite a nonsensical amendment to nationalise the "top 150 companies" was comprehensively defeated at conference.

Capitalism was saved! I am sure that the top 150 bosses were so, so  relieved that this amendment was not passed that they were finally able to sleep soundly in their beds.