June 2013 - UNISON Devon County Branch

BULLETIN
UNISON Devon County Branch Stewards’ Newsletter
Branch
Secretary’s
Message
Firstly, many
Branch
thanks to our
Secretary’s
stewards for
welcome
helping publicise
the LG payto
Welcome
offer
ballot.
Devon
the
first
issue
County took one of the top spots
of Branch Bulletin, our new
amongst UK branches for the number of
votesmonthly
received!newsletter
A fantastic which
result!
will
be
emailed
out
to all our
Secondly a big thanks
to those
stewards
who attended
year’s This
members
acrossthis
Devon.
Branch
SGM
on
the
6
June.
on the
newsletter is part of Items
our onagenda included the LG pay offer ballot
going plan to improve our comand motions for conferences.
munication
members.
Last
week yourswith
truly attended
bothItthe
contains
short,
snappy
artilces
Local Government and National Delegate
conferences.
Lots ofkeep
issues
were
that will help
you
up-todiscussed
such
as
UNISON’s
Teaching
date with UNISON news. It
Assistant campaign; stepping up the
compliments UNITY - our
Living Wage campaign and the
quartleryforthcoming
magazine.Spending
I hope
Government’s
you
enjoy
reading
the
Bulletin.
Review which takes place on 26
June.
It is expected
that let
the us
Government
will
As always,
know what
announce
further
cuts
...
so
keep
an
you think, we really do wel-eye
on our website, Twitter and Facebook
come your feedback! Yours in
pages.
solidarity.
Ryles
You
don’t needSteve
a crystal
ball to predict
June 2013
UNISON accepts LG pay offer but vows “enough
is enough”
towards industrial action in the event
UNISON has voted to accept the
2013-14 NJC pay offer for its local
government members.
But the union’s local government
secretary Heather Wakefield has
warned employers that “enough is
enough”, and that the union will be
mounting an immediate, high-profile
campaign “to stop the rot” – building
Branch gets one of best turnouts in LG pay ballot!
there’s going to be more pain for our
members and their families. So if there
are non-members in your workplace get
them to join UNISON now before the cuts
strike again!
Yours in solidarity
Steve Ryles
Branch Contacts
Branch Secretary – Steve Ryles
T: 01392 383337
E: [email protected]
Office Manager/Case Worker –Cora Woodhead
T: 01392 382539
E: [email protected]
Administration Assistant – Catherine Hitchcock
T: 01392 382530
E: [email protected]
Apprentice - Lucy Roke
T: 01392 382530
E: [email protected]
Communications Officer – Rachel Price
T: 01392 383424
E: [email protected]
Tel: 01392 382530
that the offer in 2014 is not acceptable.
In voting for the 1% pay increase,
with an extra 1.4% for the lowest
paid, the NJC committee noted it
was “completely insulting” and did
not come anywhere near the union’s
aspirations.
In UNISON’s branch consultation,
59% of members in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, and 78% of
branches voted to accept the offer.
Ms Wakefield noted that local
government pay and conditions were
now the worst in the public sector.
The earnings of NJC workers had
fallen by 18% since the coalition
came to power, while their pay-related
conditions had been cut at local level
“whenever they turn their backs”.
Click here to read more.
Branch Sec counts papers
Photo: Rachel Price
Thanks to all those stewards who
promoted the Local Government
pay ballot in their workplace.
We received a huge number of
ballot papers and took one of the
top spots amongst UK branches
for the number of votes received!
Please can you thank members in
your workplace who voted.
A big thanks also to Lucy Roke,
Branch Administration Assistant,
who did a fantastic job of
counting the piles of ballot papers
- she counted so many, she began
dreaming about them!
Chris retires as steward
after 16 years
Happy retirement to Chris Nally, steward
at St Saviours in Ottery St Mary, who is
hanging up her steward’s hat after 16 years.
Chris was presented with John Lewis gift
vouchers and a Royal Doulton plate to
mark the time when she joined the union
back in the days of NALGO! Steve Ryles,
Branch Secretary, said: “Chris will be greatly
missed. She has been a fantastic steward
and has helped many members during her
time as a union rep.”
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
Chris Nally
Email: [email protected]
Photo: Lucy Roke
Labour’s proposals on
career guidance
The Labour Party Skills
Commission has issued a
report which contains a section on
providing advice on the
transition from education to work.
The relevant section is on pp.1416 and argues for ‘a sub-regional,
independent information and
careers guidance service with
strong links to employers’ (p.16).
Click here to go to the the report.
‘Royle Family’ star supports UNISON campaign to protect
teaching assistants
Lack of careers advice
damaging life chances
UNISON has added its voice to the
concerns raised by CBI leader John
Cridland over the lack of careers
advice in schools, saying the
damage will be felt by youngsters for
many years to come. The union is
warning that unless action is taken
now the service will not just be on
‘life support’, in the future it will be
DOA – dead on arrival.
Click here to read more.
The Careers Council
Survey on Mumsnet -
You may wish to add your views...
http://tinyurl.com/m6gqdxd
UNISON social media survey:
your chance to win an ipad mini!
UNISON wants to make sure it is using every way of
communicating with its members and activists.
Increasingly UNISON uses social media alongside more
traditional channels to get people engaged in its
campaigns. UNISON wants to find out how you are
using social media it can make sure it keeps you
informed and supports your work for the union in the
way that suits you best. Take part in UNISON’s
online social media survey and you’ll get an opportunity
to win an ipad mini with WiFi. Click here to enter.
Tel: 01392 382530
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
Photo: Marcus Rose
The actor and Trade Unionist Ricky
Tomlinson (The Royle Family,
Brookside) has joined UNISON’s
campaign to protect teaching
assistants.
Earlier this year, the government
asked the teachers review body to look
at teachers’ contracts, with a view to
them taking on duties currently
performed by teaching assistants. In
the past month, a right wing think tank
with close links to the government has
also called for teaching assistants to
be sacked.
Ricky Tomlinson spoke up to defend
their valuable work.
UNISON’s assistant national officer
in education, Jo Coates said: “It’s great
to see our campaign being supported
by Ricky – we hope it will help raise the
profile of the tremendous work being
done by teaching assistants.
“As the largest union for support
staff in schools, we’ll be building a
large-scale campaign to show how
valuable teaching assistants are to
children, parents and schools.
“Teaching assistants have been
vital to improving the education of our
children and if the government makes
serious moves to take them out of
classrooms they’ll have a fight on our
hands.” Click here to read more.
Delegates rally to back teaching assistants
Delegates at UNISON’s local
government conference, which
took place on 16-17 June,
declared their support for
teaching assistants and school
support staff, backing an
emergency motion that came
in the wake of reports that the
government is planning to get rid
of all teaching assistants.
Angela Egan from Bolton
sketched out the different strands
of education secretary Michael
Gove’s plans for the education
system, noting that it was “firmly
under attack”.
Responding to claims that
teaching assistants (TAs) made
no difference to children’s
education, she cited an example
of one assistant who had been
expected to cover for a sick
teacher for nine weeks - with no
back-up for her own role.
Corinne Coward from Derby
County stressed that it is “TAs
who provide, in many cases,
the main emotional stability that
some children get,” adding that
“it takes the whole of society to
raise a child” and “every child
matters”.
And Richard Gower from
Tower Hamlets stressed the
particular impact that the removal
of TAs would have on children
from families where English is not
the first language, together with
disabled children.
In a raft of education debates,
conference also called on the
executive to support regions to
challenge the setting up of free
and studio schools, and work
with all relevant national
negotiation bodies for schoolsbased staff to ensure that terms
and conditions, pay and contracts
of employment are not eroded.
Click here to read more.
Email: [email protected]
National Careers Council: Creating a culture change in careers provision:
an aspirational nation
Photo: Microsoft
The National Careers Council recently
published its report, ‘An aspiration
nation: creating a culture change in
careers provision’. Click here to read the
report.
At the launch the Minister with
responsibility for careers services
Matthew Hancock extolled the success
of their vision for the careers service,
stating this demonstrated that ‘there
is no need for top down policy on how
careers guidance is delivered as it is a
matter for local determination’ and that
schools are best placed to provide
advice and allocate resources.
The report argues that traineeships
and the new 16 to 19 study programme
should include impartial job advice as
part of a “much needed culture change”
in careers guidance. It made a number
of recommendations:
•A culture change is needed in careers
provision for young people and adultsto
address the mismatch of skills shortages
and high unemployment;
•The development of the National
Careers Service should be assisted by
the creation of an Employer-led Advisory
Board comprising senior representatives
from employers, education and career
development profession to help guide
its work and ensure it delivers value for
money and meets the needs of young
people, adults and employers;
•The National Careers Service should
significantly expand its work with
schools, young people and parents;
•Employers should encourage their
employees to volunteer to go into
schools and colleges to give students
insights into different careers;
•The National Careers Service should
launch a new initiative to bring together
a range of organisations to explore and
highlight the importance of ‘character’
and ‘resilience’ in successful working life
and identify realistic and effective options
Tel: 01392 382530
for addressing this issue;
•The National Careers Service should
develop and extend its on-line services
and bring together key partners in order
to consolidate other on-line careers
information and tools; and
•In order to bring about the culture
change needed in careers provision for
young people and adults we need to
create a movement which includes
employers, education and career
development professionals.
UNISON’s view: ‘Wafer thin’
UNISON welcomes the recognition
that the report gives to the value of the
careers professionals and the detail
provided within the report on the pivotal
role that the National Careers Service
should have in addressing the urgent
need for access to high quality careers
provision for young people. However we
are deeply disappointed at the lack of
substance in the recommendations,
which are long on promise and wafer
thin on delivery. The current gap in
consistent, coherent and quality impartial
careers advice fails both young people
and the economy. There are more than
a million young people who are not in
education, employment or training while
the CBI says half of firms have problems
finding staff with the appropriate skills.
The recommendations fail to address
the key findings from the Education
Select Committee “Independent careers
advice and guidance has never been as
important for young people as it is today.
Too many schools lack the skills,
incentives or capacity to fulfill the duty
put upon them without a number of
changes being made. Young people
deserve better than the service they
are likely to receive under the current
arrangements. Schools cannot simply be
left to get on with it.”
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
UNISON’s key concerns:
•Schools have been given the
responsibility to provide careers advice
but without the funding to deliver this has
to be met from another part of the school
budget
•There is no central quality controlled or
accredited register for schools to procure
careers services from
•Connexions was condemned for being
patchy – however the new system is far
patchier and minimal in some areas.
•The negative impact on the stability
and integrity of the profession that the
fragmentation of the profession and the
proliferation of sole traders is having
•The absence of consistency, coherence
and quality of support by local authorities
to vulnerable young people.
•The £104 million annual budget for the
National Careers Service is funded by
BIS (80%), MoJ (13%), Department for
Education (less than 5%) and
Department for Work and Pensions (less
than 1.5%). The contribution by the DfE
is pitiful considering its responsibilities.
•The promotion and recommendation
to expand IT/Web based guidance is at
odds with social inclusion and is not a
replacement for impartial, independent
face to face guidance from careers
professionals. Although the report
recognises that “Most young people
currently do not have access to face-toface careers support” it offers little in the
way of practical suggestions to address
this.
Email: [email protected]
Volunteers in public libraries:
UNISON guidance for branches
News snippets from UNISON’s Local Government
and National Delegate conferences 2013
Photo: Microsoft
UNISON has issued new guidance on
volunteers in public libraries. It provides
advice on how best to engage with your local
council around the issue and details
UNISON’s policy position. It also provides
guidance on the instances where volunteers
should be entitled to the National Minimum
Wage. Click here to read the guidance.
Library service in peril
A survey of nearly 2000 library staff by
UNISON reveals a service in jeopardy,
with the public paying the price as they
lose their local library or face
increasing charges, dwindling opening
hours and shrinking staffing levels in those
that remain. Click here to read more.
Calling all mobile workers!
Photo: Microsoft
Ever needed a loo and couldn’t find one?
Gillian Kemp of the British Toilet
Association is investigating how the lack of
toilets can affect the health of mobile
workers. The BTA campaigns for better
public toilets for all. Everyone needs
access to a toilet to keep healthy and for
mobile workers it is essential. Yet there is no
law for councils to provide toilets for mobile
workers, and no recommendations on the
subject. If you’re a mobile worker who’s ever
had to ‘hold on’ please email
[email protected] with your
story. Your responses will contribute to the
campaign to provide a healthier working
environment – and the more evidence we
produce, the stronger our claim!
Tel: 01392 382530
Photo: UNISON
Call to name and shame
poverty-pay employers
“We should name and shame those
councils and contractors that insist
on paying poverty wages,” said Hazel
Marshall of South Lanarkshire, who
told UNISON’s local government
conference how her council had
adopted the Living Wage after
campaigning. Anything else was “a
publically-funded, poverty pay
scandal”. Click here to read more.
Care workers need time
to care, conference hears
Council tax benefit
changes are not cricket
“Steady on Gid-e-on,” said Glen
Williams from the service group
executive. “It’s not E-ton – and it’s
not cricket.
“Come on, Cam-e-ron,” he added,
as he proposed a motion on council
tax benefit, calling for a fair system
of council tax support.
In a rousing speech, he
lambasted the government’s
approach, and also called for
consideration of “a land value tax”
and other, fair taxation measures.
Conference heard of the chaos
throughout England (but not Wales
or Scotland) following changes to
the benefit and the demands on
more people to pay part of the tax,
where once they would have been
exempt. Click here to read more.
Local government delegates vowed
to fight for decent home care for the
elderly and vulnerable, when they
debated the union’s new Ethical Care
Charter. Introducing the successful
motion, Jackie Lewis of the national
LGBT committee reminded delegates
that in a presentation on the charter,
assistant national officer Matthew
Campaign against cuts
Egan had likened the zero hours
contracts many care workers are on to mapped out
“going down to the docks and hoping
UNISON vowed to fight cuts and
for work”. Click here to read more.
privatisation and highlight the
damage austerity measures are
causing to communities when the
Motions on equalities
union’s local goverment
issues and the cuts
conference debated the issue in
The final session of UNISON’s 2013
Liverpool. More than 470,000 jobs
local government conference in
have been lost in the sector since
Liverpool saw delegates debate a
the coalition government of David
number of motions around equalities
Cameron and Nick Clegg took
issues and the politics of austerity.
office, delegates heard. The money
For the union’s LGBT group, Deirdre
available to councils will have fallen
Costigan proposed a motion that was
by 28% by 2014/15. And more cuts
“primarily about supporting our
are on the way. Click here to read
transgender members’ rights”.
more.
Click here to read more.
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
Email: [email protected]
Ryanair style seat grab bad
for workers
Delegates call for help to analyse council finances
73% of councils commission
15 minute care visits
Delegates remember the
dead and fight for living
Forcing workers into a Ryanair style dash
for a seat in the office lowers morale and
hits workers’ health UNISON has warned.
As utility companies and councils strive to
make cuts, many call centre operations
allocate desks on a first come first served
basis, dehumanising workers. Packing up
their space each evening and hot desking
every morning, is the human equivalent of
“battery hens”. Click here to read more.
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for
UNISON have revealed that 73% of councils
in England, Wales and Scotland still
commission 15-minute home care visits to
elderly and vulnerable people. Regional
figures show that 88% of Scottish councils
commission these short visits, compared to
83% in Wales, and 69% in England. Figures
are available for each of the 160 councils
across the UK who have responded.
Click here to read more.
Let us know your views –
NHS staff survey
UNISON is keen to know your views of
working life in today’s health service,
including your perspective on such key
areas as pay, working conditions, staffing
levels, training, hours and morale.
In previous years over 10,000 UNISON
members have taken part in this survey,
which has enabled UNISON to vocalise
the impact of the financial crisis upon its
members and the NHS services that they
deliver every day.
Click here to take part in the survey.
New research shows families
thousands worse off
New research for UNISON shows that
public sector workers and their families will
be many thousands of pounds worse off in
2015 compared to when the coalition took
office.
The prolonged pay freeze, spending
cuts, VAT increases, benefits and tax credit
changes, as well as inflation, which is
pushing up the cost of living, will rob
hardworking families of up to 50% of their
household earnings by the end of this
parliament, said the union.
Click here to read more.
Tel: 01392 382530
Calling for expert aid and training to help branches to analyse local authority
budgets, Louise Tyres of Eastern region told delegates at UNISON’s local
government conference that “this brutal attack on local government spending is
only going to continue.
“Branches need to be in a position to put forward alternative budgets … to be
able to enable effective budgets before final voting,” she explained.
“This is essential because many councillors don’t have a clue about financial
matters and don’t know what they’re voting for.”
Stressing that serious analysis of budgets and proposals is an excellent basis
for fighting back against cuts, Gareth Davies, Northumberland branch said: “local
government law is never easy.”
But he noted that his own branch had challenged and won a battle to halt cuts
to car allowances – by analysing the financial situation. Click here to read more.
Photo: Microsoft
“Remember the dead – but fight like
hell for the living,” was the call as
UNISON’s local government
conference debated the attacks on
health and safety.
“Those workers did not have the
benefit of trade union representation.”
That was the how one delegate
described the reason for the fate of the
Bangladeshi workers who died when
the factory where they worked, making
clothes for British high streets,
collapsed. Click here to read more.
ConDem fire sale of
services says conference
“Privatisation and outsourcing are a
constant threat to public services and
the people who provide them,” said Paul
Gilroy of the National Executive,
introducing a substantial composite
motion on outsourcing and privatisation.
Privatisation has meant that “people
have to choose between feeding
themselves and heating themselves”.
The planned privatisation of Royal Mail
is simply “a fire sale” to plug the gap
in chancellor George Osborne’s failed
economic policies.
And he observed that there is no
evidence that mutualisation won’t result
in the same problems that we have seen
caused by privatisation and outsourcing.
Click here to read more.
Pensions, profits and
equalities dominate debate
UNISON condemns
‘shocking and horrific’
murder of soldier
UNISON’s national delegate conference
condemned the brutal murder of Lee
Rigby, a serving soldier, in
Woolwich on 22 May. An event that
Margaret Greer from Hammersmith and
Fulham described as “shocking and
horrific,” and that had “left the nation
numb with bewilderment”.
Delegates paid tribute to the family of
Mr Rigby who have appealed for no
reprisal attacks to take place in his
name and to the many people that
attempted to intervene before the
emergency services arrived.
Click here to read more.
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
Photo: Rachel Price
Pensions, profits and equalities
dominated debate at the energy service
group conference in Liverpool.
Shadow energy minister Caroline Flint
spoke to conference and joined in
extensive discussions about key issues.
She delivered a fluent no nonsense
take on the environment and climate
change: “I love polar bears as much as
anyone else but we must not lose sight
that climate change is about jobs and the
future. Click here to read more.
Email: [email protected]
UNISON backs ‘No more
page three campaign’
UNISON launched its support for the No
More Page Three campaign with a
flashmob invasion of its annual
conference in Liverpool last week.
The union’s 1.3 million public sector
workers will now add their voice to the
campaign to end this out of date
objectification of women.
Dancers, dressed in campaign t-shirts,
broke in through the back of the union’s
annual conference, and surprised 2,000
delegates with a flashmob performance
of the campaign’s dance. To the tune of
YMCA, 30 dancers called on
conference to support the No More Page
Three campaign.
The union is highlighting how wrong
Rupert Murdoch was to claim that
working class people do not care about
page three.
Dave Prentis, UNISON General
Secretary, said: “We’re proud to
support this campaign to end an out of
date objectification of women on behalf
of the men and women who make up our
union. Rupert Murdoch’s claim that
working class people don’t care about
page three is not only patronizing, it is
wrong.”
“Through unions, working class people
have led the way in battling sexism and
campaigning for equality. We’re going to
show Rupert Murdoch exactly what we
think.” Click here to read more. Click
here to visit the No More Page Three
website.
Tel: 01392 382530
IDS slated over
welfare attacks
Delegates back action on pay
Living wage campaign
to be stepped up
Rule changes
“Prejudice and dogma, drip-fed
through friendly media, that don’t
let facts get in the way”.
That was how Jane Carolan for
the NEC described the actions of
Iain Duncan Smith in attacking
the welfare system, as UNISON’s
National Delegate conference
debated a composite motion on
welfare cuts.
She added that “even the dying
are being declared fit for work”.
This new system is not about
providing a safety net, but about
making cuts.
“A commitment to real jobs
with real wages” would, she said,
be a way of reducing the costs of
welfare that UNISON would
approve of, together with a
scheme to build social housing.
Click here to read more.
UNISON vowed to step up the
campaign for a living wage, and
called for a living pension, at its
national delegate conference.
Noting successful union
campaigns to win the living
wage across all UNISON service
groups – particularly in Scottish
local government, the NHS and
English further education colleges
– conference called on the TUC
to take up the campaign
nationally and across all regions,
urging councils and other large
public bodies to both pay a living
wage and act as champions for
it in their local economies. Click
here to read more.
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
“What we want to do, at the present time, is to
start fighting back and putting money into our
members’ pockets,” said Jane Carolan of the
NEC, introducing a composite on pay.
As UNISON’s national delegate conference
entered its final day in Liverpool, an
impassioned debate saw delegates pass a
detailed plan to challenge low pay and the
pay freeze.
Wendy Harris from Tower Hamlets told
conference that she is “a low-paid kitchen
worker” and that, in spite of originally being
told that the Living Wage was “illegal”
because of procurement rules, they finally
won it.
Anne McCormack of St Helens College told
delegates of the rise of child poverty – and
how many of these children are living in
working households. It was, she said, an
indication of the widespread nature of low
pay. Tax credits and in-work benefits have
“effectively subsidised employers from the
public purse,” she said, adding that we need a
return to an ethos of “a fair day’s pay for a fair
day’s work”. Click here to read more.
UNISON delegates agreed a number of rule
changes, including two relating to branch
finances.
Rule amendment 14 on Rule G, branches,
calls on branch committees, as of 1
January 2014, to develop an appropriate
annual budget as part of the joint branch
assessment process. Branch committees
must also maintain records of their financial
transactions, assets and liabilities, using the
national online branch accounting system
(OLBA).
The rule change is one aspect of the
union’s two-year branch resources review.
Cllick here to read about the other rule
changes.
UNISON seeks to recruit more
health and safety reps
The importance of UNISON’s health and
safety reps is greater than ever, given the
government’s “continued assault” on the
health and safety regulatory system said
conference.
A motion on health and safety noted that
the coalition’s cuts to the Health and Safety
Executive and local authority budgets has
resulted in the reduction in workplace
inspections. It has also overseen the dumbing
down of HSE advice, guidance and approved
codes of practice. Click here to read more.
Email: [email protected]
Multinationals fuelling
persecution
UNISON urged its regions and
branches to take an active role in
supporting the “courageous” trade
unionists in Colombia, with
campaigns that will support
communities, workers and their
families.
Colombia remains the most
dangerous country in the world to
be a trade unionist – with one trade
union member murdered every
three days. An estimated 3,000
trade unionists have been killed in
recent years.
Despite the Colombian
government’s attempts to promote a
more humane and progressive
image, human rights abuses
continue. Click here to read more.
Attack on facility time is
ideological
New UNISON presidential team
announced
Maureen Le Marinel has been elected president of
UNISON for the next 12 months. She was elected
at the first meeting of the union’s national
executive council after last week’s national
delegate conference.
Ms Le Marinel is branch secretary of the
Lancashire police branch and is the union’s first
gay president. Click here to read more.
Membership benefits
Don’t forget to remind colleagues in your
workplace about UNISON Devon County
Branch. They may have been meaning to
join for ages but just never got round to it. Let
them know that whether they’re in or outside
the workplace, UNISON has a lot to offer its
members. Membership starts from just £1.30 a
month, depending on how much you earn, and
gives you access to a whole range of benefits,
from free legal and welfare advice to discounts
on insurance and grants for workplace
training visit: http://www.unison.org.uk/benefits/
£1.30
From
a mo
n
th
covEr
for you at work
UNISON EssEntial
Join UNISON online today at joinunison.org or call 0800 171 2193
Tel: 01392 382530
Eileen Best of the national women’s
committee, proposing a motion on
facility time, told delegates that the
attack on facility time by the likes of
the Taxpayers’ Alliance was entirely
ideological.
She stressed that research had
shown that facility time saved money
– but that such facts were simply
ignored or rubbished.
For the NEC, Graeme Smith said
that “we all know the value of facility
time, but I want to focus on where
this attack comes from. Click here to
read more.
Recruitment challenge
Introducing a motion on organsing
and recruiting, Sue Highton for the
NEC told UNISON’s national
delegate conference in Liverpool
that it was “about facing up to the
future”.
Outsourcing now means there are
many different employers in public
services. That doesn’t mean that
“we welcome the changes”, she
noted, but “as a union, we have to
adapt”.
Diane Kelly from the North West
stressed how important
recruitment is in building the density
and power that will enable the union
to be more effective in its
campaigning. Click here to read
more.
www.devoncountyunison.org.uk
‘Bill mill’ privatising
US public services
UNISON delegates were given a
frightening glimpse of how very
much worse privatisation could
become in the UK, if we’re not
careful.
Jane Carter, of the American
Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employee (AFSCME)
described the battles unions face
“over the pond”, to preserve both
workers’ rights and public
services.
Ms Carter is a labour
economist with the largest and
fastest growing union in the US,
with 1.6 million members, who
– much like UNISON’s – work
across public services.
She spoke of the “concerted
effort” to undermine workers
rights in the US: the right to vote,
to collective action, and the right
to have a decent wage.
Click here to read more.
Disability hate crime
-no place in 21st
century
Conference delegates spoke
passionately about the fear and
suffering caused by disability hate
crime. UNISON undertook to
campaign for disability hate crime
to be treated in the same way as
other forms of hate crime,
calling on police and crime
commissioners to make such
offences a priority. There are
thousands of incidents every
week of physical abuse or
harassment against people
because of their physical
disability, sensory impairment,
learning disability or mental
health.
Proposing the motion, Suzanne
Williams of the National Disabled
members committee, told
delegates that “disability hate
crime has no place in 21st century
Britain.” Click here to read more.
Click here for more
on the Local Government
Confernece 2013.
Click here for more on the
National Delegate Conference
2013.
Email: [email protected]