Personal report of the UNISON National Executive Council 13th April 2016

At the start of the meeting the President referred to a number of queries concerning the ERS (Electoral Reform Services) report in relation to the General Secretary election the result of which had been declared in December 2015. The independent scrutineer had upheld a number of complaints regarding breaches of election procedures but it was stated the issue of whether the breaches influenced the election result was considered carefully but ERS concluded there was ‘minimal evidence the breaches influenced voting intentions of members and the overall ballot result’.

In the light of an ongoing investigation by the Certification officer (CO) as a result of complaints received by the CO there was to be no further debate at this time – this it was stated was standard practice in the light of the possibility of actual or contemplated litigation. The CO had written to the union with complaints and they were being dealt with by the unions legal department. There were areas of work to be taken up by the Development and Organisation (D&O) subcommittee of the NEC in future on i) Participation levels in the election and ii) Election procedures.

Also referred to by the President was a report commissioned by one of the Assistant General Secretary’s and conducted by an independent person into Access issues at NEC meetings. The report stated current arrangements were ‘exemplary’ subject to a couple of suggested improvements to be put in place.

A number of colleagues were welcomed back after ill health and obituaries were also read out with a minute’s silence observed.

Provisional policy on motions and proposed NEC amendments to motions was discussed. The great majority of motions (that make it onto the agenda and are not ruled out of order for various reasons) are supported by the NEC and seen as uncontentious. There was some discussion on Motion 1 The Trade union bill – policy was to defer – as we didn’t know where the Tory legislation was going on this (in particular on DOCAS - Deduction of contributions at source or check off) – the position could be changed at a later date depending on this. The first group of motions were relevant to D&O subcommittee that had met the previous day – the position was unchanged on these see – http://tonypwilson63.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/personal-report-of-development-and.html

Motions that were relevant to Policy committee were considered – again the great majority were supported by the NEC. Motion 27 Pension Funds: Divestment from fossil fuel extraction - policy was to support as amended. The motion, it was stated, was in accord with Environmental policy but there were also important issues that needed to be considered like the Governance of funds and the Government’s intentions to amalgamate Pension funds.  29 Keep it local, Keep it public - policy was to support with qualifications. 30 Cancel PFI contracts - there was an NEC amendment - policy was support as amended after some debate at the meeting. The debate centred around us not wanting to compensate the rich companies involved in PFI contracts the counter argument was without compensation our Pension funds could take a hit.  32 The threat to Local democracy – support with qualifications. 34 The Housing crisis – support and amend. 37,38 (similar motions) Extending the Right to buy to Housing associations and ‘Pay to stay’ - support and amend. 40 and 41 Kill the Housing bill and Social Care – a system in danger of collapse - support and amend. 44 Open libraries - support and amend. 42,45 Crisis in social care and Public ownership of Energy utilities - support with qualifications. 47 Attacks on democracy – support and amend. The amendment referred to giving Regions autonomy to deal with developments such as the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ in their own areas.  67 Universal basic income – support with qualifications. 68 Workers under attack – support with qualifications. 69 Democratic socialism – defer – A question was raised on this – if we have concerns on this why don’t we move an amendment. We then moved to the International motions 79 and 80 Support Peace negotiations in Turkey - were support and amend – calling on the Turkish government to respect human rights and the release all political prisoners to enable them to take part in peace negotiations. 81 Saudi Arabia – support and amend. The amendment broadens out the motion. 89 and 90. Chibok girls - a minor amendment to replace wording of ‘International Crimes commission’ with ‘International Criminal court’.  94 to 98 on the EU referendum – defer. (There was a debate on this later in the meeting). 102 – The refugee crisis: The media’s reporting and it’s negative impact. Support and amend. The GPF (General Political Fund) was producing national materials for use by branches. 111 – The impact of social care cuts on NHS waiting and response times - Support and amend. 112 – Support the NHS bill to reinstate a publicly funded, publicly provided and accountable NHS. – support with qualifications. 120 Prostate cancer testing – support and amend. Then the Finance motions were discussed – 122, 123 and 124 – The future of branch funding - defer. There was to be a discussion with the branches submitting the motions before policy was recommended.

125 (D&O) Branch directory – defer. 126. Recognising continued long membership of the union (long service badges) – support.

NEC policy on rule amendments was discussed. These are relevant to D&O (see previous blog post).

Priorities – the NEC’s 12 priority motions were 1. Trade Union bill. 2.Trade Union facilities 3. Living standards and Pay justice. 4. Fairer taxation. 5. Privatisation of DFID. 6. Welfare and Work. 7. Health and Safety. 8. Strengthening our union. 9. TTIP. 10. Welfare and work 11. Stop outsourcing 12. Exploitation in supply chains.

The 6 priority rule amendments – 4,13 and 16 and 2,3 and 7

If there is a grouped debate on the Private contractor’s national forum rule amendments 2,3,7,8 and 14 would all be priorities. 

Draft NEC report – The report aimed to capture NEC activities between conferences. There was some comment from an NEC member that the tone of the report suggested ‘business as usual’ rather than reflecting that Local Government, in particular, was taking a hammering under Government austerity. It was not business as usual. It was also asked could there be more reference to the Equalities conferences which had been very well attended.

Conference Plan – guest speakers had not been confirmed yet. John Jones from the North West and WET service group asked if North West Regional Health and Safety committee were having a stall in the UNIZONE – it was confirmed this was the case.

There was then the debate on the EU referendum – this was lengthy, conducted in a respectful spirit with some very good points made on both sides of the argument. The union had conducted a consultation with members and branches and members wanted us to show leadership on this issue. The agenda on the referendum had been hijacked by big business and those with a racist agenda. 70% of members wanted us to take a position and 95% of those branches who wanted us to make a recommendation wanted the position be that the UK should stay in the EU. This was the recommendation to the full NEC from the Policy subcommittee of the NEC.

Some of the points made for remain were that the EU was far from perfect but that we should campaign for workers’ rights in a social Europe. It was right that we should show leadership and remain was the lesser evil and sometimes the lesser evil was the best we could get. It was obvious that if the vote was to leave this would give a boost to the most reactionary forces. It would be Nigel Farage who would be crowing on TV the next day if the vote was to leave. There was legal opinion from the TUC on how a reactionary government could dismantle employment rights legislation on exit from the EU.  The left’s position in the 1980’s was correct in terms of not wanting to be part of the ‘common market’ but we are not now in the 1980’s but part of a global economy. If we think we are delivering a blow to David Cameron on leaving the EU the reality is we would be delivering a blow to ourselves and our members. Another NEC member said that a remain position does not mean we accept TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership).

Those speaking for leave the EU said there was no democracy in the Common market you could not reform it it is an austerity club, you cannot oppose TTIP and say we should stay in the EU. What had happened to Greece was about telling Ireland, Spain and Italy this is what will happen to you if you oppose austerity. If there was a leave vote there would be a General election this was why Jeremy Corbyn was facing media attacks. There would be a recession in the next 5 years if we stayed in we would suffer and it would be that worse than in 2008.

There was a summation before the vote was taken - 58,000 members had responded in the consultation; the NEC was entrusted in between national conferences to make a decision. We would put out balanced information to members who were worried about the impact on workers’ rights and public services – so the recommendation was to remain on the basis of much needed reform.

The vote was taken and was overwhelmingly in favour of campaigning to remain to stay in the EU (this included most members of the left caucus of the NEC).

General Secretary’s report – Dave Prentis, General Secretary referred to Rule amendment J on the union’s political fund – this had to be agreed by the NEC, Affiliated Political Fund (APF) and General Political Fund (GPF) and the Certification Officer. The GPF and APF had approved the motion. No procedures that had been in place since 1993 had been broken. Dave pointed out the irony of Donald Trump being against TTIP while Hilary Clinton was in favour of it. The Trade Union bill was the biggest thing for us – we had had major victories in the House of Lords. We needed to persuade the Lords to stay strong on i) Political funds ii) Check off. The 5 year review of political funds is out, only new members have to opt in, not existing members. Re-balloting on Industrial Action is to be extended to 6 or 9 months.  

Organising update - there had been membership increases in February and March but there were health warnings due to continuing Government austerity and its impact on public service jobs.

Service Group pay campaigns – NJC pay – there was an Industrial Action Committee meeting following the NEC meeting to consider whether or not to proceed to a ballot. Business, Community and Environment – the employer at Action for Children had come back to the negotiating table after an 84% vote for action - this wouldn’t have happened had members not shown they were willing to stand up.

Personal report of Development and Organisation sub committee of the UNISON NEC 12th April 2016

The committee considered provisional policy on motions to national conference to take place in Brighton in June and that were relevant to D&O Committee and to recommend policy to the full NEC.

Motion 1 – an organising response to the Trade Union bill – policy was to defer, the rationale being that there was concern that the motion called for an immediate switch from DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at source or 'check off') to Direct Debit in response to the Tories Trade Union bill. The bill was still going through the Commons and Lords and by deferring we gave ourselves time so we would have a better idea of where the legislation was going. Whilst this position was understandable a couple of us felt to be fair to the motion it was actually saying the union should have the necessary resources and materials to enable the switch rather than an immediate switch. Other unions were already doing this. We could review our position right up to the date of the national conference.

The following motions were all supported: 2. Organising for growth in the Community and Voluntary sector 3. Increasing young women’s attendance at National Delegate Conference 4. Supporting our activists who have to deal with stressful situations 5. Bullying and young members 6. Strengthening our union, supporting and developing our members (NEC motion) 7. Supporting stewards during times of austerity 8. Trade Union and FE studies.

9. Supporting shared branch resource centres – the position was to support and amend. The branch funding element was referred to the Finance committee.

10. Code of Good branch practice – seek withdrawal (the motion asked to update the Code of Good branch practice every 2 years and to encourage its access electronically – the Code of Good branch practice is already updated every 2 years and is available on the UNISON website). 11. Electronic use of the national rule book – this was felt to be a useful motion the recommendation however was to have a wider discussion about usage and availability - remit. 12. My union, your union, our union encouraging engagement – support.

13. and 14. Branch self-organised groups – support and amend. 15. Representation of members in FE - TBC. 16 Trade Union facilities (NEC motion) and 126. Recognising continued membership of the union (long service badges for members from 10 to 50 years) – support.

We then considered proposed D&O amendments to motions on 9 – supporting shared branch resource centres, 13 and 14 Branch self-organised groups and 15 . Representation of members in FE.

Proposed policy of D&O on rule amendments – There was a raft of motions again calling for a move from annual to biennial – national delegate conference, service group conferences, election of branch officers and stewards. We opposed this last time after consulting Regional Convenors, Self organised groups etc. the feeling was that opinion had not changed since then. We did not want to weaken the democratic accountability of the union. So rule amendments 1,5,6,11 and 12 were all opposed.

2,3,7,8 10 and 14 were all supported and concerned the establishment of a private contractor’s forum and the right to speak at and attend national conferences. 

4 - from national disabled members committee - defer as wider consultation was to take place before national delegate conference.

9 – A rule change to enable Service Group executive representatives who are also branch delegates to be elected as Chair or Vice Chairperson of the group’s Regional Committee – defer so advice cold be sought on how the various Regions deal with this. One committee member said the situation was ‘a dog’s breakfast’ currently.

13 – Rule J the political fund - to comply with the law the position was to support but this could be changed if the Lords amends on the Trade Union bill get through the Commons.

15 – Schedule A rates of subscription for retired members - referred to the Finance committee.

16 Schedule C elections – support – this change would allow the union to consider alternative voting methods for Service Group Executive elections e.g electronic voting, .

NEC rule amendments for the priorities ballot - these were rule amendments 2,3,7,8,13 and 16.

Personal report of the UNISON National Executive Council Wednesday 17th February 2016

The start of the meeting discussed the delay in the publication of the Returning officer’s report in relation to the General Secretary election – I have already blogged on this: http://tonypwilson63.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-return-of-returning-officer.html

The early part of this meeting was taken up by considering the NEC’s motions from its strategic committees to this year’s National Delegate Conference which will be held in Brighton.

There are 12 NEC motions to Conference: 1. Trade union facilities, 2. Strengthening our union: Supporting and developing our stewards, 3. Opposing DFID’s privatisation agenda (DFID – UK Government’s Department for International Development), 4. Eradicating exploitation in supply chains, 5. Welfare and Work: Social Security provision for all, 6. Fairer Taxation and the future funding of our public services, 7. Public service workers under pressure, 8. Public Service Campaigning - Stop outsourcing and protect members, 9. Health and safety of public service staff, 10. Living standards, pay justice and the living wage, 11. Building the campaign against European Union Trade and Investment Agreements, 12. Trade Union Bill

There was also an NEC motion and report (fairly lengthy) to Conference on the Branch Resources review. I and a number of other NEC members were not happy that these had been tabled on the day and we therefore had not had time to read this material beforehand which was likely to be controversial at Conference.

Most of the 12 NEC motions were seen as uncontroversial. There was some debate however on the motion on the Trade Union bill and whether there should be an amendment, which was proposed by an NEC member, - ‘including Industrial Action co-ordinated through the TUC if any member union faces sanctions arising from the Trade Union bill.’ – this was to be inserted after the first action point in the motion. After a debate this was lost when put to the vote.  I voted in favour of the amendment.

There was then some discussion on the Branch resources review report and accompanying motion. The motion has since been titled ‘Gateway to the future: Stable and sustainable branch resources’. The report and motion propose ‘activity based budgeting’ to be rolled out to all branches which it was stated has already been piloted with branches covering 30% of the membership, and ‘that the current percentage of subscription income allocated to branch funding, 23.5 %, delivers sufficient funds to cover all branch activities’, ‘the process involves branch committees producing a work plan and a budget which reflects UNISON’s objectives’, and ‘the specific needs for resources are identified as part of the joint branch assessment’.

There is a proposal that ‘those branches that have insufficient funds to support their agreed work plans will in 2016 receive an automatic top-up from the regional pool, providing immediate support to branches most in need.’ ‘All branches will be required to produce annual activity based budgets’, ‘where a branch has agreed a work plan and budget as part of the joint branch assessment process, but does not have the resources to meet the work plan, there will be a provision for the branch budget to be automatically topped up from the Regional pool.’ Also ‘Where a branch wants to fund activities that are not agreed as part of the joint branch assessment as meeting the union’s objectives, there will be an appeal process whereby the budget is referred to a joint regional council body for resolution’. ‘During 2016, in consultation with Regions, the regional pool structure and criteria will be revised to facilitate the automatic funding for branches whose reserves are insufficient to fund their activity-based budget work plan.’  

The discussion on this was returned to later in the meeting (under the Finance item) and we moved to discussion of proposed rule amendments to be discussed at Conference. These included one allowing the NEC to determine that UNISON SGE (Service Group Executive) elections be by either postal ballot and/or electronic ballot i.e. to consider alternative voting methods. This was agreed as were a number of rule amendments arising from a private contractor’s seminar to enshrine the right of private sector members to speak and attend National Delegate Conference and Service Group Conference and to establish a private contractor’s national forum.   

On the Conference plan item - The UNIZONE will run this year from Sunday to Friday and international speakers will include somebody each from Ireland, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the international builders federation with particular emphasis on the football World Cup and a last minute suggestion was welcomed of inviting Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party.

The highlights of the General Secretary’s report included UNISON’s support for the BMA (British Medical Association) in their fight against Junior Doctors having new contracts imposed. The NEC sent them a message of support. It was repeated that there would be an industrial response from the union if the Government tried to make any detrimental changes to unsocial hour’s payments of UNISON members in the NHS. A number of NEC members said we should be asking the TUC to consider a national demonstration to defend the NHS and in support of the Junior Doctors.

There is industrial action taking place in UNISON’s Further Education Sector on 24^th February 2016 and again we sent them our good wishes. UNISON continues to oppose student nurses bursaries being removed.

UNISON has launched a joint campaign with mental health charity MIND called Blue Light which deals with mental health issues. The scheme is supported by the ambulance and other emergency services and aims to provide mental health support for emergency services staff and volunteers across England. 1 in 4 people will suffer from mental health issues at some point in any year and some of these will be issues at work.  

Dave Prentis, General Secretary reported that this year’s Black Members Conference was the best attended yet with some 750 in attendance. Equally, Women’s Conference attracted about 800.

Dave Prentis referred to the Trade Union bill as the biggest threat to our Trade Union. The bill was going through the Lords. Some changes (in the right direction) had been made re: use of social media in relation to disputes. There were differences between the unions in terms of ballot thresholds. UNISON had argued for workplace balloting. UNITE would accept a 50% threshold if they could have electronic balloting. UNITE has taken a harder line subsequently. The Bishops in the Lords had been sympathetic. One NEC member (from the North West) quipped that hopefully a few thunderbolts as well would be sent from on high in the direction of the Tories. We had to make sure that the end result wasn’t that members lost the protection of their union. The devolved nations have said they won’t countenance such plans as contained in this Bill.

Dave Prentis said we needed to have a debate about an interim rule change to go to conference to protect our political fund. We needed a holding motion to conference on this. If the default was members had to sign up to go into the fund rather than being in unless they opt out and we didn’t take remedial action in terms of a rule change our income would go down within a matter of weeks.

One of the Assistant General Secretaries reported that there should be a 3^rd collection date for Direct Debit payment of subscriptions by the end of February 2016. There would be a RMS/WARMS (the UNISON membership system) upgrade over the May bank holiday also including a reporting mechanism on how many had switched from check off. The North West Region had developed a switch ready check list so that before a branch switches all the building blocks would be in place.

One of the national officers reported there was an initiative to support this work – the big UNISON prize draw that would aim to increase the membership data.

Dave Prentis again referred to the unions political fund and that if the change in the Trade Union bill went through we would have to sign up 1 million people to the political fund in 3 months to retain our right and ability to politically campaign. One of the NEC members referred to it being essential that it is agreed as a stopgap (the rule amendment) otherwise the consequence could be we would have new members in the union who did not contribute to the political fund.  

Under the organising report we heard that private sector recruitment was continuing to increase as a proportion of recruitment and that 70% of joiners now join online. Job losses continued, though, with Local Government being particularly hard hit. Concern was rightly expressed about the likely cessation of state funding for Trade Union education in the not too distant future and the union was awaiting a response on the future of Unionlearn.

EU referendum – Whilst the union had established policy in relation to the European Union (EU) itself and the various treaties that had arisen over time e.g. Maastricht, Lisbon etc., we did not have a policy as yet on whether the UK should stay or leave the EU. A consultation would take place with members to consider what position, if any, the union should take on this. Briefing materials and a consultation questionnaire would be sent to branches. There would also be a series of Regional meetings. This would be fed back to the NEC’s policy committee to look at, the policy committee would then make a decision for referral to the NEC meeting in April. The referendum date was believed (subsequently confirmed) to be Thursday 23^rd June 2016.  

Finance - The management accounts for the 12 months to the end of December 2015 were approved.

There was then a fairly lengthy debate and discussion of the Branch resources review motion and report referred to earlier with concerns and reservations expressed from North West NEC members that branches were struggling with outsourcing/privatisation etc. but with no extra funding. There was not an automatic top up proposed as had been suggested but a process where branches had to apply and this would be seen as bureaucratic. Branches would challenge the statement in the motion that branch retention at 23.5% was sufficient to cover all branch activities. Since the funding formula was introduced there had been many changes in the challenges branches had had to face over that time. There was falling membership and income in many branches but the basic overheads like premises and employing staff remained the same and there was no reduction in the work branches had to do. This was not being addressed in the motion and report but the proposal was that branches could get extra money on the basis of planned activity. One of the North West NEC members suggested that this may well go down like a lead balloon at conference. After the debate however the motion was carried.

John Jones, Water, Environment and Transport Service Group NEC member and also from the North West reported on the positive outcome in United Utilities branch regarding the removal of the threat to close the Defined Benefit pension scheme (for the time being) following healthy returns for strike action and action short of strike by UNISON and the 3 smaller Trade Unions at United Utilities.

Finally under NEC minutes after a number of NEC members had submitted written questions as to why there was no reference in the minutes to the statement read out regarding the General Secretary election by the President at the start of the 9^th December 2015 meeting, it was agreed the minutes would be amended to reflect this.  

The Return of the Returning officer

At the start of the NEC meeting held on Wednesday 17^th February 2016 the UNISON President made a statement that the union was still waiting for the returning officer’s report in relation to the General Secretary election – the result of which was declared on 17^th December 2015. The President expressed frustration that this was the case (This report has now been published on the UNISON national website - Friday 19^th February 2016).

See here: https://www.unison.org.uk/search/elections/

https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2016/02/UNISON-General-Secretary-Election-2015-Returning-Officers-Report-February-2016.pdf

It had been hoped the report would have been ready by 11^th January 2016. NEC members from the North West (myself included) asked a number of questions about the reasons for the delay as it was unusual for the report not to be available on the date the election result was declared. The President stated that she assumed the reason for the delay was because there had been so many complaints and that the union had a duty to publish the report. 
A highlight of the report now published was that ’83 complaints were received regarding staff in the Greater London Region, specifically that UNISON staff during working time were undertaking campaigning activities. The basis of all these complaints was a recording and a transcript of a meeting that took place at the Greater London UNISON offices at 2 p.m. on 21^st October 2015.’ ‘These complaints are, as at the date of this report, the subject of an ongoing investigation by the union.’ – Report dated 18^th February 2016.  
There is some analysis that any undue influence by these campaigning activities in the Greater London Region has not affected the outcome of the election - ‘of the 12 regions the percentage vote for Dave Prentis in the Greater London Region is the 2^nd lowest percentage votes he received by Region. ‘It should also be emphasised that the returning officer has not at any stage been presented with any evidence that suggests that any candidates were directly involved in, or had any knowledge of any of the activities that were the subject of the complaints’.

There needs to be a period of reflection on all of this and the union’s NEC should have the opportunity to discuss the conclusion and recommendations of the report. There are a number of issues including the poor turnout in the election (9.8%), much lower than previous General Secretary elections, which shows a worrying disengagement of members from their union.  There is also a further article in the latest ‘Private Eye’ magazine on the UNISON General Secretary election ‘Flexible friends’ No. 1412 19^th February – 3^rd March 2016 which raises further worrying concerns for the union. This was raised by a North West NEC member at the meeting on 17^th February 2016 asking was there an investigation into the new Private Eye allegations? The President replied that she had not seen the Private Eye allegations.  

I will blog a full report of the rest of the business discussed at the NEC meeting on 17^th February 2016 separately.

Personal report of Development and Organisation subcommittee of the UNISON NEC 13th January 2016

Under the Recruitment and Organising report the figures up to the end of last year indicated there had been a net membership loss of 36,851 members this was of a membership of 1.25 million. It was stated by the national officer, Strategic Organising that compared to other unions we were doing quite well in a difficult period. 30% of those joining are not directly employed in the public sector (Private and voluntary sector). Membership in the Health service continues to hold up. The nature of the union is gradually changing as a result of these trends. Turnover rate was about 15%. This meant we had to recruit 180,000 members a year to stand still. Turnover had been about 11% before the austerity years. There were a lot of people in the public sector not in a union – so it was not the case we should focus everything on the private and voluntary sector.
Annual Line Count process - at the end of September a manual line count of the DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at Source) schedules from employers is undertaken and member figures are added for members who pay by other methods. Regions were asked to take the DOCAS schedule information for 96% of their DOCAS membership. The annual line count process indicated a 17% turnover. Membership at 30^th September 2015 was 1,254,250. In early 2017 UNISON will have its membership audited by an assurer so a Membership Audit Certificate can be issued and next year the membership figures will be taken from RMS/WARMS. This means there needs to be an intensive data cleansing process between October and December 2016.

Overseas members recruitment (Overseas nurses organising campaign) – a report had been circulated by the Head of Strategic Organising which also highlighted Government hypocrisy on immigration. The Government had failed to ensure that there were sufficient trained staff in the NHS but had also removed nursing from the shortage occupation list of migration and restricted the rights of non- EU migrants to apply for permanent residency if their salary was less than £35,000. This meant that migrant nurses including UNISON members would be faced with dismissal from their jobs from April 2016. UNISON organised a successful campaign to get the Government to withdraw these measures. On 15^th October 2015 Theresa May announced she has temporarily included nursing on the Shortage occupation list. It is estimated 2,000 to 3,000 overseas nurses have been recruited by UNISON organisers.

A report was received on organising in UNISON Four seasons Healthcare project. Membership has been growing to a reasonable density. The aim was also to build up the membership in Care UK.

There was an item on Private contractor organisation and organising strategy – These were recommendations that came out of a recent private contractors national seminar which was held on 9^th/10^th November 2015. Work had been done to implement a 2014 National Delegate Conference resolution on Organising in fragmented workplaces which was referred to in the 2015 annual report. 4 main issues identified in the seminar were 1) Private contractors structures and democracy 2) Private contractor planning and branch allocation 3) Private contractor activist development 4) Private contractor membership eligibility. 3 options were put to the seminar 1) Do nothing 2) Have private contractors as a full blown Service Group 3) Establish national private contractor forums.  Option 3 was agreed as the best and most pragmatic by the forum and D&O Committee. For the first of the 4 issues above rule changes were approved by D&O to go to full NEC to allow the Private Contractors national forum to submit 2 motions and amendments to National Conference and individual Service Group conferences. There was a 7 page appendix tabled on Membership eligibility – UNISON Rulebook interpretation. ‘UNISON rules permit recruitment and organising across private sector employers that have some public service function’. The general assumption was we take people into membership in the private sector unless there is a compelling reason not to.

The Head of RMS Operations stated that there was a plan to get reports to Regions on a weekly basis of all join online members with a list of employers also an email would be sent to Branch Secretaries with this information so they are 100% aware of join online members going into their branch.

Under Recruitment and Organising in schools update – UNISON membership had peaked in schools in Autumn 2014 but there had been a significant increase in leavers since then. Around half of our members in schools are teaching/classroom assistants. Recruitment had spiked when linked to specific campaigns e.g. industrial action over Pensions or NJC disputes. 20% of our total membership is in schools with 13% of the total membership being teaching assistants. Possible reasons were given for the recent loss of members – a cut back in support staff and other unions being more aggressive. There was also the lack of a recent campaign around pay.

Under Learning and Organising activity we were presented with various tables which showed stats for reps, Health and Safety reps and Union Learning reps trained in 2015 compared to 2014 by Region. 447 new stewards had been appointed in the North West in 2015 with 124 of these being Employment Relations Act (ERA) accredited by the end of 2015. 

Continued development of the RMS – Development has started to introduce a third collection date for Direct Debit payers at the end of the calendar month in addition to the 1^st and 15^th of the month where we already collect subscriptions. This was welcomed by the committee. I stated that this was not just a technical matter as there are competitor unions offering 2 or 3 dates plus a 4 weekly option.  RMS has continued to be developed to support any mass DOCAS to Direct Debit switch.

We approved 2 motions to go from D&O to NEC for submission to 2016 National Delegate Conference – one on ‘Trade Union facilities’ and the other on ‘ Strengthening our union: Supporting and developing our stewards’. D&O is entitled to 2 of the 12 motions the NEC as a whole can submit. Rule amendments were also approved to go the NEC in relation to the establishment of the Private Contractors national forum referred to earlier in this report and also on Schedule C on elections which allows the NEC to consider alternative voting methods for Service Group Executive elections.

8 Branches are currently under Regional supervision – none from the North West.

We received full documentation regarding a Certification Officer’s decision with reference to a complaint by a disgruntled ex-activist which generally found in favour of the branch concerned although 1 rule does need updating at their AGM this year. 

An honorary life membership award was approved.

Personal report of the UNISON National Executive Council Wednesday 9th December 2015

I have already blogged about certain other matters that are still ongoing:

http://tonypwilson63.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/unison-nec-tries-to-shut-unisongate.html

but here is my report of the rest of the NEC meeting held on 9th December 2015:

The meeting moved to the rest of the business - several NEC members were welcomed back after illness and Best Wishes were sent to former NEC member Max Watson who was also ill. The President also made reference to the serious injury (from which he has now recovered) of John Jones from the North West and WET service group.

A number of obituaries were read out including for Craig Wilde of North West Ambulance service UNISON branch.

There was a Service Group update given ‘Pay campaign/National industrial action’. It was asked by an NEC member ‘Did we have a strategy on Pay?’ It was also asked by a number of NEC members what were we planning to do on pay? and what would be co-ordinated between Service groups in terms of Industrial Action? This appeared vague from the written report that had been circulated beforehand. In reply it was stated that ‘smart forms of Industrial action’ i.e. including selective action were being floated as a point for discussion. There had been a pay summit in the Autumn involving service group reps, Regional activists and Self organised groups at which this had been discussed.   

John Jones from the North West reported that the Environment Agency (EA) had got slightly better than the 1% pay increase given elsewhere. It was hoped that the EA would not be subject to cuts any more than already the case. The NEC was asked to send a message of support to the workers who had done sterling work as regards the recent floods.

Forward planning and Budgets 2016 - In response to this report it was asked by an NEC member – how much was in the Industrial Action (I.A) fund? And over the last few months in that NEC members branch there had been an increase in members who elected to pay into the Affiliated political fund (APF) now increasing from 25% to 40% of members – was this being reflected nationally?

Another NEC member asked ‘in the budget figures which line is it where we had spent money on the General Secretary election?’ and if we had to rerun the General Secretary election where would we find that money? The President advised the last question would not be answered today. Finance would be contacted over the other questions and the information hopefully would be available before the end of the meeting. There was also an Industrial Action committee after the full NEC at which information would be provided.

Draft objectives 2016 – A consultation process had taken place across the union which was a process that takes place every year with the constituent parts of the union. The key changes this year were the reference to the Trade Union bill and also direct reference to racism including that suffered by migrant workers and also to combatting UKIP. The challenge of the Trade Union bill was a priority objective in every sense.

I stated that it was commendable that the reference to racism and combatting UKIP had been included in the draft objectives after the outright poisonous racist comments of Farage of UKIP after the Oldham by election where Labour had defeated UKIP and we needed to keep our eye on this as this unfolded.

Another NEC member also welcomed this reference and also referred to the increase in Islamophobia in society at large. 

General Secretary report – Dave Prentis devoted quite a lot of his report to updating the NEC on the campaign against the Tories Trade Union bill which was now worming its way through the House of Lords. We had been working with the TUC. The ballot provisions in the bill in particular were a negation of democracy. Evidence had been given to a select committee of Parliament by a number of the General Secretaries and Frances O’Grady of the TUC. UNITE had surprisingly written to Cameron saying they would accept voting thresholds if the Tories caved on electronic voting which was very disturbing as no union should have truck with this disgraceful legislation. Dave Prentis thanked members for attending the demonstration against austerity and the Trade Union bill in Manchester on October 4^th 2015 at the Tory party conference. It was hoped the part of the bill removing DOCAS (or ‘check off’) – automatic deduction of union subscriptions from salary - would be dropped in the Lords. The 2^nd reading in the House of Lords was planned for 11^th January 2016. Dave Prentis again stated that we should plan for the worst if the Tories removed DOCAS and we were putting systems in place for this eventuality but we didn’t need a knee jerk response. To transfer members to Direct Debit from DOCAS if we had to do it would be one of the biggest exercises we had ever undertaken as a union.

There was a week of action against the Trade Union bill 8^th February to 14^th February 2016. Information would need to go to branches before Christmas to give 4 weeks for branches to organise for it. This week of action had only been decided on the previous day after a debate with all the Trade Unions. Work would have to be done nationally and from the Regions.

One of the North West NEC members in relation to the threshold for Industrial Action ballots stated that if the worst came to the worst and the change came in to ballot thresholds, branches may want to go early on local disputes so they did not get to the position whereby if the situation drags on they did not get to the threshold level on the ballot after the change.

Dave Prentis stated that the Junior Doctors dispute was an important one over unsocial hours and this would be a big issue for our members in the NHS. The British Medical Association had never balloted before and they had sought help from UNISON with regards to this. We would work closely with Junior Doctors.  

Strike action is being undertaken in Further Education colleges in January against their funding cuts and a message of solidarity was sent from the NEC.

Reference was also made to the Tory U turn on tax credits and the part UNISON had played in this where the Government had tried to reduce the income of some of the lowest paid people in the country. Also referred to was the hit to Local Government funding. Local Government had lost half of its income in the previous few years.

A major campaign in the New Year would be against the Tory plan that student nurses no longer receive bursaries but would have to take out loans to train. This would not get more people into nursing. There would be a summit in January 2016 at the UNISON Centre in London of those groups campaigning on this issue including the Royal College of Midwives and BAOT (British Association of Occupational Therapists).

On the UK bombing of Syria an anti-war statement was read out and we were right not to agree with Parliament that this would get us anywhere in relation to defeating IS/Daesh.

In reference to the recent floods in Cumbria and Lancashire, Roger Bannister, North West NEC member suggested that as well sending a message of support to the public service workers who had battled the recent floods, that we protest to the Government about the cuts in flood defence which meant that more people would be put at risk from this type of disaster.

In the recruitment and retention organising report, the loss of state funding for Trade Union education was raised from the Autumn of 2016. UNISON is reviewing the way training in the union is undertaken. The Union Learning Fund is also under threat.

Under Any other Business - Dave Prentis announced that Karen Jennings, Assistant General Secretary was retiring and she was congratulated and thanked for all the work she had done for the union. It was agreed that Roger McKenzie, Assistant General Secretary would replace her as a UNISON delegate to the TUC General Council.   

UNISON NEC tries to shut #unisongate after the horse has bolted

There was a meeting of the full NEC yesterday (I will blog a full report of the rest of the meeting later) before which a lobby took place by some London UNISON branches demanding an independent investigation, outside the ranks of UNISON's senior officials, into matters that are now clearly in the public domain (I bought a copy of 'Private Eye' magazine on the way home this evening, issue dated 11th-18th December 2015 No. 1407 and there is an article on Page 35 entitled 'UNISON on tape').  My fellow NEC member Jon Rogers has already blogged about this. See:

http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/worrying-news-of-electoral-malpractice.html

#unisongate is the twitter hashtag.

There was a statement read out at the start of the meeting by the President along the lines that the ballot for election of General Secretary had closed the previous Friday and that there was an ongoing investigation into complaints concerning a member of staff and ERS the ballot scrutineer were considering complaints that were their preserve, and that we should not discuss this at the meeting today and we were encouraged to refrain from commenting on the issues. This was the only comment that was going to be made.

This was challenged by the left NEC members present arguing that we should be able to discuss the process of investigation i.e. that we protect the reputation of our union and the confidence of our members in our own democracy by ensuring that there is a full and transparent process. This was not to expect the NEC to comment on whether individual members of staff have acted in breach of rule or committed acts of misconduct.

In reply we were told that a decision had been made by the top table. An NEC member raised a 'point of order' that we move to next business. A left NEC member (from the North West) asked for a vote on this which the President agreed. The subsequent vote was 32 to 21 in favour of moving to next business (I was one of the 21). It was then asked by another of the North West NEC members could we have a named vote of the NEC to which the reply was it was too late we were not taking a named vote. So the highest lay body in the union in between National Delegate Conferences did not discuss the process of the investigation. Watch this space in terms of what may unfold in the next few days and weeks. Any UNISON member who has concerns about alleged malpractice in connection with the General Secretary election should raise these concerns with the Returning Officer by email to unison@electoralreform.co.uk (before the deadline of 5 p.m. 11th December 2015).

I will blog further about the rest of the NEC meeting later.