UNISON NDC 12: Dave Prentis Speech

Picture was taken from my table during UNISON General Secretary's speech to our national conference yesterday afternoon.

Check out link to Dave's speech hear

Please don't vote to close nurseries...Vote for the Party that Cares

Excellent UNISON Billboard campaign launched today "calling on the public to vote for the party that cares about public services in May's local and mayoral elections in England....

Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, said:

"Voters across the country are being hit hard by public spending cuts. The unemployed young person who has lost the help they need to find work, the elderly person watching their social care services disappear, the low income family that has lost thousands in tax credits. Meanwhile, the richest 1% are in line for tax cuts in coalition Britain.

"In May's elections voters face a stark choice. Vote for the coalition parties and vote for cuts, or vote for the party that cares about public services. UNISON's campaign is aimed at making sure voters make the right choice at the ballot box in May."

Housing Voice Independent Inquiry: London & SE

On Thursday I made a verbal submission to this inquiry. Housing Voice is the "campaign alliance established to champion the need for more affordable homes to buy or rent". The inquiry is gathering evidence across the country on ways to combat the "affordable housing crisis". Lord Larry Whitty is chairing the inquiry (seen in centre of picture with panel members Steve Hilditch and Michael Ward).

Heidi Alexander MP for Lewisham East and on the CLG Select Committee (left) spoke as did UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis.  There were 18 speakers listed! "Housing Professionals Voices", "Voices of those at the sharp end"; "Labour Voices", "Local and Regional elected" and "Other voices".  There were politicians from across the political divide. Residents and a wide range of other people with interest in affordable housing took part and contributed.

There was disagreement about the solution but no-one denied that we have an appalling housing shortage and that homes are currently unaffordable especially in London. Access to land with permission to build, planning and finance seems to be major barriers. Solutions offered included housing co-operatives, deregulation (House Builders Federation) and greater regulation (of private sector including rent controls: not I think supported by the HBF), funding from pension funds.

I think the role of public funding is absolute key and while there is a lot that can be done to improve supply and affordability at the margin, without a significant funding in state funding we will not resolve the crisis. We will only get the funding when we can raise the political interest in housing to match that of education and health.

Labour London Assemby member Valerie Shawcross was the last speaker. In the Q&A some Housing Associations got a bit of a pasting from the politicians over their variable management standards, being so fragmented, inefficient, arrogant and unaccountable.  

I'll post my submission later.

UNISON Pay, Bargaining and Equalities Seminar 2012

On Thursday I attended this national UNISON seminar at our headquarters in Euston. Jane Carolan, NEC, Chair of Service Group Liaison welcomed us saying that the traditional response by the union to serious disputes with our employers had been industrial conflict, that option will always remain but we also need to consider other options. We had a presentation on the "Economic Overview" by Nicola Smith , Head of Economic and Social Affairs at the TUC.

After a Q&A there were workshops on "Outsourcing and procurement"; "Attacks on terms and conditions"; "Negotiating with the private and voluntary sector" and "Bargaining". Then there was a presentation on UNISON Pay Strategy by our General Secretary Dave Prentis and Assistant General Secretary Karen Jennings. This was followed by a reception in the Atrium with speaker Anna Bird (Fawcett Society - see picture). On Friday morning Alistair Hatchett, Head of Pay and HR services from the IDS gave an entertaining account of how the Tories and the Tax Evaders Alliance deliberately distort and mislead on public sector pay. After the last workshop, Mike Kirby, Regional Secretary Scotland spoke on "making the best of the Coalition Government, a perspective from devolved nations".

I am pleased that UNISON is taking the education and development of its activists seriously. Not just the nuts and bolts of bargaining and negotiating but the wider economic, social and economic framework.

Save Our NHS Rally

Below are the tweets (and retweets) I made at last nights "Save Our NHS" rally at Westminster. It was a really impressive display of the wide breath of opposition to the proposed reforms. The first tweets start on the bottom.

• "Just congratulated Mary Locke (see picture) for making great speech. She is making her way home by train to brum
• Good to see the LRC trots showing their true colours and heckling those who are trying to do something about the bill
• "If I become the next S of S for health I will repeal this Bill" Andy Burnham MP
• Last but not least Andy Burnham MP labour Shadow Sec of State for Health. "No longer one NHS"
• Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, public health physician: The NHS is in danger of becoming nothing but "a logo, a budget & a few quangos"
• "Non cooperation with evil is a duty as much as cooperating with good" MG
• Another public health professional against the bill. Dr Alex Scott-Samuel. "There will be more deaths under this new system".
• So, why are people yelling at an MP who has voted the right way every time?
• RT Lots of heckles for George. Bravo him for not giving up. A Lib Dem that gives a shit is more useful than some1 outside the party

  Dorothy Matebeni President SA nurses union DENOSA Viva NHS Viva!!!!
• "We are being ruled by a Dickensian mob who know the price of everything and the value of nothing." John Ashton

  Andrew George MP liberal democrat "better reception than I get in the Leadership office... NHS more private profit than care
• Prof. John Ashton director of public health and country medical officer, cumbria. Have big society pickle picnic in gate head
• Don't let r NHS slide into a USA model. Video of US health worker talking of their privatised health service. Steel worker union?
• Mary Locke houskeeper in a hospital has adopted over 350 peers to drop the bill. "We don't want spaghetti junction nhs"
• Michael Edwards Barts Unison contracted out patient transfer driver describes the future for many NHS staff if bill goes ahead
• Top unison hospital house keeper Mary Locke tells it as it is!
• Dr Clive Peedell who ran 190 miles to publise Save our NHS. He will be running 42 miles on Friday to Newcastle to lib cons
• epetition is at 170,000 sigs. Please sign the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670 #

  Lyn Ward, occupational therapist from UNISON and @BAOTCOT: The NHS is about teamwork, not competition
• Rehana Azam GMB National officer and head of NHS "if we had the Royal College of Surgeons we would have a full house"
• Why r people heckling speakers who are doing their best to defeat the bill? Hmmm
• Blast from the past. Lord Dr David Owen. "I have never been a Liberal" response to heckle
• David Skidmore Paramedic. People comes before profit. 10 years and I have never been political I have never talked to an audience
• Cecilia Anim clinical nurse. Fight to save r beloved NHS. Kill the bill not the NHS
• Dr Peter Carter GS RCN NHS reform "we will have people competing with each other rather than cooperating with other"

  Jo Brand - "I do have a soft spot for Nick Clegg, it's face down in a bowl of custard"
• 169k signatures for NHS risk regsiter debate but Gov still refusing to hold one Dr Kailash Chand
• Jo Brand NHS could mean "Not here soon"

  Circle vultures. The same people who left patients to look after themselves with faulty breast implants

  Dr john Lister "keep r NHS public" attack Circle owned by investment bankers and the theives who rip people off at Wonga.com
• More selfish wreckers and splitters leave with via a helping hand. One dressed as a cat? Was it george galloway?
• BMA Dr Hamish Meldrum supports his fellow health workers. A unusually dapper trade union leader
• Patient Vikki Mills pregnant with twins does not want anyone to jump que if they have money. 
• Cathy warwick GS RCM "kill the bill"
• Bunch of Monty python idiots "demanding" national strike thrown out of hall. :)

  "Its about what health service we leave our children...our NHS is not for sale"
• Dave Prentis next speaker "tories say nhs liberated"... What liberated to go bust
• In a packed Westminster Hall for the #SaveOurNHS rally- Woman who gave Lansley a piece of her mind rightly gets a standing ovation

  At packed Save our NHS rally at Westminster Central Hall. Brendan Barber speaking.
• John's Labour blog: Rally to Save Our NHS Tonight at Central Hall,
• UPDATE: Check youtube of speeches here

UNISON Votes for Strike Action on November 30

UNISON members balloted over the future of the Local Government Pension Scheme have voted by over 76% in support of strike action.  While the NHS scheme had an equally decisive 81% in favour.

Unless a deal can be reached co-ordinated strike action and protests to defend pensions will take place on Wednesday 30 November 2011. 20 different unions will be taking part.

This evening elected UNISON lay officials (Service Group Executives: SGE) members including myself met at the UNISON Centre in Kings Cross, London. We had a presentation on the ballot result and also the new "principles" that the Government put forward yesterday.   These principles were not an offer and still assumed a 50% hike in pension contributions which could result in the schemes collapsing. All the SGEs then met separately and voted to agree to the strike call. 

Picture are members of the Community & Voluntary SGE with our General Secretary Dave Prentis after our unanimous vote to agree to Strike action.

Call You and Yours: Do Strikes Work?

Yesterday lunchtime there was a debate on the Radio 4 programme "You and Yours" on "Do Strikes Work?"

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis was a guest with Ed Holmes, from the hard right Tory think tank "Policy Exchange".

I rang into the programme and was able to say (about 9 minutes in) that strikes can work if they are a last resort and if the membership is behind it.  I pointed out my own example of a "successful" strike. I took part in a month long strike to stop cuts in local housing offices and staff redundancies.  In the end we were able to hammer out a compromise which saved people's jobs. 

UNISON John Burgess also rang in from yesterday's picket line in Barnet.

One of the (many) irritating things that Ed Holmes kept saying during the programme was that public service pensions were "over generous"....  if I work for 40 years the maximum pension I will get is just over half pay and a lump sum around 1.5 x my final salary.  I am currently contributing nearly £200 per month - so is a half pay pension "over generous"? Is he saying it should it be less?

Stop Attacking Our Pensions and Get the Vote out!

Check out this report on today's key UNISON NEC meeting. "The key task facing the union in the next few weeks is making sure members vote in the pensions industrial action ballot - and making sure there is a massive yes vote for industrial action.

That was the single message from UNISON NEC when it met in London today.

"We've got 10 days to get a massive vote out," the union's lay leadership heard.

The ballot will be "the biggest ballot the county has ever seen," general secretary Dave Prentis told the meeting.

It is key that members do not receive the ballot paper cold, the meeting heard, but that they are aware of the issues and the need to vote before voting papers arrive next week.

Branches have received bulk supplies of leaflets urging a yes vote, enough for every member, and should already be using them to have conversations with members, urging them to vote - as well as recruiting new members.

Negotiations are continuing, Mr Prentis reported, but there has been little or no movement from relevant ministers.

They've got to be serious about negotiating if they want to avoid a strike, added the general secretary: about contributions increases, about the age at which pensions can be paid and about the new schemes they want, where ministers are refusing to even supply basic information on issues such as proposed employers' contributions or accrual rates.

"We need to put pressure on them with a massive turnout in the ballot and a massive yes vote," said Mr Prentis.

If action is necessary, the NEC agreed changes to the protocols to make it easier for branches to set up and fund industrial action funds allowing them to make hardship payments.

Though with more than a million members potentially taking strike action, it will not be possible for the union to pay strike pay.

The NEC was meeting in London as more than 20,000 members in Northern Ireland took part in a one-day strike, the largest action for 30 years.

The meeting sent a message of solidarity to Northern Ireland, as well as to members in Southampton, Birmingham, Barnet, Middlesex University and 20 other branches involved in campaigns of industrial action to protect members and the public services they provide.

The NEC also:

thanked Plymouth branch and the South West region for their work in getting the union rerecognised by the city council;
• congratulated members who had played a leading role in TUC demonstrations;
• received a report on the use of the union's fighting fund in supporting branches and regions;
• heard the latest update on organisation and recruitment up to August;
• received updates on planning for the 2012 UNISON conference, and report from UNISON's contribution to the TUC congress and Labour Party conference;
• received a report on the union's six-month accounts to June and a verbal update on the accounts to August;
• discussed ways to counter the threat to union facility time in the public services coming from the Conservatives.

Pensions strike Ballot: "enough is enough"

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis tells it as it is about why the unions are calling a strike ballot to protect pensions.  "We hope for the best but are planning for the worse.  A last resort... only if negotiations break down.  First Day of Strike Action planned for 30 November 2011.

...the end of the NHS as we know it...

This evening there was a candle vigil outside the House of Commons to draw attention to the potential
destruction of the NHS by this Tory led government. In particular the removal of the private patient cap and the threat of privatisation.

The Health and Social Care Bill was given its 3rd reading and will now go on to the House of Lords. UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis had warned Lib Dem MP's that by voting for this bill they will find their party out of power for a
generation.

"Our candlelight vigil marks the end of the NHS as we know it.

“Despite the denials, this government is throwing the door wide open to private companies, who will cherry pick profitable parts of our NHS, and make a fortune. We know that talks have already taken place with a German firm company about running 10-20 NHS hospitals".

I missed the vigil since by coincidence, I was chairing a meeting of my Branch Labour Link members at the Commons with shadow Labour Housing Minister, Alison Seabeck MP and UNISON National Officer Mike Short (I will post on this meeting later).  She had to dash out of the meeting for 10 minutes in order to go and vote against the Bill.  Afterwards, on the way out at the foot of the stairs from the committee rooms, we passed the statue head of the NHS founder, Aneurin Bevan.   I was reminded once again of his argument that "The NHS will last as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it".

Big NHS Weekend

This weekend has been designated as the BIG NHS Weekend.  Up and down the country the Labour movement will be campaigning - street stalls, door knocking and petitioning - to save our NHS.

We have to let the public know that the Tories are planning to destroy our National Health Service.  Next week the Health Bill comes back to Parliament. In Newham, West and East Ham Labour Parties are planning to help TULO (Trade Union Liaison Organisation) run campaigning events.

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis makes it clear what he thinks the Tories are up to:-

“Our health service is under siege. If anyone thinks that the NHS is safe in the Coalition’s hands - they better think again.  The Health and Social Care Bill is a Trojan horse bringing in private health companies to take over our health service. In Tory-ward, money talks and if patients don’t have the cash they will find themselves waiting at the end of a very long queue.”