Personal report of UNISON National Executive Council 6th June 2018

There was a meeting immediately following the NEC meeting of Labour link payers to nominate for the vacant reserved seat on national labour link committee.

The first part of the meeting dealt with NEC policy on Motions, amendments to motions and rule amendments for national conference 2018 in Brighton. The overwhelming majority the NEC position was to support – exceptions - Defer a decision on 72 Democratic socialism, 76 and 77 Universal basic income and 129 Branch funding. Motion 130,131 - A case system for UNISON branches – it was felt we were not technically able to do this at the moment but work would be ongoing to see how this could be facilitated.

Rule D a proposal to change male seats and black male seats on the NEC to general seats from women’s committee – this was left to conference to decide (the position brought to NEC from D&O subcommittee of NEC). 3 black members of the NEC spoke passionately in favour of the NEC taking a view and opposing the rule change as there were fears black men will see their under-representation increased. The Chair of D&O stated that delegates will get up and speak in a heartfelt manner from a variety of viewpoints. A vote was taken 33 to 11 to leave it to conference to decide. I was one of the 33.

A rule amendment from Bolton branch to change the maximum period a member could be barred from holding office after a disciplinary process from 36 months to 24 months – the majority of the NEC opposed this – there were 8 votes against and 3 abstentions. I abstained as I am bound by collective responsibility as a member of Development and Organisation subcommittee whose remit the proposed rule change is (see D&O report 16/05/18) having supported the rule amendment on D&O.

Amendments to motions – Again on the overwhelming majority of these the NEC position was to support – an exception was 20.2 amendment ‘Protecting our members and growing in Private contractors’ to a motion on outsourcing and Carillion - the position was seek withdrawal. The majority of the NEC were in favour of this position (Policy, Development and campaigns committee PDCC subcommittee had voted to bring this position to NEC).

There are 4 composite motions all supported - A. Strategic review of UNISON B. Palestine – End the detention of children C. Wholly owned subsidiary companies D. Universal Credit.

Draft order of business – Andrea Egan, NEC member from the North West Region asked had we managed to secure Jeremy Corbyn as speaker at conference? It was reported that Jeremy Corbyn was ‘extremely keen to accept’ the invite. We would be extremely flexible in trying to accommodate him.

Emergency motions – 1. Justice for the Windrush generation – the hostile environment should never have been discussed. 2. Stop Trump campaign. Dave Prentis, General Secretary had committed us to be a leader on this. Both unanimously supported.

General Secretary’s report – Dave Prentis congratulated NEC member Angie Roberts on attending the Jo Cox women in leadership programme. The national TUC demo on 12th May 2018 – it was reported that UNISON made up more than half the demo. Dave said we should have led the demo. We are working with the People’s assembly to make the NHS 70th birthday demo on 30th June 2018 a big success.

The 9th June 2018 counter demo in London to the racist and fascist ‘Free Tommy Robinson’ march. Dave said we did support the counter demo. The FLA and DFLA (Football lads alliances) were far right groupings. We are for the eradication of racism. Racism is against the values of our union.

Dave had met Michael Braithwaite one of the Windrush generation. NEC member Hugo Pierre from the Camden branch was his steward – a thank you was given to Hugo. Through UNISON’s support Michael had secured his legal status in the UK and had a chance to return to his old job.

A delegation had been sent to Northampton County council leadership to try to make sure workers did not pay the price of the Tories incompetence (the council had run out of money).

Palestine – the situation was a ‘massacre’ - 100 had been killed and 12,000 injured in Gaza. Ambulance workers had risked their lives to rescue protesters. A 2 state solution needed to be formulated as quickly as possible. The move of the US embassy to Jerusalem – there was no need for this and Trump knew what he was doing.

Dave went through a number of disputes where UNISON members are taking action. It was crucial we were not held back by the anti-union legislation. In Wigan NHS members had taken 2 days of strike action against plans to transfer them to a private company. There was a dispute in Kirklees cleansing department. Kirklees college dispute was settled with the branch meeting its negotiating objectives.

Croyde Bay holiday centre was congratulated for achieving a Trip Advisor award for excellence.

Questions and statements to the report: Kirklees bin workers had got a big majority on turnout and yes vote. An NEC member said we needed to prioritise our anti-racist and anti-fascist work so that it became mainstream and should anti-racist fringe meetings not be in the conference venue itself? It was stated it was too late for this year although there were at least 2 fringe meetings on opposing racism. The North West Region had set up it’s own collective action teams involving groups of Regional staff who go into branches to support members and to help win ballots of members. Too often branches had had to learn for themselves on the fly due to an absence of strategic support.

I reported back on the 2 counter demos organised by Stand up to racism, Trade Unions and local labour councillors in Manchester against the racist FLA and DFLA who had tried to exploit the anniversary of the Arena attack for bigoted, racist ends. The UNISON national banner had been on both counter protests.

Palestine – members were encouraged to get motions passed at their branches supporting medical aid for Palestinians.

Organising update – April was usually a poor month. 30% of new joiners were now in the private sector. It was getting harder to get people to sign up to the political funds when people join online (because of not having face to face conversations).

Service Group pay campaigns - We were identifying strategic disputes e.g. at WWL in Wigan. If we could successfully hold off staff being moved to subsidiary it would send a clear message to other employers. Paul Holmes, NEC member for Local Government said the national union needed to make sure the message about strategic disputes was received in the Regions. Often the delay in securing Industrial Action ballots was not down to the national office or national Industrial Action Committee. Urgency needed to be impressed on Regional offices.

Health – In response to the national Secretary for Health’s report – on Agenda for Change the ballot on the pay offer had closed the previous day the turnout was ‘just short of 30%’. Karen Reissmann, NW NEC member raised concerns about restrictions being put on branches in terms of what they could and couldn’t do during the ballot period. There was nothing in the rule book to stop branches having a different opinion than their Service Group Executive (SGE). In other Service Groups branches had made their own recommendations.

In response to the national secretary for Local Government’s report, Sean Fox, an NEC member from the London Region said the NJC Pay award (Local Government) was complicated we needed to make this stick in non-core employers to make sure the people benefited who should be benefiting. All 3 unions had accepted the offer in Police and Justice after a slight improvement to it.

Finance – There was a slight decline in DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at Source) income but the DOCAS work as a result of the Trade Union Act was very positive. Direct Debit (DD) income was positive. The Financial statements were signed off for 2017 and the external auditors had reported that the statements were accurate. The Industrial Action Fund had £29.7 million. At the end of 2017 there were £244 million reserves excluding pension liability.

Personal report of Development and Organisation sub committee of UNISON NEC 16th May 2018

Motions submitted to national conference re: the 25 year review of UNISON would likely generate more work for D&O.

Recruiting – we were the best recruiting union in the UK – the challenge was retaining members. Recruitment of young members was slightly down. Recruitment was variable across the Regions. Our key challenge was in the 150,000 workplaces covering 35,000 employers – We needed more activists.

There was an agenda item the snappily titled ‘Every one of our 20,000 activists to recruit 8 members’ – in our 25^th anniversary year we needed to recruit and turn members into activists’. An NEC member said we needed to recruit definitely but we should think how we pitched this on top of the work we had already got.

DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at source) update – 95 to 96% of our income had been secured (Trade Union Act changes).

Learning and organising services – We needed to recruit more Union learning reps. (ULR’s).

Schools campaign activity – there had been significant job cuts. Schools in Scotland had faced a 20% cut. The £10 introductory offer by the NEU (National Education Union) had been a significant issue last year. Roger McKenzie, Assistant General Secretary referred to unnecessary competition between unions going after the same people already in a union – this was not growing the Trade Union movement.

RMS/WARMS update (UNISON membership system) It was good to know we were already GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) compliant. I asked a question about a recent occasion where there had been lengthy downtime of the system over several consecutive days – this it was stated was due to infrastructure changes. Audit certificate – for compliance we needed evidence of when people joined, were lapsed etc. to show adequate controls were in place.

Appendix 2 – guidance on the use of the new Appendix 2 (for dealing with misconduct by members in relation to UNISON employees) had been produced including guidance on investigation panels and the conduct of meetings and this was agreed.

Women’s conference motions referred to D&O – these action points were for noting.

National Delegate Conference (NDC) 2018 – provisional policy on motions and amendments to motions and rule amendments – The motions were all support except deferred was policy on M130, M131  - ‘a case system for UNISON branches’. This would be discussed at the June meeting before national conference. A proposed rule amendment from women’s conference to change male seats and black members male seats on the NEC to general seats – this was left open to conference to decide. John Jones, North West NEC member and from the Water, Environment and Transport (WET) service group said WET Service Group Executive had mandated him to oppose this – all on WET exec. Except one had been against. I said if the NEC opposed outright it would be likely some would support for this reason. A vote was taken – 2 voted that our policy would be to oppose the rule amendment the rest (including me) to leave to conference to decide. Disciplinary action (Rule I) – a motion from Bolton branch proposed to change the maximum period a member could be barred from holding office from 3 to 2 years. The argument from 1 or 2 NEC members was that if the change was to 2 years and it was a serious case there was more likely to be a dismissal (expulsion) from membership. An NEC member from the London Region said that in the previous debates at NDC, 2 years was on the table but had been withdrawn to seek consensus and if 3 years as had been stated was not used then leave it as is as a last resort. An NEC member said that if an employer had 15 months for a final written warning and we had 2 years – how would it look if the union was harder? It was stated that if the alleged disciplinary offence was financial irregularity the member usually resigned before it got to the discipline stage. A vote was taken such that our policy was to oppose these rule amendments (RA11,12) 12 votes to 7. I was one of the 7 (I.e. in favour of the move to 2 years from 3).

Branches in Regional supervision (this was usually by Chair’s action). We were asked to endorse one particular case where there appeared to be insufficient information provided and some including me were uncomfortable in endorsing this. A vote was taken - 11 supported placing the branch in Regional supervision, 6 opposed and there was 1 abstention. I voted to oppose.

Certification Officer – there was nothing to report.

A number of nominations for places at the TUC Congress in September were agreed.

Nominations for the TUC learning rep, Health and Safety and organising and Women’s gold badge awards were agreed.

Chair’s actions – agreed that a branch in the North West - a retired member could be Treasurer for a year. Another larger branch in the Yorkshire and Humberside Region a similar request was refused – there was no reason they could not find a full member to undertake the role. In response to a query – unemployed members could not hold branch officer positions unless approved by the NEC.