Personal report of UNISON National Executive Council 17th October 2018

This was the first full NEC meeting since June. The meeting opened with a discussion of the Grovember recruitment campaign for November 2018. We were to use the principal of ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ to boost recruitment. This means small improvements in our processes can add up to a positive step change in our recruitment. Regions already had plans in place. An NEC member raised an issue of how in his branch members had not been able to join online and pay by DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at Source) recently. The Chair of D&O (Development and Organisation) said this would be looked into. Another member said Grovember was welcome his branch had a week of events lined up but asked could the new look member forms (after Trade Union Act changes) be personalised with branch contact details.

Organising report – we were now officially the largest Trade Union in the UK. An NEC member asked for guidance to be issued on the level of subs agency and bank staff should be paying as this was unclear. Another NEC member said his branch had 650 retired members and each time they are mailed (costing hundreds of pounds) mail had been returned unfortunately because of recently deceased members. Were there GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) implications of holding data on retired members who have passed away? 

General Secretary report– Dave Prentis referred to the previous discussion and said converting the whole union to Direct debit as could have been the case with the original Trade Union bill proposals could have broken the union but we had managed to get into parliament to lobby MPs to get changes to the Trade Union bill and we should remember this. 

There had been a number of Industrial Action successes including at Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh in the North West against Subco’s (Subsidiary companies – where NHS Trusts have been setting up private subsidiary companies (Subco’s) and transferring Trust assets including staff). This SubCo had been stopped. UNISON Industrial action had caused a pause on the roll out of the Subcos. 

Birmingham care workers had taken action. One of the Assistant General Secretaries had been involved in the negotiations. We had taken their case to the Labour conference. Members had beaten the Trade Union Act (in terms of ballot turnout) in a number of local disputes. There was the Barnsley dispute involving school meals supervisors. Members were now ‘putting their heads above the parapet.’ There was the strike by 8,000 low-paid women in Glasgow taking action to demand equal pay. 

Our recruiting and organising agenda was to build up membership density and break the horrors of austerity.

We had been involved over the recent months in the NHS at 70 demo, the Stop Trump demo in July, Black history month and the Wear red day for Show racism the red card. Over the summer 100,000 workers had gone onto the Living Wage due to the NHS pay deal. 

The President referred to an article on behalf of the Labour link committee that Dave Prentis, General Secretary had written for the New Statesman magazine suggesting Labour should adopt the full IHRA (International Holocaust remembrance alliance) definition of anti-Semitism with all it’s examples. It was stated by the President we were not discussing Labour link business. 

An NEC member from London asked about the Certification Officer report into the conduct of the General Secretary election 2015. Paid officials of the union had broken the union’s election rules. The NEC members understanding was that there was no legal embargo on discussing this and as appellants had withdrawn their appeal, what was the timescale for the review of this to be? The Development and Organisation subcommittee of the NEC had not seen the report.  The President gave a commitment that the Certification Officer report would be discussed at the NEC but stated that all outstanding cases were not finished. 

An NEC member from the North West asked for an update on the review of the next phase of Fighting Fund Organisers (FFO’s). The North West Regional Committee had asked about this.

I made a contribution about the 17^th November anti- racism demo in London which the TUC had voted to support at Congress recently – the fascists and UKIP (following their electoral failure) were turning to street organising, the US Alt right and Trump were giving them a boost. Tommy Robinson was using Islamophobia to try to build. But there was more awareness of the true nature of groups like the Football lads alliances. November 17^th (the national unity demo against racism and fascism) we should build as far as possible and we should take heart from the 200,000 anti-racists who had recently marched in Berlin. I asked that communications be sent out from the union nationally publicising the 17^th November demo. 

An NEC member raised an issue of that perhaps guidance could be sent to branches on keeping members safe on anti-racist and anti-fascist demos. 

Paul Holmes, NEC member for Local Government referred to disputes in Yorkshire and Humberside Region like Grimethorpe where there were plans to cut school dinners supervisors and replace them with Teaching assistants to supervise meals. Paul managed to get 2 quotes from Napoleon in his contribution. ‘If everything is equal morale is 90% of the battle’. And ‘the only one who knows more than anyone is everyone.’ And included a quote from the band the Stranglers to countermand Napoleon’s quotes - the mood on the ground amongst members as a result of austerity was that ‘something better change’. We should publish our successes with Industrial Action but also the percentages voting in ballots. Branch organisation was essential to get good turnouts in ballots. 

An NEC member who worked in the NHS referred to the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) General council stepping down following a vote of no confidence after putting similar if not identical information to the material that UNISON had distributed on the NHS pay offer and stated that branches at local level had been left to fight alone. In reply an NEC member who was a member of the Health SGE (Service Group Executive) said the RCN ran into trouble for saying things that weren’t true and by not using joint union materials. UNISON had given members accurate information. 

Dave Prentis said in regard to the 17^th November 2018 anti-racism demo in London (TUC were supporting) - we needed to be able to demonstrate and avoid violence. The demo was called at short notice but we would be supporting the demo and expected members to attend. 

There was no intention to stop Fighting Fund Organiser’s - we needed to put money in the budget. 

An NEC member from the North West asked what the basis for the article on IHRA in the New Statesman was. On anti-semitism, Dave Prentis said the NEC had made a decision at an earlier meeting – Anti Semitism is racism and is against the values of UNISON. This was accepted by the NEC at the time. The Labour link committee decision was an internal Labour Party process issue not a policy issue outside of the Labour Party. GMB and UNITE had done the same. This would not impinge on our Palestinian work (i.e. by Labour link committee adopting IHRA definition). We opposed the blockade of Gaza, the illegal settlements and called out the shooting of unarmed civilians. We are the strongest union as far as the work on Palestine goes and we are part of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). We had called for the ending of the detention of children. The IHRA does not stop the UNISON position on Palestine. An NEC member said some people would make mischief and try and use the IHRA definition to silence criticism of Israeli government policy and actions - this had happened in her branch. 

Dave Prentis said a message of support would be sent to Somerset county council where 130 job losses were proposed as part of cuts and also the Bolton, Birmingham and Grimethorpe disputes. 

Dave said he would be in Bolton the following Tuesday for the Bolton iFM dispute (a subco of the NHS Trust where the staff were in dispute over not receiving the nationally agreed 3 year pay deal for NHS staff) picket line. 

An NEC member said we should send a message of support to the 3 anti-fracking activists who had been sent to prison for peaceful direct action against the Cuadrilla site in Lancashire. The Judge in the case had direct family connections to the energy industry. The same NEC member also stated that there was a danger some councils could misuse the IHRA definition (see above) to target UNISON activists. 

Service Group campaigns – There was a national libraries demo on Saturday 3^rd November 2018. Materials had gone out already encouraging members to attend. There would be a major campaign in 2019 to raise the profile of Local Government workers and their occupations. 

Finance – It was reported that the union had accrued a surplus of £3.3 million in the first 8 months of the accounting year (Jan-Aug). This had been added to reserves. 2019 budgets were being set. Requests had come in which would lead to a £7 million deficit against projected income. There would be further discussions to lead to agreement about what the union could afford. A question was raised about when branches would hear about their ‘activity based budgeting uplifts for 2018. The Chair of Finance confirmed she hoped for decisions to be communicated before the end of the following week. 

The Campaign Fund subcommittee of the NEC (formerly the GPF – General Political Fund) – there were 2 vacancies. NEC members could self-nominate and there would be a vote following the NEC meeting in December.