UNISON NDC 12: Elder Abuse motion

Conference, President, Joel Bodmer housing association branch Supporting motion 83 Elder Abuse.

It has often been said that you can judge a civilisation not by its wealth, standing or privilege but on how it treats it’s most vulnerable.

The later years in one’s life should be a time for reflection and enjoyment, an opportunity to spend time doing those things people never had change to do in chance to do in younger life. 

After years of hard work , contribution and service to our society. The very least people should expect is that their basic human rights are protected.

That they are afforded the existence so many of us take for granted, a life free from physical or sexual assault,
a life free from psychological abuse, or financial exploitation.  But for thousands and thousands of older people this is not the case, trapped in an existence of fear, shame and misery.

Conference, the commendable Elder abuse campaign run by our retired members, comes at a time when services for older people are under assault.Day centre closure after closure, cuts to community’s services relied upon by older people, cuts to care services, and cuts to terms and conditions of care workers. Whilst the population continues to age and need for services increases. 

It is now more pressing than ever that this issue needs to be highlighted, a concerted fight to eradicate the abuse of older people, and restore dignity to the lives some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

This motion commits us to take a firm policy viewpoint on changing the law to ensure there is specific legislation to protect older people from abuse. As well as more broadly campaigning and highlighting the issues.

Conference, please support this motion.

(sign the UNISON e-government petition on Elder abuse here)

London UNISON SGE Elections: Forces of light and reason

This is of course strictly in my personal capacity only. But while I don't know all the candidates standing in this year's London UNISON Service Group Election elections. The following are not loony left "lets all go on strike to bring about the revolution".

So if I had the choice I would support:-

Local Government
Doris Sutton - Female Seat   
Laurie Pocock – General Seat
Irene Stacey - Reserved Low Paid Seat                   

Health
Eddyna Danso - Female Seat 
Mike Davey - General Seat
Lynn Burbidge – Reserved Low Paid Seat           

Higher Education
Elizabeth Baptiste - Female Seat     
Gwyn Jones - General Seat   

Community
Joel Bodmer - General Seat           

I'll try and find out who are the similar forces of light and reason candidates standing elsewhere outside London.

Vote Joel Bodmer for UNISON London Community Service Group Executive

Guest post by Joel. "I am standing for the Greater London region general seat on the Community Service Group Executive.

I have worked within the community sector for several years, and am currently employed as a mental health support worker for metropolitan support trust.

Within UNISON I am chair of the national young member’s forum, and sit on the national labour link committee, I am also active within the London region and chair of my branch.

Why I’m standing

The Community sector is one of the fastest growing sectors within UNISON and I believe passionately in the need for a strong community voice within the union.

The sector has grown in recent years as greater numbers of roles traditionally carried out by staff directly employed by the NHS and Local authorities have been outsourced to the community sector. This has often resulted in attempts to push down terms and conditions. Likewise, as a result of the coalition government’s programme of cuts, many community organisations are losing funding and are increasingly slashing wages to win contracts.

At this time UNISON as the biggest union representing workers in our sector, needs to be at the forefront of campaigning for decently funded and sustainable services provided by the community sector, and wages and terms and conditions which are decent and fair. We need to show that an alternative to the race to the bottom, so often seen in our sector- is possible and viable.

We need to build our density and organise in the sector, and put pressure on our employers to accept recognition agreements where these are not in place, and allow the same levels of facility time/ release as seen in other sectors providing public services.

Too many organisations within our sector attempt to “mimic” the private sector in terms of labour relations and this is a situation that only looks to get worse. I believe UNISON has a real role to play in campaigning to ensure that the community sector is part and parcel of a quality public sector, rather than a cheap alternative.

If elected I will play an active role within the service group executive, acting as a prominent voice for the London region. I will work closely with community branches within the region as well as those branches that have members in our sector, listening to views and opinions and advocating these at the SGE. I will regularly report back to the regional community service group, and keep members updated of the picture of the service group nationally.

Please vote for

Joel Bodmer (general seat)

Ballot papers will be delivered to your home address on 10 April. Look out for the envelope & please use your vote to elect your SGE Reps for the next 2 years.

A VOICE FOR COMMUNITY IN LONDON

UNISON London Mayor and Assembly telecanvass bank

This is a great photo I think of some of the UNISON Labour Party activists at the telecanvass bank in our headquarters in Euston this evening. I helped out tonight for the first time and was very impressed with the modern technology that UNISON has and the ease of contacting members.

We rang UNISON members for voter identification purposes in the London Mayoral and Assembly elections. By coincidence this evening we called up UNISON members in my own Borough, Newham.

There was a software training session beforehand but once we were up and running we contacted 200 members in just over an hour. Which is pretty good going.  Double click picture to bring up detail.

UNISON Housing Association branch Chair (and Chair of National Young Members) Joel Bodmer was one of the team (see picture on right). After all that talking some of us had to retire to a local hostelry to refresh ourselves (and once again put the world to rights)

The Homeless Charity and the "Race to the Gutter"

Below is the UNISON press release on the attack on terms and conditions of staff employed by London Homeless Charity Broadway. Our members (seen lobbying their Board meeting on Tuesday evening in Commercial Street, Tower Hamlets) carry out a very difficult and demanding job supporting vulnerable single homeless people across London. both "on the street" and in hostels and projects.  Of course the original "villain" in all this is the Tory Government for cutting "Supporting People" funding. 

However, a small number of rogue Housing Associations and "Charities" are under cutting decent employers in a bidding war to win "new business". This is truly a "race to the gutter". You simply cannot provide a quality service to clients by decimating your staff's pay and conditions. No responsible employer should take part in such bids. Our branch is launching a campaign against "Rachman employers". Believe it or not there are employers who are treating staff even worse. 

NEWS FROM UNISON

UNISON MEMBERS PROTEST AGAINST ATTACKS ON TERMS & CONDITIONS

On the 13th March angry UNISON members employed by Broadway Housing Association lobbied Board members, following their decision to slash wages and dramatically cut terms and conditions.

The proposed changes - which have reached the end of a consultation with UNISON despite objections from the union and staff - would;

·         Reduce the pay of new front line staff by at least £4,500 per annum – in effect a 20% reduction in salary(with salaries which currently stand at between £23,000-25,000 being pushed down to between £18,500 – 20,000).

·         Reduce the pay of 14 existing staff which Broadway believes are paid above the medium wage for their roles.

Terms and conditions for new staff will be dramatically cut and will include:

·         No pension provision(current staff receive 5% employer contributions matched by 3% employee contribution).

·         Reducing Annual leave entitlement to statutory requirements (a loss of 6 days per year).

·         Abolishing dependency leave and halving compassionate leave to 5 days

·         Reducing sick leave entitlement(to statutory during probationary period and a 4 weeks full pay and four weeks half pay per annum in the first three years of employment).

·         Reducing maternity pay to statutory.

In addition to these cuts Broadway intend not to pay a cost of living increase for 2012/2013.  

Joel Bodmer Chair of the UNISON Housing Association branch, which represents members employed at Broadway as well as many other housing associations said

“ It is absolutely shameful that Broadway have apparently made a strategic decision to position themselves away from a focus on quality; which the organisation have in past been associated with, and move themselves towards the “no frills airline” model of care and support.

The organisation are clearly re-jigging themselves to be at the forefront of the race to the bottom which we are witnessing in the sector. It is really sad that very skilled people who work in some incredibly challenging environments are being so un-fairly rewarded for the jobs they do.

People choose to work in the sector because they believe in helping the most vulnerable members of society; this good will is clearly being abused by organisations who believe they can squeeze terms and conditions as much as possible, and still receive high quality work from dedicated staff. We will continue to fight the short-sightedness off all attempts attack the terms and conditions of people who perform such crucial roles in our society.”

Broadway claim the cuts are necessary for the organisation to remain viable and continue to be in a position to win new services claiming it could not allow its reserves to fall below £850,000.

For more information please contact:  

Colin Inniss, UNISON Regional Organiser 07703 194 127 / c.inniss@unison.co.uk

John Gray, Branch Secretary, UNISON Housing Associations Branch - 07432 150 530 / J.Gray2@unison.co.uk

Ken Livingstone meets London Labour Link

Last night following the London UNISON Labour Link Forum there was there was a "Ken for London"

meeting at the UNISON HQ in Euston.

Ken gave a 10 minute speech (see phone camera video here on YouTube - hat tip Phil Lewis from
Camden).

Picture is of Ken with the Chair of the UNISON London retired members Rob Beeston and Joel Bodmer who is chair of UNISON London Young members (and national) network.

We gave Ken a tour of the building and the campaigning phone bank.

UNISON has put out this press release 

Livingstone meets London Labour Link

UNISON activists raised their concerns about the future of public services in London at a meeting with Labour mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone last night.

The event, which also included Greater London Assembly candidates Andrew Dismore, Murad Qureshi - who are both UNISON members - and John Biggs, also gave union activists a chance to discuss the campaign with the candidates.

"Ken spoke about how he will put the needs of UNISON members and ordinary Londoners first by cutting fares, increasing the number of police on the streets, campaigning for a living rent, building homes for Londoners, restoring the campaign for the London Living Wage and standing up against attacks on public services," said John Gray of the Greater London UNISON Labour Link committee.

"We need to support Ken and the Labour candidates and return a Labour mayor and a Labour majority on the GLA on 3 May."

Housing Association Branch at Community Conference 2012

This picture collage is largely of my branch members speaking at yesterday's UNISON Community Conference in Brighton.

In total we had 8 members of our branch speaking (in various capacities). 4 of whom were first time speakers at a UNISON conference. We moved 5 successful motions. Including organising and recruiting young members by Branch Chair (and Young member) Joel Bodmer (MHT); the Big Society attack on terms and conditions by Ionela Flood (Notting Hill); Why Income equality at work is better for everyone by Ebrahim Piperdy (Circle) and Condem threats to high quality and sustainable social housing by Tony Power (East Thames).

This is only the second ever Community and Voluntary Conference. Our service group is the 3rd largest in the union. We also have in my view amongst the toughest organising challenges going. We have all gone a long way in a short period of time but there is still much to do. I think that last weekends successful seminar and conference will help us on that way.

UNISON Labour Link (APF) London Regional elections 2012



Dear Colleagues

Strictly in my personal capacity I would request that you consider supporting the following candidates in these elections. Please pass on to any other branches you think may support us.

REGIONAL LABOUR LINK COMMITTEE Male Seats 5 votes (blue paper)
ANDERSON, Jason

BODMER, Joel

DAVEY, Mike

GRAY, John

GRIFFITHS, ALAN


NATIONAL LABOUR LINK FORUM Male seats 3 Votes (yellow paper)
ANDERSON, Jason

DAVEY, Mike

GRIFFITHS, ALAN


NATIONAL LABOUR LINK FORUM Female Seats 5 Votes (pink paper)
ALASHIA, Sanchia

BENTLEY, Lynn

DAVIS, Doreen

HANSON, Gloria

SILVER, Kim


LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE 2012 General Seat 1 Vote (pink paper)

DAVEY, Mike

Many thanks please give me a ring if you have any queries. Ballot papers have to be back to Cally Thompson at Regional office by 12 noon Friday 16 March 2011. You can fax by 020 7535 2105.

Don't forget to sign up for London Labour Link forum by this Thursday 1 March (the Forum takes place the following Tuesday 6 March 4.30-6pm at the new UNISON centre). Later that day 6-8pm at the Centre there is a launch event on a campaign pack for Ken Livingston and the GLA candidates. Ken will be there to say a few words. This invite is for all activists.

John Gray

UNISON Housing Association Branch AGM 2012

Picture from my branch AGM held last week at the UNISON centre in Euston.  The branch has 3500 members working in 180 different employers in Greater London and the South East.  We organise and represent all Housing Association staff staff, whatever post they hold. Sixty per cent of branch members are women. We have over 150 elected local representatives.

I had been been re-elected (unopposed) as Branch Secretary. The guest speaker was Sean Baine from the Equality Trust who spoke on "Why inequality is bad for all of us - and what we should do about it".   Sign the "Fair London" petition calling for the London Mayor candidates to take action on income inequality in London (Ken Livingstone is the only mainstream candidate to have signed). A branch motion "Why Income Equality at Work is Better for Everyone" will be going to 2012 UNISON National Delegate Conference.

By coincidence Sean had worked with our office manager Moira in Haringay Council 30 years before (see left of picture next to our branch Chair Joel Bodmer). This was the first time they had met since then. Sean was also the CEO of Stepney Neighbourhood when I worked for Tower Hamlets (don't think we met).

The race to the bottom is destroying care and support

Guest post by Joel Bodmer who is the UNISON Housing Association Branch Young Members officer. Joel works as a mental health support worker.

"There is at present a real crisis in the care and support sector, which seems to be hardly recognised or seems to attract a great deal of attention. There is currently a race to the bottom of epidemic proportions in social care, which although the causes are numerous, primarily stems from two government policy changes.

Firstly following the coalition’s 2010 comprehensive spending review, Local Authorities have been under incredible pressure faced with the reduction of revenue budgets by 28% over a 4 year period. How these cuts have been absorbed has of course been a matter of political choices.

Secondly the removing of the ring fencing of supporting people funding from 2009, has meant that local authorities could effectively raid money that was intended to be used for services for vulnerable people and use it elsewhere. Likewise of course here political choices by local authorities come into play here too, but the fact is local government has a legal obligation to provide statutory services, so even many well meaning authorities have been forced to divert this cash elsewhere. Quite literally robbing peter to pay paul.

Faced with such harsh cuts and often the diversion of funds from supporting people, it is frequently the “soft” services that suffer. The real tragedy is the short termism in this approach. It is the preventative services that are suffering, whereas greater investment could really reduce the strain on Social Services and the NHS.

Whatever the mantra so often repeated by commissioners that quality still matters, it has been an inevitable fact the emphasis has shifted almost purely to cost based procurement. A bizarre process of reverse auctions, gambling with the provision of services for the most vulnerable members of our society.

Like local authorities, Housing Associations that provide care and support have had choices to make too, they have been forced to reflect, to take stock and think about what they do and why. There has been an array of responses to the challenges faced.

The crisis has highlighted the calibre of many good organisations; those who have refused to engage in the merciless race to the gutter and those who have prided themselves on the quality of the services they provide. These organisations have refused to bid to deliver services at unaffordable low levels, and have focused on delivering what they can do well.

But likewise the “bad eggs” have been exposed, organisations (we all know who they are) that operate more like rogue traders, winning contracts because they bid at dishonestly low levels, masters of slick bid writing and all the razzmatazz rather than care and support. Of course once they have been awarded a contract they need to find a way of delivering it at below the real cost, such providers then set about restructuring services with a skeleton level of staffing and either failing to accept their legal obligations under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) or employing new staff at rock bottom wages, and under poor terms and conditions.

It is a real sad situation that as a result of this race to the bottom many skilled and professional staff working in the sector are leaving in droves, many facing redundancy or the lowering of terms and conditions.

Good care and support providers need to lead the fight to re-jig the focus back towards quality, by refusing to engage in the race to the bottom that is so damaging not only to care and support but to society at large. 

The commitment to high standards in services for vulnerable people that is an engrained value of so many people working in our sector can only be achieved by a focus on quality rather than cost.

Ken's Fare Deal Rally

Picture of Labour Mayor Candidate Ken Livingston at the Fare Deal rally in Camden on Wednesday. Well done to Ken and the Party team for holding a successful, packed, standing room only rally 7 months before the GLA election. Below is based on some of the tweets I made during the rally.

At Ken's Fare Deal Rally in Camden Centre... Firstly, Steve Turner from Unite attacking the hypocrisy of rich bankers attacking public service pensions. Cost of annual travel card under Boris more than cost of a round the world air ticket... Joel Bodmer, Unison Housing Association young member about to speak at Fare Deal Rally....Joel is a mental health worker whose project has lost funding. Wages low anyway. Cannot afford to travel far to seek new job...

London Assembly member Val Shawcross says get rid of Boris and Brian Coleman on the same day...Ken's video - its the poorest and the middle who are suffering the most from fare increases...

Tessa Jowell "Ken believes in the power of politics to change peoples lives"...Boris wants tax cuts for the 1% while 99% suffer cuts...never just say Boris say TORY Boris Johnson since he will spend the next months pretending not to be a TORY. He is one"...vote for ken because he loves London and our city is hurting"...

Sally Bercow now on stage)... Sally "thanks to Tory cuts...families are being squeezed... Cuts hit those who can least afford it...Tories...ineffective rag bag of ideas...stop Tory Boris Johnson unfair fares in its tracks"...

Tom Watson MP on stage to cheers...Tom shares Private Investigators with Ken, tousles with Peter Mandelson and being unpopular with the Sun...reminds us about Boris infamous his £100k chicken feed 2nd wage. Cue life size chickens that will be collecting money for campaign...stop Boris fake fights with Cameron...at least when Ken fell out with Tony Blair - he meant it

Ken on stage to standing applause. Wishes 5% cut in fares was more. But unlike Tories we will not say anything we can't deliver. At end of his 8 years as mayor bus fares cut 9% real terms and underground only rose 1.4%...don't cap Housing benefit: Cap rents...Boris should declare an interest in his call for top tax cuts. He would have to pay £25k less...First time that young people in England face a worse standard of living than their parents....Build a machine to deliver defeat to Boris and send a message we want a wholly different society.

(picture Dan McCurry)

Joel Bodmer elected as London rep to UNISON National Labour Link

Good news today that Joel Bodmer (seen speaking at NDC) has been elected unopposed as the Greater London Committee member of UNISON National Labour Link. 

Joel is also a member of UNISON Housing Association branch and the new Chair of the National Young Members Forum. 

It would appear that disunited left (aka the "evil ones")  have given up the ghost in London region and are not contesting Labour Link elections. Instead I suppose they will just carry on with the negative  whining and whinging. 

I am also a member of the UNISON National Labour Link committee via the NEC and I am looking forward to working with Joel and the other newly elected sensible left members.