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. 

Personal report of Development and Organisation sub committee of the UNISON NEC 24th September 2015

Recruitment report

The national officer for Strategic Organising in his report stated that the number of members leaving the union has increased as a result of austerity.

August was always a bad month for recruitment but we were losing more members compared to the same month last year. With the recruitment figures down there was a need to refocus on recruitment. Local Government had suffered in particular under the austerity agenda. By the end of the year judging by the direction of travel we may have lost more members in local government than we did last year. There had even been a decline in schools membership despite school rolls increasing (it has been an area of increase in previous years). Young members continued to be a group where recruitment was up. There was a net loss in all Regions except Northern Ireland. Membership in the Health Service continues to decline at a slower rate than membership in Local Government does. The impact of the DOCAS conversion for National Probation staff will take some time to show up in the figures for this service.

There was a concern from one or two NEC members regarding the format the recruitment figures were presented in. The level of detail supplied was welcomed so we could see what is going on but the smallness of the font in the printed material meant the figures were hard to read in hard copy. The material needed to be fully accessible.

An NEC member with reference to schools recruitment said that members had lost confidence in the ability of the union to deliver on pay after the dispute last year and that nothing had come out of the Local Government special conference that had been held.

Another NEC member stated that a large number of members had joined as a result of the pay campaign in schools because the union was prepared to fight over pay but comparing the Year to Date (YTD) figures for 2015 with 2014 we were going backwards. Some Regions were facing cuts because of cuts to school funding – there needed to be a strategy to deal with cuts.

Another NEC member said that we all know we recruit best when we have high profile campaigns.

The national officer said that the situation in Northern Ireland where we were doing better might be explained by the fact that the structure of Local Government is not the same there.

Switching members from DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at source) to Direct Debit – lessons to date.

It was stated by the national officer that UNISON was the primary object of the attack. In August the Government announced that it intended to include in the Trade Union bill provisions for removing DOCAS from public sector workers along with draconian strike provisions.

The scale of the challenge facing us is that we have 800,000 members paying by DOCAS. It was anticipated there would be a certain level of loss in the switch over. Not everyone would switch. Even if everyone switched to DD there could be a significant impact on membership retention as the average length of time someone paying by direct debit stays in membership is 5 years as opposed to 7 or 8 when paying by DOCAS.

There was an interesting reference to the International situation regarding Government attacks on Check off or DOCAS where Government's at state level in Australia and the United States have mounted similar assaults.‎ The organising response of the Australian trade unions appears to have been a more effective defence than the legal challenges of the US unions.

There would be a number of ways in which members would be contacted regarding the switch over. UNISON Direct could have a significant role. There may be a web based system to switch. There would be over the phone contact and face to face contact. A good point I thought was made that we should use this exercise as an opportunity to talk through all of the issues around UNISON. Having accurate data on the system would be very important (e.g. addresses, phone numbers) so some serious data cleansing would be necessary. It would be a factor how employers interacted with the legislation. This had been relevant for the PCS (Civil servants union) where some Government departments had better relations with the union than others.

An NEC member said that we were right on this and we should get on with this piece of work. The emergency motion at National Delegate conference had pointed us in the right direction. We had to make a virtue out of a necessity otherwise we could lose members. Material should be sent out to branches encouraging them to think about this. If the switching was being done by face to face contact branches would have a crucial role in this. Contact would have to be made at least annually to check members were paying the correct level of subs.

Another NEC member said there was obviously a relation between steward density and contact with members in workplaces. A further NEC member said this was a very important debate that we had to have in all NEC Committee’s not just D&O. Members will keep paying their subs if they see the value and the benefit. Members trust their stewards the most in terms of the switch but this brought the question should there be training for stewards on confidentiality and data protection.

Lessons learnt from the National Probation service switch campaign – i)easy and efficient systems are essential, ii)face to face switching is the most effective means of switching members, iii) switching takes time and we need as much time as possible in order to switch as many member s as possible, iv) the principal concern expressed by UNISON members has been over double payments - if they pay by DD before DOCAS ceases, v) it is important for people doing face to face switching to understand the issues, vi) Where there have been incomplete or not updated RMS records it has been difficult to contact members.

Learning and Organising services – There had been a slight decrease in Union Learning reps (ULR’s) trained. An update of the activist learning database is scheduled for November 2015. This should make reporting on the number of trained stewards more accurate and for identifying reps who require Employment Relations Act (ERA) accreditation.

Continued development of the RMS
The Head of RMS Operations reported that UNISON processes around 330,000 direct debit payers every month. A second cycle collection option was introduced in June 2015. Regions, UNISON Direct, Join online and branches via WARMS can choose either the 1^st or the 15^th of the month for the collection date. 800 Branches have WARMS access with 700 Branches actively using the WARMS system. In response to a question from an NEC member about the branches that just use RMS and not WARMS it was stated that RMS will not be switched off overnight and there would be phased approach. WARMS/RMS technology is being refreshed early next year. RMS Operations had taken on board comments from branches in terms of processing direct debit members via WARMS. Enhancements should be made in the autumn of 2015. Current systems have been reviewed so they are capable of transferring members from DOCAS to DD. Lessons had been learnt from the National Probation service. It was important to track progress when switching members - it was asked by an NEC member if a dashboard type facility could be put on WARMS so branches could have an overview of their progress in switching members. It was anticipated that a considerable number of members would only switch when DOCAS is actually removed. RMS is being adapted to include reporting of DOCAS members who have provided bank account details. Regions and branches will be able to monitor the DOCAS members who require transferring to Direct Debit.

Honorary life membership awards - The committee approved an honorary life membership award.

Personal report of the UNISON National Executive Council 29th July 2015

It was requested that in future meetings take place on the ground floor of the UNISON building to make the NEC fully accessible. This would be looked at.

Obituaries were read out and condolences given including UNISON members affected by the tragedy in Tunisia.

NEC members were asked to complete a National Delegate Conference review proforma.

Dave Prentis in his General Secretary's report welcomed newly elected NEC members. Dave also on behalf of the union pledged full support to Max Watson in his attempt to keep his job. The union believed there was a major element of discrimination by the employer at London Metropolitan University. Resources would be given to defend Max and the branch.

There was good news in that the Glasgow homelessness caseworkers had won their dispute for parity of grading. The NEC sent congratulations to the Region and the branch. This showed what we can do when we have the strength of the members. The General Secretary made reference to Barnet's ongoing campaign against outsourcing and that John Burgess, Barnet branch secretary was a great union activist. John's car had recently been vandalised with offensive and anti union graffiti.

Probation service - there would be a 2 hour strike to keep the legality of the ballot. The employers were refusing to talk even through ACAS. There was an exercise in probation to get members signed up to Direct debit.

A major issue was the Trade Union bill. A very good TUC briefing was circulated to NEC members that could be used in speeches etc. The main areas of attack were the use of agency workers, picket rules/limits, turnout percentage in ballots, facility time and political funds. We would campaign with NGO's like Liberty and Amnesty international against the bill. The Trade Union bill was also an attack on democracy in this country.

We needed a very big presence on the demo at the Tory party conference on 4th October 2015 and on 2nd November 2015 there was a parliamentary lobby over the Trade Union bill. NEC members asked for this to be turned into a demo as well but approval may be difficult to acheive. Dave Prentis in response to a question about the position of Labour on the welfare bill to abstain (only 48 Labour MPs voted against) said there was a job to get some backbone into some Labour MPs. It was remarked by an NEC member that there had been 'uproar' in the discussion on the Labour Party NEC on the decision of the acting leader to say MPs should abstain on the welfare bill. The 48 who voted against should have been joined by many, many more.

It was agreed that the Industrial Action report the NEC sees should go to every service group as well.

General secretary election - Any potential candidates were asked to leave the room while the rest of the NEC discussed the election timetable and procedures. Dave Prentis, Roger Bannister (NEC member North West), Heather Wakefield (Head of Local Government) and Karen Reissmann (NEC NW) left the room. Karen has subsequently withdrawn. Several NEC members commented that the nomination period was short for the election. The procedures and timetable were agreed as presented however.

Allocation of NEC members to various NEC sub committees was agreed and also to the General Political fund and Affiliated political fund (APF) committees. The APF (Labour link) committee met and agreed to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader with Yvette Cooper as second preference. Angela Eagle was nominated for Deputy leader. An NEC member asked for earlier circulation of NEC minutes. The President noted this and confirmed that the minutes would be issued as soon as possible.

Personal report of UNISON NEC - 3rd June 2015

A message of support was sent from the NEC to Barnet UNISON members in London currently taking Industrial Action against mass outsourcing proposals. Action had taken place on the 1^st and 2^nd June 2015.

A large part of the NEC business was concerned again with National Delegate Conference (NDC) business. We received reports from Strategic Committee (NEC subcommittees) Chairs on the current policy recommendations from these sub committees to the full NEC meeting on motions, amendments to motions and amendments to rule.

The dealing with of NEC policy on motions etc. was made more difficult as the NEC currently sits in two rooms with the bulk sitting on the 9^th floor and other members sitting in an upper ground floor room made available to a disabled member who has access issues and those joining the member in solidarity, who participate by video link. Members in one room are unable to see fellow NEC members in the other.

There was an emergency motion on the outcome of the General election from Development and Organisation subcommittee of NEC which had become Composite A to NDC. This proposed an organising response to Government attacks.  In relation to the threat to collection of union subs by DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at source) under Tory proposals, Dave Prentis, General Secretary said that we should not wait for legislation to be carried but we should not ‘push the button’ now. Direct debit was not a panacea. Members sometimes did not tell us when they went up through the subs bands. Concern was expressed from the North West NEC members (after similar concern was expressed at the prior North West Regional Council of UNISON) that should we be just moving to Direct Debit without a fight on the issue? The Tories had published their intentions in relation to Trade Union ‘reform’ so we would not be putting ideas in their heads. Paul Holmes, UNISON NEC member made a good point that we should be having a political argument in public over this – why is the Government doing this? The DOCAS arrangements had been in place since before the 2^nd World War. In politics there was a fine line between being prepared and encouraging the other side.

Dave Prentis in his General Secretary’s report referred to the 42 bills in the Queens’ speech a few days earlier – quite a few affected our members.

Dave said the ‘the job of the union to a large part is to resist’. There needed to be ‘militant action’.

The discussion went back to Composite A. A proposed amendment by the North West NEC members to lobby parliament when the Trade Union reform bill was being discussed was voted down by the majority on the NEC. Also opposed was an amendment from North West NEC members calling for a lobby of the Tory party conference in the Autumn. It was later qualified that these protests would be supported (though presumably not led) by the union. A proposal to write to all members as part of a recruitment drive for stewards was also rejected.

Many North West UNISON members rightly see the presence of the Tory party conference in our Region as an affront.

Bernie Gallagher, North West UNISON NEC member asked that information be sent out to branches quickly regarding the anti-austerity demo in London on 20^th June 2015.

Discussion returned to the General Secretary’s report – Dave said there were disputes in schools around changes to terms and conditions and schools were one of biggest growth areas. We needed to raise our game on Industrial Action ballots and ‘we are a union that seeks to take Industrial Action’. We would fight proposed Tory measures regarding Trade unions ‘all the way to the U.N and ILO’ (International Labour Organisation). We would take national Industrial Action if need be over the threat to unsocial hours payments in the NHS. Dave referred again to the dispute in Barnet Council and the need to support also the struggle of the Glasgow Homeless caseworkers fighting downgradings and changes to terms and conditions. Helen Davies, UNISON NEC member and from Barnet branch thanked Dave for the support. 8^th July was a possible future strike date. Jon Rogers, NEC member London Region referred to the need to support these local disputes that were however of national significance including the dispute at London Metropolitan University over cuts proposals. These branches were at the sharp end.  

An upcoming 25% cut to further education had already led to 4 colleges closing down Trade Union education units. Budgets may need to be reviewed to support Stewards education and there will be an increase in Fighting fund organisers to get support to branches on the front line.

The decisions taken at the Local Government special conference were in the process of being actioned and the General Secretary undertook to come back to the NEC on the non-payment of the Local Government pay rise to transferred health workers.  

 

Personal report of Development and Organisation (D&O) subcommittee of the UNISON NEC - 13th May 2015

We received a presentation on the Young members survey which explored issues faced by Young members. Recruitment was more successful when young members first start work so therefore we should optimise the use of induction sessions and starter lists.

There was a risk review following the disastrous result of the 2015 General election. The Tory manifesto had commitments to attack workers rights to organise. There was a prescription in consequence to move from DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at Source) or ‘Check off’  - to all UNISON members paying by DD (Direct Debit).  

Learning and organising activity – There was a report on the number of new stewards trained, the number of Health and Safety reps trained and the number of Union Learning reps trained in 2014 compared to 2013. It was asked by Max Watson and John Jones could a supplement to the report be produced that showed a breakdown of steward density by Service Group.

Trade Union funding – there was no Labour Government coming on a white charger. By August 2016 there could be no Government funding at all for Trade Union education.

An emergency motion from D&O was agreed for recommendation and to be considered alongside any wider statement from the NEC after the election result. There needed to be an organising response to the unanticipated outcome of the General election with a majority Tory government.

The Tory manifesto had included a commitment to ‘ensure Trade Unions use a transparent opt in process for union subscriptions’ and there was a commitment to ‘tighten the rules around taxpayer funded facility time for Trade Union reps’.

This was clearly intended to weaken the ability of workers to oppose further cuts and privatisation.

There should be a campaign against such legislation but we should also prepare an organising response – there should be mechanisms in place to facilitate transfer of members from DOCAS to DD. ‘UNISON needed a whole union strategy to support such a transfer’. The NEC was called upon to ‘ensure all members paying by DOCAS are retained in membership through transfer to Direct Debit.’   

It was clear we needed to recruit members and activists more than ever in the workplace. There was an opportunity to re-engage with existing members and ones we had not recruited yet. We should not wait and hope the Tories would be nice to us.

Continued development of the RMS - Guidance would be issued to branches on how to convert DOCAS paying members to Direct Debit. DOCAS had already been withdrawn in the Probation service where UNISON organises and lessons would be learnt from that.

 

Personal report of UNISON NEC – 8th April 2015

This NEC was to a large part concerned with National Delegate Conference (NDC) business. NDC is to be held in Glasgow in June. There are 117 motions on the preliminary agenda for NDC as well as 28 rule amendments submitted by various bodies in the union. I therefore won’t go into detail on every one. Most of these motions are supported by the NEC.

A couple dozen each of motions and amendments to rule have been ruled ‘out of order’.

There is an important branch motion on ‘Solidarity with PCS’ (Civil service union) which the current NEC position is to ‘defer’ pending discussion with other Trade Unions.   Check off (DOCAS or Deductions of Contributions at source) was being ended in the Civil service as the Tories ideologically did not believe employers should collect money for Trade Unions. It is therefore vital that the rest of the Trade Union movement openly express solidarity with PCS. Dave Prentis, General Secretary stated later in the meeting in his General Secretary’s report that PCS had been successful in signing up around 115,000 members to paying union subs by Direct debit since their members were removed from check off. UNISON could be in the firing line if the Tories are re-elected in May in the same way. The motion also calls upon a Labour government if elected in May to ‘reverse these attacks as a clear signal of their respect for the positive role Trade Unions play’.  

In response to a good motion in opposition to ‘Fracking’ (shale gas extraction) it was requested by an NEC member that further consultation take place with all relevant service groups before a common policy was determined. One NEC member reminded us that our opposition to Fracking was based not just on the effect on the local environment but the world-wide environment with the burning of fossil fuels.

There was contention on a motion on ‘Changes to strike pay’ where the current position was to remit or oppose. The motion calls for an increase in the amount of daily strike pay payable. This amount has not been changed since the early 1990s and stands at £15 per day. One NEC member stated that whilst it was understood that for national disputes involving large numbers of members we don’t pay strike pay sometimes even if we get to a 4^th day on strike the issue was that for local disputes there was a problem with the amount paid and also that the strike pay wouldn’t get paid till the 4^th day. There was not a massive amount of Industrial Action at local level despite the huge attacks on us therefore we needed to show encouragement to local disputes where they occur. Another NEC member suggested that we put in a constructive amendment to this motion.  

In terms of the rule amendments please refer to my previous post - http://www.tonypwilson63.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/personal-report-of-development-and.html 

The NEC approved its 12 priority motions and 6 priority rule amendments.   

The draft NEC annual report was discussed (to be circulated to delegates before the National Delegate conference). Bernie Gallagher, NEC member North West region asked that in relation to the reference in the report to the English Combined authorities could there be mention of what had happened in Greater Manchester recently with the transfer of the £6 billion NHS budget to a Greater Manchester level and the implications this would have.

On the NEC Conference plan it was acknowledged that there may need to be emergency motions to NDC depending on the outcome of the General election on 7^th May. The Orgreave truth and justice campaign would have a solidarity table at the conference. There would be a guest speaker from Canada on TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). I asked had we been able to secure a Greek trade unionist or representative of Syriza (the Greek anti austerity party that is now in Government) for national conference as the Greeks were at the sharp end of the fight against austerity and this would be an act of solidarity. We currently do not have a speaker from Greece although the minutes of the previous meeting stated that this was being looked into.   

Dave Prentis in his General Secretary’s report mentioned the victimisation case involving Charlotte Munro from Whipp’s Cross Hospital in London who was a whistle blower in this big NHS trust that has also been placed in special measures.  UNISON had supported Charlotte in a case of unfair dismissal. This is significant in the current climate of cuts, privatisation and attacks on trade union activists. Charlotte has been reinstated after a long battle which is tremendous news.

UNISON had been granted permission to appeal against a High Court decision regarding fees for employment tribunals. There was, Dave said, a commitment from Labour to review the whole tribunal fees system.

We were urging members to get out and vote in the General election - our message is 'not that we are Labour but that we are UNISON’. If the Tories got in there would be another 5 years of austerity. There were 61 marginals and we had to ensure the Tories did not win the marginal seats.  

It was suggested by an NEC member that we send Charlotte Munro a message of congratulations for her courage in this case and that the case is appropriately publicised.

In response to a question Dave stated that Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary had told the TUC General Council 2 months ago that he had been told by Labour that they would reverse the changes made to the check off system if elected.

Under the ‘Organising update’ it was requested that in the case of online joiners when this has occurred - and new members are allocated to a branch - it is not always known by the branch - could there therefore automatically be a mechanism for informing branches in this circumstance.  

Paul Holmes, UNISON NEC member in response to the updates on the Service Groups (Pay campaigns) stated that the Local Government special conference that had taken place recently had been a serious conference which was well attended with a good debate. There had been a decision to resubmit a pay claim – how were we approaching the other 2 unions involved (UNITE and GMB) ?

In response it was stated that the Local Government SGE (Service Group Executive) were meeting the following day and this would be considered. The Local Government NJC Committee would meet on April 14^th.

General election update – There were 29 days to go. Labour was 2 points ahead. The vote flight to the Scottish National Party was continuing north of the border. A U magazine (UNISON magazine) special was planned to members in the 61 marginal seats identified by the union and there would be a direct mailing to those members in the marginal seats.