TUC Congress 2015

I am just about to board a train for Brighton as a UNISON delegate to this year's TUC Congress.

There is a delegation meeting at 3pm then Congress opens at 4pm.

This is the third time I have been to Congress as a delegate.

I suspect that this year with the election yesterday of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader and the onslaught that the Tories are about to inflict upon the movement tomorrow with the publication of their anti-trade union bill that it will be the most lively yet.

I will try and post/tweet as and when.

Jeremy Corbyn Wins! Our New Labour Leader of the Opposition

I was at the Special conference held this lunchtime to announce the result of the Labour Leader and Deputy leadership elections. I am an UNISON delegate to this year's Labour Party conference, so was automatically able to attend this one as well.

I had a number of quick chats with various UNISON and Labour Party colleagues in the queues to get my credentials and then into the hall including our UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis.  I managed to get a seat near the front. The hall was packed, warm and stuffy. Lots of hot air around no doubt!

There was an air of excitement and anticipation even though I don't think there was much doubt at the result. The press was gathered like a pack of wolves at the front staring at the crowd looking for a good (or rather salacious) photo opportunity.

While we were waiting for the start I overheard a delegate say that he had joined the Party in 1968 and had waited all his life for this moment. Sitting next to me a fellow IPAD user pointed out that the Jeremy Corbyn Wikipedia page was already showing him as "Leader of the Opposition".

The meeting began just after 11am with the Labour Party General Secretary, Iain McNicol, making a good joke at our expense by pretending to make the announcement there and then. He made some interesting comments about making sure that all the new Labour members and supporters actually turn up and campaign at the doorstep during elections. Also, that we must always make sure that our policies must relate to the concerns of ordinary people.

He introduced the new Labour Candidate for London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who started his speech by saying that he can still not believe that a "sarf" London boy and son of immigrants was standing as Labour Mayor. Sadiq stressed how important it was that we all unite around the new leader.

All the Leader and Deputy leader candidates then trooped into the hall and sat down. There was a lot of cheering and clapping. They were all smiling even though by then they knew the results.

The first result was for Deputy leader and Tom Watson was elected by a comfortable majority, Stella Creasy was second.  He then gave a speech noting firstly that he had been told to "keep it brief" (which he rightly ignored) and that he would be loyal to any leader but that the Party itself was greater than any leader. He also had a clear sense that the election result would be a referendum on the political process as much as anything else. He warned the Tories who are sneering that Labour will not win to just "watch this space, watch this space".

Finally, the vote for Leader. It was all over in minutes. Jeremy won an outright majority on first preference vote in all 3 categories of membership. He got a quarter of million votes compared to second place Andy Burnham's 80,000. A decisive victory and mandate.

His acceptance speech was typical Jeremy. Gracious, polite but direct and to the point. He was emotional when he attacked the media for their vile behaviour towards former leader Ed Miliband, and members of Jeremy's own family.  He thanked all his fellow candidates. They have always remained friendly with group hugs.

He was thinking of forming an ABBA tribute band with them. He thanked Andy for his work on NHS. Yvette for bringing attention to refugees and described his friendship with Liz, who despite differences, is someone with real conviction.

He told us he will be attending the demonstration today in London in support of refugees. 

Thanked his staff and all unions including UNISON who nominated him. "We are a party that is organically part of the union movement". He then attacked the Tory attempts to shackle unions with their new anti-union bill.

He also thanked his friends and for their advice. Sometimes he would have rather not received this advice but that is what friends are there for.

This election was about "hope and opportunity". He welcomed back all those who had recently joined the Party who had left in the past disillusioned.

He thinks that his election shows that the young generation are "political". It was just they were turned off by the way we do politics.

The fight back starts now. 

He thanked the Labour leaders of Scotland and Wales for their work. Praised the Mayoral candidate for Bristol and Sadiq in London. "We must stop the social cleansing of London" and build homes.

"London needs a Labour Mayor and Sadiq is the man to do this".

"There has been an incredible mood change in Europe towards refugees. They are human beings just like you and me". We must recognise that going to war causes bitterness.

"We cannot accept the world's gross inequality... We are one world... Let that message go out today".

"The Tories have used the 2008 financial crisis to attack the poor". We need an economic strategy that deal with real issues.

He stands here today because of the work in the past of Labour giants but their work must now continue and now no one must be left behind.

"This campaign is about shaping our future. This will be good for everyone and bring about the justice we all crave". 

The conference then ended with the traditional Labour Party standing ovation for our new leader. I suspect that this one was more heartfelt than most have been in the past.

I'm off to Brighton for TUC Congress tomorrow morning. In the light of events this should be even more interesting than usual.

 One final thought for now. I chair the UNISON London Labour Link Committee and our next meeting is on the 21st September. Will Jeremy turn up as he always did in the past to deliver his Parliamentary report and answer our questions? I suspect that he will be far too busy but if he possibly can, he will.

Sadiq Khan Wins! Labour's candidate for London Mayor

I have just heard that Sadiq Khan has been elected as the Labour candidate for London Mayor! Great news.

"The Tooting MP said he was "overwhelmed" and "deeply honoured" after the results were announced.

Mr Khan won 48,152 votes, a 58.9% share, in the fifth round of voting after four other candidates had been eliminated.

Ex-minister Tessa Jowell, regarded as the frontrunner going into the contest, came second with 41.1% of the vote.

A total of 87,954 votes were cast".  BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34218390

Update

Check out Labourlist for full breakdown of results. Sadiq won convincingly in all categeries: - Members, registered supporters and affialated supporters. 

http://labourlist.org/2015/09/labours-mayor-of-london-candidate-result-full-breakdown/

Stop the Trade Union Bill - Stop the Tories causing industrial mayhem

The Government will on Monday (14 September 2015) publish a Parliamentary bill that will attack trade unions ability to defend and representative their members.

This is probably one of the most pointless and even spiteful pieces of anti-trade union legislation ever.

The exact detail has not been released but according to the official government consultation paper it could :-

1. Stop councils from raising revenue by charging to collect union subs from staff wages.

2. Ban strikes even if a majority of workers vote for it (also  undermining the principle of democratic elections in our country)

3. Result in criminal charges for taking part in social media protests on twitter and Facebook.

4. Allowing employers to use US style agency thugs as scab labour to break strikes.

5. Stopping union health and safety reps from being sufficient given time off to prevent accidents, illness and violence at work

Even the professional body for HR in this country, the Chartered Institute for Personal and Development has attacked the bill:-

"Proposals on strike laws are a response to yesterday’s problems, says CIPD  Plans to raise the bar for strike action divert attention from building better, more engaged workforces. The Government’s proposals on strike laws are an outdated response to industrial relations issues currently facing UK employers and could prove counter-productive" If this proposal goes ahead it will indeed prove "counter-productive". If workers' democratic rights to legally strike are not allowed then there will be an explosion of "unofficial" action and protests. If there is a legal strike and scab agencies are allowed to bus in strike breakers then there will be mayhem in the workplace. I hope the Tory MPs who actually have experience of "real" work as opposed to a life of political bag carrying (like too many Labour MPs I may add) will help kick this rotten stupid bill into touch. UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, makes sense when he notes that   “Democracy won’t be enhanced by vindictively raising thresholds but by modernising balloting and allowing workers to vote from their phones and tablets.” Email your MP now to speak against the Bill on Monday https://secure.unionstogether.org.uk/page/speakout/protect-our-voice-at-work

The Beaumont Tree - When they used a stake through the heart to deal with outlaws (a time before drone strikes)

While out walking this No 23 pathfinder 8.5 mile walk in Bedfordshire during the August Bank Holiday weekend, I came across this plaque on a public footpath, which crossed a minor country road(click on photo to bring up details).

This is a really strange, strange story. Nowadays the State sends RAF  drones to kill British outlaws. In the 1700s they shot them and then buried their bodies at a crossroad with a stake through their heart.

Not sure which is the worse fate?

Personally, I think I would have also been inclined to try the large Gin & Tonic remedy for the Ague (see below) rather than use my hair or toenails. 

This is from the Bedfordshire Council website - "The parish register states that a highwayman, name unknown, was shot in Silsoe Lane (also called Beaumont Tree Lane) in 1751 which led to the main Bedford to Luton road now the A6.

The highway man was reputedly buried at the crossroads between Flitton and Silsoe near Beaumont Farm, with an elm stake cut from a hedge through his heart.

If this is true, it is surprising that it is mentioned in the church registers. From this stake, an elm tree, known as Beaumont’s or Bowman’s Tree, grew which had magic powers. Ague, a type of malaria, was common here because of all the standing water on the Moors which attracted mosquitoes. The prevention or cure for this was to hammer an iron nail with a strand of your hair or with a toenail into the tree as the church clock struck midnight. How effective this cure was is not known but in the Fens, opium was used and quinine in tonic water, liberally accompanied by gin, was also considered to be a useful remedy.

The original tree was only a stump in old photos from the 1930s and another elm stood there which succumbed to Dutch Elm disease. Pieces of the original tree are in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street in Cambridge including iron nails and black hair wound round one of them. They are not on display but are kept in storage so if you want to see them, you would have to phone to make an appointment.

In 2004, the Flitwick and District Heritage Group put up a carved post with a plaque at the site of the Beaumont Tree".

"It's from workers and it should go back to workers"

Check out this post below by UNISON's head of bargaining and Campaigns in Scotland, Dave Watson, on the first day of the Workers Capital Conference which took place yesterday.

Also this YouTube video above by the ITF.

"Workers of the world unite to save your pensions!

Workers pensions across the world are facing similar challenges and we need to learn and act together.

I was at the 2015 Workers Capital Conference today, meeting with union pension negotiators and trustees from across the world. There is great best practice that we need to learn from, but also recognise that funds are invested internationally. We are investing in each other's communities and economies. Pension funds own half of the assets in the world and we should act collectively.

The first session looked at the role of trustees and shareholder activism.

The Californian teachers pension fund had some good advice for union pension trustees. They distilled these into seven effective ways of working.

• No place for fear. Don't be intimidated by the experts and hand over your fiduciary duty to the 'money people'.
• Stay curious. Be inquisitive and don't be afraid to ask questions.
• Be unwaveringly ethical. Remain true to those you represent. Without this funds are vulnerable to manipulation.
• Think objectively. Not enough to know what to do, be ready and willing to share views.
• Work hard. Read the materials, understand best practice. But recognise there is never enough time to do everything.
• Keep focused. Money managers are skilled at distracting trustees.
• Listen first. Speak less and listen more. Intervene at the right moment, don't just follow the money managers.

The Dutch pension fund ABP talked about shareholder activism. Examples included tackling poor labour conditions for textile workers in Bangladesh and Burma. Lack of safety standards and resolving the 'leukaemia dispute' at Samsung. Anti-union practices at Walmart. The latter resulted in four years of work before divesting. Their strategy involves intense dialogue, asking key questions and site visits. Sanctions included voted against directors remuneration and finally divestment, but only when all else fails. All of this is much more robust than the sort of ESG engagement advisors in Scotland pursue.

The U.S. Bakers union have a similar strategy through their capital stewardship programme. Part of their organising department because they see this work as building the union. Companies with good governance perform better, particularly those who treat their workforce fairly. They work with other funds collaboratively to target specific issues and sectors, particularly retail companies. An example of their engagement was the retail firm GAP, promoting a living wage and a good jobs strategy.

While there were different views on priorities, there were some common issues. Infrastructure investment to boost the economy (but not PPP), climate change and workers rights are probably the three main ones and there was support for some broad common goals. Pension funds are long term investors and there was an interesting debate about the pace of change funds should expect from the companies they invest in. Fiduciary duty shouldn't be a barrier to achieving common union goals.

The second session looked at pension fund management and transaction costs. The best approach is the Dutch model who have a level of understanding and transparency that we should aim for. Scottish funds have very little grasp of the true transaction costs of their equity investments. The Dutch now have legislation regulating this approach and this includes an asset management contract that is reducing costs.

Unsurprisingly, commercial asset managers in the UK resist this approach - even those who can do it in The Netherlands, because they have to! There is no good reason for telling us what something costs - if they can't tell you don't buy their services!

We probably only know about one third of the real costs. They are much higher than we think, probably three times higher at least. This matters when pension funds are under financial pressure. When resources are tight we should look closely at costs. It is also a fiduciary duty on trustees to know the true costs of their scheme, so they save contributions, not pay for profits.

Cutting costs is best done by bringing services in house. The top performing LGPS schemes in the UK are largely delivered by in house teams, cutting out the rent seekers. Active fund management is an illusion to fool us into trading that makes huge profits for the asset managers and hedge funds. It was interesting to hear that even New York public pension funds are coming to the same conclusion about active fund management.

The lessons for Scotland are that we should introduce systems that make real costs transparent, bring services in house, and largely get out of active fund management. Another lesson is that size matters and we should pool assets.

A lot of these issues appear complex to the average union trustee. But the value of today's conference is the sharing of information and developing common approaches. There are few more important issues than our member's pensions and there is much to do".

Workers' Capital Conference 2015

Yesterday was the first day of the 2015 Workers' Capital Conference, which this year is being held in London and hosted by the International Transport Federation (ITF). This global conference of union pension activists was organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Trade Union advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) and the Global Unions Federation (GUFs).

I was there as a UNISON trade union pension trustee alongside a number of our lay activists and national officers (see picture right).

This annual conference is the international forum for trade union and pension fund trustees on the stewardship of workers retirement funds. Trade union trustees sit on the boards of pension funds worth in total $32 trillion (I think this is $32,000,000,000,000!). Which is an eye watering amount of money and a huge responsibility.  The aim of the conference is to promote decent work, a sustainable future and secure retirement for workers.

It is great not only to meet and share knowledge with trustees from all over the world but also it is an opportunity for trade unionists to do what they do best - work collectively in the interests of all our members.

The conference theme is "Pressing forward: Putting the Workers Capital Agenda to Action".

You can check out my tweets on the first day of conference here https://twitter.com/grayee. I will post further on the conference which ends today.

UNISON NEC nominates Dave Prentis as candidate for General Secretary 2015

Nominations opened last week for the election of Unison's next General Secretary.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of UNISON met on Wednesday and voted overwhelmingly(2:1) to nominate and re-elect Dave Prentis.

The NEC is the Parliament of UNISON (outside our National Conference) and is made up of lay member elected representatives from all over the union.

Elsewhere NHS Glasgow Clyde and CVS branch - which is Unison's biggest UK branch with over 17,000 members voted to nominate Dave. As have University College London Hospitals, Wakefield Local Government, UNISON North Wales Health and Aneurin Bevan Health Branch.

The Northern Ireland regional council has agreed to nominate him and the National Disabled Members Committee has announced its endorsement.

Check out Dave's key pledges here http://www.votedaveprentis.org.uk/pledges/ and encourage your branch to nominate him.

Also his facebook page "Vote for Dave 2015".

"Future of Trade Unions and the Labour Party"

Last Thursday I was asked to speak to Shacklewell Labour Branch, Hackney North CLP on trade unions and the party by my blogging comrade, Dave Osler. 

There was a little bit of a mix up with the room booking in the local community centre and we ended up at Dave's and his partner Stroppy (daughter of a former Newham Labour Group Chief Whip) apartment, drinking tea and eating their biscuits amidst classic guitars, bags of clothes destined for Calais refugees and bookshelves of "Trotporn" (Dave's description).

I explained that I was a UNISON activist and a member of its NEC and a Labour Councillor in the Peoples Republic of Newham and this talk was in a personal capacity.

I started with one of my favourite stories about the relationship between Labour and trade unions. Famous union leader, Jack Jones, was once asked whether he thought that strains in the relationship would ever lead to a divorce? He thought about this for a moment and then replied "Murder yes, Divorce Never!"

The trade unions formed the Labour Party as its political wing because it realised it needed Parliamentary protection. The relationship has since ebbed and flowed but the tension between trade union and other activists has been there since the beginning. The trade unions lost control of the party leadership as far back as 1911, which resulted in cries of betrayal even then. 

I believe that despite the strains, the trade unions and the party need each other even more now than ever.

The union movement is definitely under threat as never before. The current Tory Reform bill will make industrial action even more difficult and hit membership levels. The unions need legislative protection and the Party needs funding and the political legitimacy that union affiliation and participation provides.

Both wings of the Labour movement family need to raise their game.

The unions need to understand their role and explain things better. As important as personal trade union representation is (and if you are being bullied at work or at risk of losing your job it is vital), membership is not just an insurance policy if you get into trouble at work. Collective bargaining is its number one role. Negotiating with employers about your pay, pensions, employment policies, sickness and holiday benefits is absolutely key.

We also need to recognise that the traditional Anglo-American model of trade unionism is not working and we should look again at other more successful models such as in Germany and Scandinavia. Here unions have greater density and more influence with employers and governments.

In other countries unions also offer real work related benefits such as pensions and employment services, which makes them more relevant to workers. After the second world war British trade unions were offered the opportunity to run UK employment exchanges. They refused.

Unions have also got to understand that just waving cheques at the party is not enough. Trade union members need to get directly involved in their local parties as well as regional and national structures. They need to be in positions of responsibility and advocates of unions and workers' rights within the party.

The party also needs to understand that unions still need political protection from employers and the courts.  The threat and ability to deliver strike action (as a last resort) is as necessary now for the union movement as it was in the past.  The strength of a union up against powerful employers is in its ability to stop work taking place.  If it is unable to deliver strike action due to restrictive laws then the employers will nearly always win and treat workers accordingly. This is one of the main reasons why we have had decades of worsening pay and conditions for workers in this country.

We have to have a more equal playing field between workers and employers rights. The party must provide protection for unions.

Equally, there are many parts of the UK economy such as the care sector where employers are so small and fragmented that it is practically impossible for unions to organise. Wage councils for employers and unions to bargain over pay and conditions should be reintroduced.

Labour needs to attract workers with policies that are directed at the modern UK workplace. I remember being really pleased to attend one of the party policy launch events last year on plans that promised to give employed and self employed workers greater benefits if unemployed or sick. These promises would have reminded workers that the Party of "Labour" was still their Party. Yet these policies seemed to just disappear from the manifesto.

To sum up Labour needs the unions as much as the unions need the party. The unions need an elected government to deliver and the Party needs constructive union help to get elected.

Then followed a pretty wide ranging Q&A not only with me but amongst branch members sharing their own thoughts and experiences about unions and the party.

I really enjoyed the experience and felt at home in this Hackney branch meeting as much as I do in West Ham.  London Labour parties often live in little "bubbles", so it is good to take part in this type of discussion and I hope that some of those present would come to my branch to present about a speciality that they know about.

(Mind you, I suppose I may have to draw a line on a meeting about "trotporn").

Daily Mail Free Zone

"Spotted On a Train to Norwich" Hat tip The Poke. 

I take the train to Norwich for work on quite a regular basis and look forward to sitting in this coach.

Hopefully it is a Sun free zone as well? 

:)