Bevan's Dreamers to Builders: 5 July 1945 Anniversary Tee-shirt by Philosophy Football

It has been a gap since last advert but another great tee-shirt from Philosophy Football. This time to honour the socialist wordsmith, Aneurin Bevan and the Labour Government of 1945. This is what democratic principled political power can deliver.

"We have been the dreamers. We have been the sufferers. And now we are the builders." Aneurin Bevan, 1945

LAUNCH OFFER £5 OFF JUST £17.99. Usual price £22.99 thereafter.

70 years ago, 5 July 1945 Labour achieved arguably its greatest election landslide ever. In a momentous upset the people while lauding Churchill for his war-premiership turned to Attlee to win the peace. Bevan's three line philosophy summed up what was about to be achieved. The welfare state established, an NHS created, a massive public housing programme, comprehensive education, the railways and other public utilities nationalised. A post-war settlement that lasted until 1979, whatever happened to that politics of hope?

Order the tee-shirt online at http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=1235 

Reflections on UNISON National Delegate Conference 2015.

It's now been over a week since the end of UNISON National Delegate Conference (NDC)  in Glasgow and I have just about recovered from the traditional post conference lergy.

This is what happens after being locked up for 4 days in what is really a very large shed, with dodgy air conditioning and thousands of other people.

NDC is one of the largest trade union events in the world. It was announced at conference that there was over 3000 delegates and visitors. The largest number ever registered which is interesting considering the challenges that unions, especially in the public sector face.

There are my personal views and reflections of what I actually think was one of the most successful UNISON conferences I have been to even though of course I have just a few little moans.

I was there as an elected member of the UNISON National Executive Council for Community (Housing Association and Voluntary Sector). My region Greater London, had over 200 delegates and my Branch, Housing Associations, had 4 delegates and had 3 ordinary and one emergency motion accepted for conference.

Two of our delegates managed to speak during conference and the other two tried a number of times but were knocked out by other delegates moving points of order to push conference business on. Most UNISON branches do not send any motions to conferences nor do they have any delegates speaking. So our branch still did well to represent the views of our rank and file members but we need to think again how we arrange speakers in conference to try and make sure that important debates are not closed down too early simply because some activists want their pet motions to be heard.

I admit to be a conference junkie and enjoyed reading all the flyers and the newsletters and listening to all the debates, even to those who try to explain how the revolution and a land of milk and honey is just around the corner, if only we demanded a "general strike". If only it was so simple.

There was also some amusing calls for unity by those who then went on to attack the unions lay leadership, our national officers, the Labour Party and uncle Tom Cobley.

Others appear to not realise that Labour has been out of Government since 2010 and that the Tories were actually re-elected in May for another 5 years.

Instead of complaining constantly that the Labour Party is not going to be the 5th International, we should be making sure that our members are supported and encouraged to further our union aims and values within our own political wing.

The vast majority of speakers and debates were fantastic and UNISON should be very proud of its delegates and their informed, intelligent and often witty contributions about the great issues of the day.

There is a genuine debate to be had about the future direction of the union and how we support and protect our members and strive for change. I feel confident that we can win battles if we choose carefully and don't seek out cliffs to march over in search of more "glorious defeats".

Our General Secretary, Dave Prentis, made it clear that we were prepared to take on the Government. We survived 2010 and we will survive 2015. He promised to increase number of stewards, treble the number of fighting fund organisers, double our legal funds and take a national lead in campaigning and protest.

We also had fantastic international speakers and fringe events.  Brilliant stalls and exhibitions in the UNISON zone. We even had our own demo and lobby outside Glasgow City Hall in support of sacked SECC UNISON steward Robert O'Donnell and striking Glasgow Homeless caseworkers.

I chaired a fringe on the Local Government Pension Scheme and spoke twice as a NEC member. Firstly to move the composite on Pensions on their behalf and then in support of the re-prioritised composite on Housing. Both composites had motions from my branch incorporated in them. Last year none of the motions I was going to speak upon came up so I did not speak. Such is life.

I thought my fellow NEC trustee on the UNISON staff pension fund, Lucia McKee, was one of our great lay Presidents and chair of conference. Lucia was fair minded but took no nonsense and was a good humoured but to the point champion of conference. I am a cynic about some things at times but am so proud that UNISON continues to grow its activists and show time and time again that genuine working class women and men can prove to be great leaders of our union.

At the end of conference the new NEC met for the first time and we elected our President for the year, former school meals cook and long time Labour Councillor, Wendy Nichols. London Ambulance Service Branch secretary, Eric Roberts, is now the senior Vice President and West Mids, Carol Sewell, was also elected as the new Vice President.

I eventually got home in London just before midnight and have spent the last week since largely coughing and spluttering with conference lergy. 

Red Line Voting gets Green light to Save Planet, Respect Human Rights and Stop Fat Cats

I was really pleased to take part in the debate and vote in favour of the AMNT's Red Lines initiative which was approved at our summer conference on Wednesday this week. They cover a wide range of environmental, social and corporate governance issues.

Red Line Voting empowers pension trustees to make responsible investing a reality and will direct fund managers to oppose poor governance practise in companies where failure poses a risk to its shareholders.

Trustees bodies will be able to instruct fund managers to follow all Red Lines en bloc or a sub section.  It should not cost the scheme for doing so. Fund managers will have to comply with these instructions or explain why not and then run the risk of being sacked by trustees.

On environmental Red Lines the AMNT  worked with Carbon Disclosure Project and will be urging pension schemes to adopt them as they believe it would take climate change up the UK corporate agenda.

On social issues the Red Lines include trade union recognition, race equality, gender equality, commitment to equality monitoring and publishing the data, that companies should have a plan to introduce the Living Wage, and get rid of zero hours contracts.

On governance there will be a vote against the remuneration policy if any director is paid more than 100 times the average pay in that company’s UK workforce. Also on governance companies should have a tax policy stating what their tax practises are.

The AMNT are now planning to launch Red Line Voting in Autumn, in time for the 2016 voting season. They have have worked closely with UKSIF on the development of these Red Lines and major fund managers are already preparing to implement Red Line Voting instructions.

The big campaign now is to persuade pension schemes to adopt Red Line Voting, particularly those in pooled funds. Up to now investors in pooled funds were in practise unable to direct the engagement and voting on the shares associated with their investments. Red Line Voting gets round this. Fund managers may receive dozens of Red Line Voting instructions, but they are all the same instructions so they can then allocate votes pro rata. Since more than £2-trillion of assets under management in the UK are in pooled funds this could have a significant impact.

The AMNT has been granted £75,000 by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable trust over two years to develop and launch this initiative.

Red Line Voting is a revolutionary concept. I agree with "Responsible Investment" magazine that this is "a major evolution in UK Pension funds" but think "Engaged Investor" got it right when they called it "Power to the People: the new power for trustees to control fat cat behaviour".

Many people have been involved in the AMNT project on Red Lines but special mention to its Co Chair Janice Turner, who thought it up and was the driving force behind it and Co Chair, Barry Parr and Committee member, Bill Trythall. 

Voting Systems: Newham Compass debate 1 July 2015

A topical subject again after May 7. I suspect that those of us who support a change in "first past the post" missed the boat during the AV referendum and we are now stuck with the current system for at least the next 5 years.

Yet it is important that the debate continues. One of the many difficulties is getting people who support change to agree what is the best (or least worse) alternative. Party lists system for example, are in my view, worse than FPTP.

I will have to give my apologies due to clash with UNISON event. It would be interesting to hear Francis and Rachel speak but it's a pity that there is no speaker who supports FPTP (is Red Tel available?)

Generation Rent Rip Off: Private rents in UK double the European average

This article from National Housing Federation shows that not only are rents in UK the most expensive but double the European average.

A staggering 40% of income is spent on rent compared to 28% European average.

This means that workers have less money to save for a deposit and explains why the housing benefit bill is rocketing.

Germany has the most people privately renting and their average is only 25%.

Solution? We need to increase supply by building more homes of all tenures and introduce rent controls.

#uNDC15 Housing Composite

"President, Conference, John Gray, National Executive Committee speaking in favour of Composite F on Housing on behalf of the NEC

Conference, in that wonderful East London expression, it is the “bleedin’ obvious”, that housing is a key issue for our union.

Many of you here today, like me, work for housing organisations. So it has on the a direct impact on the terms and conditions of many members but all of us, regardless of whether we rent or buy, have to have somewhere to live, and lay down our hat.

So in a time of rapid change in the sector and a national housing crisis in terms of demand, quality, affordability and supply, as a union, we must to have a compelling and convincing political and campaigning strategy.

This strategy must have as a central plank the simple truth that we have not been building enough homes. For the last 5 years we have been building less that than half the homes we need to meet supply. But in truth, undersupply has been a growing problem for decades.

We must not only make the case for more and better homes but hammer the point to all political parties, that the only way to meet need is for the resumption of the post war political consensus, that it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that its people are decently housed.

It is hard to believe, conference, but in even my lifetime the Conservative Party, the tories, used to compete with Labour on who could build the most Council homes and who would charge the lowest rents.

To build quality homes that people can afford needs money and it needs subsidy. You need money up front to pay for it and you need a subsidy to make it affordable if you are on a low income. This is an unquestionable truth and therefore so is the need for a progressive system of taxation to pay for it.

Even after the disaster of May 7, this is not totally pie in the sky. Tory voters complain that their adult children cannot afford to leave the family home, that if they rent there is no money left over to save for a deposit. They know that expensive, insecure short term lets destroys communities and damages our economy. We must continue to press the national interest case for more and cheaper homes

Conference, the Composite sets out a comprehensive programme and strategy of campaign work which the NEC and this union is committed to campaign around, let me reiterate them - an increase in the supply of housing, particularly social housing; improving the quality of existing homes; effective regulation in the private rented sector; campaigning for a “living rent” – based on a system of rent controls alongside measures including landlord regulation and licensing, more secure tenancy agreements, and long-term solutions to welfare reform, including abolishing the hated bedroom tax.

Conference, please support this composite"

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. 

#uNDC15 Are you a first time or lone delegate? If so, join us for lunch

Back to last weeks UNISON conference.  I thought this initiative by London Region on the Tuesday lunchtime was fantastic.

Our London regional delegation is over 200 but many delegates were there for the first time or a lone branch delegate.

The Regional lay leadership and staff invited these delegates to an informal lunch and chat.

It was really well attended and I hope we made people think they were made welcome and part of the wider delegation.

Lets do this every year. Hat tip photo Rita  Conneely.

East London Labour Mayoral Hustings: #YesWeKhan

This afternoon there was a London Labour Party Mayoral candidate hustings at the historic Old Town Hall in Stratford, East London 

West Ham MP, Lyn Brown, local Councillors and other Party supporters held a stall outside on behalf of candidate, Sadiq Khan and encouraged local Labour voters to sign up and become "Party Supporters" for only £3. 

I had volunteered with local West Ham CLP members to help out with the registration of people at the door coming to the event (and sell them raffle tickets - see picture of the dynamic trio with back drop of Keir Hardie statute, who was elected as the first ever Labour MP in this same town hall in 1892). 

All six Labour mayoral candidates were present. The newly elected Tower Hamlets Executive Mayor, John Biggs, chaired the meeting. 

Since I was on the door I missed the beginning of the hustings and then left to go back after 30 minutes. My initial thoughts were that the panel all looked a little nervous and very serious. 

Diane Abbot spoke first and said she should be the candidate since due to her TV and media work people all over London know her and unlike former ministers, she also has the personality to win a London Mayoral election. 

Gareth Thomas said he was the only outer London Labour politician standing, who also knows how to fight these marginal seats and how to win for Labour in outer London. He is a street fighter while his opponents all come from safe inner London seats. 

Sadiq Khan said he wanted to be someone who having been born and bred in a London council estate and was the son of a London bus driver, wants to be the candidate who will represents all of London. 

David Lammy made clear that he wanted be the young, active and independent of party candidate who could defeat Zac Goldsmith. 

Tessa Jowell  compared herself to Hillary Clinton, and pointed out that if she win, she will be the youngest ever female mayor of London (think about it).

After 30 minutes I went back to the front door to let another member of the registration team go and listen. I understand things got a little heated later on with questions about building on the Green belt, the number of social housing homes in the Olympic Park and the relaxation of gambling laws.  

Talking to people as they left it seemed that they did learn from and enjoy this event. 

Nuf said. 

Why Nationwide Building Society has some pretty rubbish governance

I spent today recovering from UNISON conference and trying to catch up on my post and emails.

I was completely ticked off when I responded to the ballot papers I had received while away for the Nationwide AGM next month. This is the biggest mutually owned building society in the world with some 14 million members.

The candidates for election or re-election to its Board appear to be entirely white, but only 2 of them are women. There are no employee or member representatives on the Board and as far as I can see in a move reminiscent of North Korea, only "approved" candidates had been allowed to stand and fill positions. I pointed out on the Nationwide AGM survey and twitter that they appear to have "a white middle class mates club" running this hugely important mutually owned organisation,

There appears to be 13 directors on the Board but only photos of 11 on the website. So I am unclear about the diversity of the entire Board.

Elsewhere in the annual report they claim that they expect by July 2015 to have 25% of women on Board and "33% of the entire director population (divisional directors and above) to be female and 8–15% of the entire director population to be Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) by 2020".  Which until they explain more about divisional directors is entirely meaningless and would I think suggest that they can fulfill their target on "BAME" by only including less senior staff.

The final thing that drove up the blood pressure was reading the report on director remuneration (which was largely complete gobbledygook) and seeing that  the CEO's total pay had gone up from £2,571,000 in 2013/2014 to an unbelievable £3,278,000 in 2014/2015. An increase of over £700,000 in one year. Since 2009/10 it has over doubled from £1,539,000

This is just shocking and really disappointing. I have been a member of the Nationwide since a child. I hope that other members will like me vote against the annual report and the proposed directors (I withheld my vote on the female candidates).

What a mess the mutual movement is in when even the Nationwide acts as badly as their private sector counterparts.

Update: A member of the Building Societies Members Associations has pointed out that they have an article on their website here on Nationwide.