Islington Strikes Back!

Some lively local anti-cuts groups are emerging and mobilising in our communities - like IHOOPS, who organised this excellent demo last Saturday, 5th Feb, of over 1,000 people marching against the cuts. Power to the People!



Some selected speeches from the rally at the end, starting with George Binette, of Camden UNISON branch:



... Jeremy Corbyn, MP, Islington North, Labour:



And finally, my favourite, Billie Tomlinson, student occupier from London Met:

Nominations rise to eight branches

Updated list - I now have eight branch nominations:

1. Birkbeck
2. Imperial College*
3. London South Bank University
   
4. Middlesex
5. University of East London (UEL)*
   
6. University of Cambridge and Colleges
7. London Metropolitan Uni
8. University of Bedfordshire*

So that's three *new nominations, (that didn't nominate in by-election), and two from outside London, so far. Thanks folks - keep them coming ...

First five branch nominations

The first five branch nominations have come through confirmed as received by UNISON:

1. Birkbeck
2. Imperial College
3. London South Bank
4. Middlesex
5. University of East London

That's already two new nominations from last time, (UEL and Imperial), and lots more have pledged to support this time round. So keep 'em coming ... Cheers

Demo against the cuts / end the witch-hunt

I attended the excellent, lively demo on Saturday in London with my branch, staff from UCU and of course our students. Well done to SOAS UNISON for getting their (beautiful) banner on the BBC news report here!

I spoke at the initial rally as the crowds swelled to 10,000 at the beginning. However, the students and workers at the front of the march were so keen to get moving, by the time I got on the mic the march was already leaving Malet St! I'll post my speech, which I had to cut short, at some other point.

In the meantime, those of you, like me, who are sick of hearing about socialists being disciplined by UNISON, will (whilst glad of the result) be appalled to read this Employment Tribunal judgment. The judgment unanimously finds that the Socialist Party members were right to challenge their disciplinaries.

When we heard about 'The Four' Socialist Party activists who were barred from office, our branch committee greed to write to Dave Prentis to protest against this unfair treatment, and we requested that he calls this 'witch-hunt' off. We received no reply.

This ET judgment vindicates us and all those who have stood by them. Congratulations to all those involved. The disciplinary sanctions taken against Glenn Kelly, Onay Kasab, Suzanne Muna and Brian Debus should all now be lifted (they were barred from office from 3-5 years).

Where is their apology?

And where is the apology for all of us in London UNISON branches who have less full time officers to support us? Two of those branches (Bromley and Greenwich) that had secretaries barred from office, as a result of this unfair disciplinary, were then placed under regional supervision. That has burdened our already stretched resources.

At the recent D&O committee, I raised the pressing need to get these branches back under lay member control, because it effects us all in London - not only Local Government. Now that the ET has confirmed these were unfair disciplinary actions, it'll be quite easy to allow the members to have their AGMs and elect who they choose. Surely ... ?

We in UNISON have all suffered because of this witch-hunt: it was apparently due to a "don't rock the boat" under a Labour government attitude. It was bad enough then, and it would be absolutely criminal for it to continue under the present administration.

Kirklees UNISON victory leads the way / D&O report

Good to bump into Paul Holmes yesterday, as I hadn't heard about their successful fight against job cuts: an eleventh hour no compulsory redundancies deal mean the union branch could call off their five day strike. This is a massive success (see Morning Star photo click to enlarge).

I won't re-post the second photo as it'll simply stroke his ego too much ;)

I must have missed the e-mail to all UNISON members celebrating this important success. If someone can send me that link, it'll be helpful...

Still, I relayed this excellent news to some of our activists at a rally last night: "If anyone tells you that balloting for industrial action doesn't make a difference, tell them what happened with Kirklees UNISON branch."

I saw Paul at UNISON HQ because I'd just walked out of a 'D&O committee' meeting (Development and Organisation) .

Flocking to join UNISON - but then what?
We heard a detailed report over annual recruitment figures, which as to be expected and hoped, are up again. In fact, other than 2006, when we won 20,000 new members alone during the national dispute over pensions, 2010 was out best year for new members (163,000). The obvious lesson there, as Jon Rogers immediately pointed out, is to stop sitting on our hands and fight the current attacks on our pensions and we'd increase membership growth further still.

Quite right too - and I've always maintained that rather than only see the current Tory onslaught on our welfare state as a 'challenge' (which of course it is), we must also see it as an organizing opportunity - and so a motion was amended to this effect, I'm glad to say. Now is our time, as Dave says, so let's rise to the challenge and follow the lead of some other unions who are trying to coordinate some kind of resistance.

Five, three or two years, max?
A contentious part of the D&O was when discussing Rule I investigations: what time limit on suspension from holding office as a sanction should there be?

Last year's shocking news that Caroline Bedale was suspended for eight years (which would have take her past retirement, but was reduced to five on appeal) led to a rule change motion at NDC 2010, calling for a maximum of two years. The NEC opposed, and it was narrowly lost after a re-count (approx 65% voted for, but you need a two thirds majority at conference).

The good news is the new D&O committee has listened and now agrees there should be a time limit - but it should be five years. Another NEC member (guess who) and I welcomed this proposed capping but we argued three years would be plenty.

After all, how many employers can threaten you with a maximum sanction of more than two years on a final warning? Unfortunately we lost the vote by two to ... everybody else. Oh well, five years is better than indefinitely. It'll now have to go to the NEC and then NDC, of course.

New UNISON website
More exciting news from the D&O committee: expect a summer launch of a new, all singing all dancing UNISON website. Will there be an iPhone App as one member asked? I hope so. Someone at the Morning Star should commission one too, by the way.

As my (dwindling) supporters will agree, I spend far too much time online already so this new website might be a bad thing for me ... but I was first to jump in on this debate. Although we could be tempted to use a new 'extranet' facility if they can provide this for local branches too (in phase II), but until then we would need to see a lot of improvements before we migrate our successful London Met website to a new system.

In the meantime, we're sometimes using 'Spambook', to chat online and share info in our branch, so a more secure login space would be great. Any alternative suggestions?

We need an audit of local branch websites, I suggested, and these need to be linked up into a network - an online directory - of unison branch websites and email addresses. That's what the internet should be about after all.

I enjoyed my first committee but I am now exhausted... so I won't write up my thoughts on this morning's Finance Committee other than to say: two surveyors who actually like Mabledon Place have been found! No comment.

Max Watson: why I'm supporting Carole Hanson

I'm supporting Carole Hanson for the NEC Female HE seat because it was her branch that won an inspired campaign to save their Nursery last year. When we were fighting hard to save ours, and Westminster Uni were doing the same, Brighton UNISON branch scored an important victory that showed all other branches what we need to hear - that occasionally we can win!

I've since been impressed not only with their high density in Brighton UNISON branch, and their continuing resistance against job cuts at Brighton Uni, but also a strong engagement in their local community campaigns against cuts generally.

We need a fighting, democratic union, and this new era calls for a new leadership to be given a chance. Please nominate Carole Hanson.

CAROLE HANSON - Call for nominations to NEC Female HE Seat

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS TO NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (NEC), HIGHER EDUCATION FEMALE SEAT

CAROLE HANSON: MEMBERSHIP NUMBER 6020707

Branch number: 09225

19 January 2011

Dear colleague

NOMINATE CAROLE HANSON, BRANCH SECRETARY OF UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON BRANCH, FOR A FIGHTING, DEMOCRATIC UNION.

I am writing to ask your branch to nominate me for the Higher Education female seat on the NEC.

Higher Education is facing unprecedented challenges and the wholesale privatisation which is planned by the government will ensure that education as an end in itself and as a public good which enriches society will be replaced by a watered-down system functioning only as a servant to business. The huge increase in tuition fees will ensure that access will be denied to the majority of working people.

My branch was one of the few in the South East region to forcefully reject this year’s insulting pay offer. We’ve campaigned hard to save our campus nursery, launching a successful defence in the press and on TV. Through our local campaigns, our branch has grown and we have a strong branch committee with committed activists.

My branch listens to our members’ concerns and we know that members will take action if the union shows strong national leadership. Members will develop confidence in their strength if they see that there is united, concerted opposition to the cuts. At our recent special general meeting, our members voted unanimously to take action in the event of compulsory redundancies.

It is vital that we prepare for co-ordinated action against pay cuts, attacks on our pension and attacks on the basic funding of our higher education. We need to make good links with our sister trade unions and with our student unions, locally and nationally.

I am not a member of any political party. I am an unaligned socialist and a supporter of UNISON United Left, which supports a democratic, lay-member led union.

I have been active in my branch for 11 years, as a steward, safety rep and branch secretary for the past 5 years. I’m a delegate to our local Trades Council, which takes a leading role in organising local opposition to the cuts. I’m also a delegate to the South East Regional Higher Education Committee.

Please feel free to invite me to speak to your branch committee. You can contact me by email carole.hanson@brighton.ac.uk and by phone, work number: 01273 642450 or mobile: 07880 553193.

I will be at the Higher Education conference in Harrogate next month and I’ll be happy to meet and talk to branch delegates there.

Please note the nomination period closes on 18 February 2011, so you can only nominate during that period. Please also nominate Max Watson, from London Metropolitan, who is standing for the Higher Education general seat.

Yours in solidarity

Carole Hanson

Branch Secretary, University of Brighton Unison Branch