Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Promoting the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)
We discussed a load of different ways to work together to strengthen what remais the major internaitonal issue of our day and shared a variety of experiences. I emphasised the need to make more prominent the PSC on our own union's websites and to vary our ways of reaching out to members, and not leaving this issue to the union tops - encouraging involvement of the grass roots - so the least I could do is practice what I preach...
Is your branch affiliated, are you a member? If not, why not?
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The PSC campaigns for peace & justice for Palestinians, in support of international law and human rights & against all racism. Help us to build a new mass anti Apartheid movement for Palestine.
PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from many communities across Britain, and increasingly throughout the world. PSC represents people in Britain from all faiths and political parties, who have come together to work for peace and justice for the Palestinian people. PSC is opposed to all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice and Islamophobia.
Who do we work with?
PSC works with students, faith groups, trade unions and many other campaigning, cultural and political organisations in Britain, Europe and worldwide.
If you are a member of a trade union then please join the campaign and affiliate your region and local branch. if you are a member of a union not on the list of national affiliates above then please encourage your union to affiliate to the Campaign and encourage individual union members to become members of PSC. Please download an invitation to affiliate and an affiliation form. If you would like more information about affiliating to PSC contact us.
Making the case for the Living Wage at national pay talks
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| Senate House cleaners - don't mess! |
A key part of our claim this year is a cost of living increase plus catch up for the recent years of pay freeze (effectively a 7% claim) but we are also pushing for a commitment to the Living Wage which I'll focus on here. The formal press release was out this week and is taken up in the Times Higher Ed (we immediately rejected their 0.8% offer).
As Chair of a branch that successfully won our campaign for the Living Wage at London Met, I'm familiar with the arguments so I put the case this time to national employers.
Employers tend to think of their bottom lines first so I referred them to a well documented business case for a Living Wage, developed at Queen Mary's University. Well worth a read.
I also referred to a very a compelling moral case for ending poverty pay on campus, based on a UNISON report into the effects of low pay on UNISON’s members families. Not having time to help children with education should make a VC think twice, surely:
I really regret not being there for my daughter, I was always on split shifts. I think I didn’t push her enough with her education. She never needed for anything but I think I should have helped her on that (p19).
I reminded the employers that just because they might have outsourced their cleaning or catering companies, it doesn't mean they're outside of the campus and they should commit to paying all contracted out staff the Living Wage as well as those few on the bottom of the spinal points.
The question of 'affordability' came up. The obvious answer to that is of course: "If London Met can afford it ...."
Good publicity case: I pointed to the infamous bad press that UCL's Malcolm (not our Malcolm at London Met, the other one) received for not implementing the Living Wage despite rewarding himself a hefty six figure sum himself. How unfortunate those headlines might appear when all those VCs (average salary of £216k) claim not to have enough spare cash to pay the Living Wage.
There is no formal response yet to our claim for The Living Wage. Their Board are meeting this week I believe to discuss it further, so now might be a good time to start a local campaign to pressure your local management to sign up to this commitment and make this real.
Go to the new UNISON / NUS Living Wage website with a campaign tool kit and get stuck in!
When we won the Living Wage at London Met part of our strategy wasn't for the usual negotiating team to argue it with the VC. Instead we arranged a delegation from the cleaners, caterers and security guards to tell the VC what it is like to struggle on the minimum wage in London. Maybe it'd be good for a reserved seat member to join us in future?
There is an argument about whether we can or even should try to get the Living Wage agreed through national negotiations rather than local agreements. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated as it's a subtle argument to be had, especially from an organising perspective.
Let me know how your campaign is going and what sort of response your employer has given you to - I heard a rumour about Sheffield and some movement from South Bank? Talks at Cambridge are ongoing are they? If you want advice or to share your experiences please do get in touch.
Any other ideas on making the employers' realize we need a fair pay rise this year?
#babyban update
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| Sandinista |
An official brief report is on line here, and Jon Rogers, NEC for London, has his started his reports here (it's always worth checking in on Jon for his detailed reports - he clearly has a long commute to and from work!). It's hard to keep up with the speed at which the motions are run through to be honest (a bit like hearing a week of debates condensed into half an hour). I cycle to work and since new responsibilities I've had to prioritize other things than updating this blog.
So I focused on attempting to amend just one small policy - Motion 82 ('Members with parenting responsibilities') - so that nursing mothers aren't excluded from UNISON conferences. Careful readers of this blog will remember a visitor from our branch was recently at HE conference in Brighton last month and not even allowed to attend a fringe meeting, let alone the conference visitors area.
As Jon has accurately reported, one NEC member replied to my proposed amendment (to review arrangements with a view to making our policy more inclusive), that when she had recently been breastfeeding on the conference floor "no-one batted an eyelid"! So there is therefore no need to review our policy, she assured us.
Oh good, I thought, and as Vicki Perrin was backing my amendment I tried to come back in - but before I could the Chair swiftly moved on. Fair enough - not enough hours in the day after all.
I am told that after I had to leave, Jon asked for this to be reviewed before next NEC, so I sincerely hope this will be resolved before National Delegates Conference.
I rushed down the many stairs (from the giddy heights of the 9th floor to the 1st!) just in time for national pay talks ... more to come on that in a separate post.
Friday, 20 April 2012
The 2012 London Palestine Film Festival opens tonight...
The Palestine Film Festival is a fantastic annual event gone form strength to strength, now firmly established in the calender. I just wish I could go again this year - be there if you can.
The 2012 London Palestine Film Festival opens tonight... palestinefilm.org
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Thursday, 19 April 2012
Join the Big Ride on 28 April 2012
Not enough done for us cyclists in London by Boris, who I once stopped jumping a red light in central London. He has done nothing but give us a bad name, which is what I told him at the time.
Those Barclay's-blue splodges of paint on the roads? What a wasted opportunity that was!
Apologies for going off topic here, but a good friend and comrade in our branch died last year cylcing to work in London - and bumbling Boris hasn't done a thing about these regular deaths.
I would like to see Ken get back in, and for Cycle safety to be taken seriously. Support the LCC and their 'go dutch' campaign.
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