The President opened the meeting by referring to the sad
passing of Irene Stacey a long standing NEC member from the London Region after
a long battle with cancer and Assistant General Secretary Cliff Williams
previously Regional Secretary of Yorkshire and Humberside Region who had had a
career spanning 30 years in the union. The NEC held a minutes silence to
remember Irene and Cliff and other colleagues who had passed away.
It was decided for the first time there would be a 3 minute
limit on speeches.
New application
forms to comply with the (anti) Trade Union Act would be circulated soon with
the current ones all needing to be destroyed.
We considered NEC motions to go National Delegate Conference
in Brighton in June.
1. Resourcing and reshaping our union – 25 years
since the formation of UNISON there was to be a wide ranging review of the
union a task force would be established comprising key stakeholders. An NEC member asked about the make-up of the
task force and asked for further detail regarding accountability, inclusiveness
and transparency. It was stated that if the motion was passed it would come
back to the July NEC and there would be a decision on the make-up of the task
force.
2. Turning the union into an organising union. A
couple of NEC members referred to the recent collapse of Carillion and Jeremy
Corbyn’s statement that this was a watershed moment. We should look forward to
less privatisation and services being brought back in house.
3. Learning for the future.
4. Workers rights in Turkey – an NEC asked that
reference be made to the Turkish states bombing of Kurds in Syria. This was agreed.
5. Modern slavery.
6. Public service champions 2018/2019.
7. The UK EU withdrawal bill and the UK’s future
relationship with the EU.
8. Cuts to our safety net.
9. Education is a public service – A long motion
and it had been quite a while since there had been a debate about education at
conference.
10.
The crisis in health and social care.
11.
Pay up Now! – real pay rises for all public
service workers.
12.
Tackling Xenophobia and the far right. An NEC
member made a good point about the rise of racism and xenophobia being linked
to ongoing austerity. The motion included organising opposition to Trump and
any potential visit by Trump to Britain also to encourage branches affiliating
and continuing to work with Hope not hate, Show Racism the Red Card and Stand
up to Racism;
There was an update on the work done as a result of the
(anti) Trade Union Act. New
application forms to comply with the Act would be circulated with the current
ones all needing to be destroyed then. I asked a question about this – we
needed to make a compelling case for members to opt into the political funds,
face to face conversations would be important and these changes had to be in
place by 1st March - did we have examples of what the new membership
forms and online forms would look like? It was stated that a lot of work had
gone on on systems, training staff, new forms would be dispatched to branches
soon. Dave Prentis, General Secretary stated that we had made it clear to the
Labour Party we wanted the Trade Union Act repealed when a Labour government
was elected.
Paul Holmes, NEC
member for Local Government stated that between 1997 and 2010 the Labour
government had not repealed one piece of the previous Tory anti-Trade Union
legislation. We should not forget this. Tony Blair’s biggest disappointment was
not breaking the link between the Labour Party and the Trade Unions. It was a
sign of how healthy the relationship now was between the Labour Party and
unions that when Dave said they should repeal the act we expected a Labour
government to do so.
Proposed rule changes – A rule amendment was agreed that allowed
the NEC to revoke honorary life membership from individuals where a Rule I
disciplinary process was not feasible or practical. There was a lengthy debate
over a rule change that would exclude branch employed staff from participating
as UNISON activists. It was stated this was bringing branch employed staff and
national employed staff under the same rule and was translating what was
already in the Code of Good Branch practice into the Rule book. A number of NEC
members said we were not in a situation like 20 years ago the union was now
fragmented with branches covering a number of different employers a member
could for example work half time as a Local Government convenor employed by the
council and be an activist but also the other employed half time as an
organiser in the voluntary sector by the branch. The model didn’t fit with what
branches are doing now. We should look at the full extent of the problem first
before trying to solve it. In reply it was stated individuals should be an
employee of UNISON or a lay member either the one or the other but not both.
The proposed rule amendment was agreed by the NEC. There was a further rule amendment proposed that meant the same individual could not be both Branch Chair and Branch
Secretary (i.e. strategic posts). Also a proposed rule change that Branch
officers could not be employed in a branch – in line with the Code of Good
Branch practice.
Finance update – a report was given by a member of Finance
NEC subcommittee. Steve North, NEC member North West Region asked in relation
to Financial challenges facing the union – had there been a decision that
branches would not get any more money till April 2018 and if so why? Motion 121
in 2016 and Motion 103 in 2017 reaffirming M121 how was this squared with those
conference decisions? The motion passed last year supported branches right to
further funding providing activity-based budgets had been agreed in conjunction
with the Regional organiser. There was a lack of certainty for branches. It was
stated that it is understood we were compliant with what was passed at last
years conference. The Director of Finance stated it might not be the case we
would have a £1 million surplus as was previously thought, expenditure was
coming through and maybe for the first time we would be in a deficit position. Another
NEC member said to have £1 million reserves was not a bad position.
General Secretary report – Dave Prentis, General Secretary referred
to the Birmingham home care workers dispute – a delegation had attended women’s
conference. The national union would be there for them. Dave intended to visit
a future picket line. A message of support was sent to them from the NEC. Dave
had visited a number of branches in the North West including Halton, Liverpool
and Cheshire West. And had given a reading at the Holocaust memorial day event
in Liverpool. Some branches were now dealing with 200 employers whereas
previously they had dealt with a much smaller number. Black members conference
had taken place with 650 delegates the largest union black members conference
in Europe. Black history of the last 30 years had been discussed and the harsh
climate after the Brexit vote. We were continuing to work with Show racism the
red card and Stand up to racism (SUTR). Roger McKenzie, Assistant General
Secretary would speak on behalf of the union at the SUTR anti-racism demo on 17th
March 2018 and at an event concerning Enoch Powells notorious 1968 ‘Rivers of
blood’ speech on 20th April 2018. There would be a major demo on 30th
June 2018 to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the
NHS. This would be a major event for the union. Also there was the TUC national
demo on 12th May 2018. The TUC demo was about a jobs agenda. (A new
deal for working people). The union would have our own logo directly to promote
our campaign for public services. The TUC had asked UNISON for 35,000 members.
The North West Region had committed 5,000 members. We should be ambitious and
we will be organising to say Austerity and the pay freeze must end. There was a
memorial event to commemorate the life of Rodney Bickerstaffe in April at the
Westminster central hall which could hold 1500. Branches were asked to bring
banners for display in the hall. It was reported Northampton county council
(Tory) had run out of money. There were fears this could happen elsewhere. If
Donald Trump set foot in the UK UNISON would lead the demos at the airport and
in the cities. Hopefully he would be too frightened to come. UCU Pensions
dispute – we had sent a message of support. Roger McKenzie, AGS spoke about the
damage Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of blood’ speech had done. There had been physical
assaults on black people in the streets as a result. The idea behind the
proposed plaque to Powell in Wolverhampton was about normalising racism. What
we should be celebrating instead was defeating his racist views in the
intervening years.
Organising update – Private sector membership had increased
there were losses in Local Government, Health was steady. There was no net loss
during 2017. Young members was a growth area – we needed to get them active in
the union. 150,000 new members had been recruited over the year. The idea of a
UNISON passport was raised as a way of keeping members as they moved between employers,
so they didn’t have to sign again – this would be facilitated by digital means.
John Jones from the North West and Water, Environment and Transport service
group stated that this had been discussed a number of years earlier after being
raised by a branch in his service group so the prep work should already have
been done.
Service Group update – there was an update on Carillion and
Capita. The top priority for the union was to get Contracts taken back in house
and to protect services and terms and conditions. The question was being raised
by the union: Is the private sector the right place for critical public sector
works? The TUC had set up a group involving different unions to campaign for ‘insourcing’
(i.e. for Contracts to be brought back in house) that included Frances O’Grady.
Health – pay negotiations were ongoing. It was hoped public sympathy generated
over the winter months for NHS staff would help. The funding crisis was not
just a winter issue but affected every single bit of the NHS. Local Government –
Northamptonshire County council the situation there had occurred as a result of
poor decisions and policy making. 2 years ago, the Tory council had decided to
outsource all staff and services. Mismanagement had led to Finances being out
of control. By 2020 in Local government generally there would have been a 75%
cut to budgets. Sajid Javid had given £150 million to social care but this was
nowhere near enough to that needed to solve the social care crisis. On Local
government pay Andrea Egan from the North West referred to the decision to
recommend rejection of the pay offer and that she was proud of the North West and
the work that had been done with the Region sharing resources, materials and
best practice out to branches. One or two NEC members from other Regions had a
more pessimistic view about us delivering Industrial action over pay. Christine
McAnea, AGS praised the North West for its social care organising campaign.
Also discussions had taken place with UCU (college union) and PCS (Civil service union) about how to get good
turnouts in Industrial action ballots.
