United in defence of public services

Congress has today united all unions (except the air line pilots) in support of a wide ranging Composite motion (Composite 10) in defence of public services.

The composite rebuts the ConDem case for cuts, emphasising that the Tory motive is ideological and that the Coalition has no mandate for cuts. It also highlights the alternative approach of collecting the £123 Billion in taxes evaded or uncollected each year.

In passing the Composite, Congress has called upon the General Council to "lead a co-ordinated campaign across the labour movement with other working class organisations and local communities for progressive means of ensuring and improving the public finances."

Specifically the Composite calls for;
* opposition to cuts and privatisation;
*fair pay, pensions and equality;
*campaigning, involving Trades Councils, including support for the ETUC action on 29 September;
* co-ordinating industrial action, nationally and locally;
* co-ordinating union recruitment;
* presenting a clear alternative to the cuts.

Dave Prentis moved the Composite, which was seconded by Gail Cartmail of UNITE and supported by speakers including Brian Strutton of the GMB, Mark Serwotka, Bob Crow, Matt Wrack and others. Kevin Courtenay of the NUT provided an eloquent and effective conclusion to the debate, aside from a weird intervention from BALPA.

The most important point about this composite is the unity of our intentions and aspirations. Within that unity however is a debate about tactics and timetables. The composite asks the General Council to "consider" convening a Convention in defence of public services, without setting a timetable. The General Council have committed to a national demonstration in March 2011.

As to when we shall step up our campaign, Brendan Barber said the TUC "stood ready" to co-ordinate action which Dave Prentis said would take place "when the call is there." Brian Strutton said the GMB would begin next month to prepare for national industrial action. Mark Serwotka said we should start now.

Activists at a local level need to use the fact that all our national unions (unless you're an airline pilot) have backed this Composite to step up the drive for unity in local anti-cuts campaigns. We also need to keep up, through our campaigning, the pressure on the General Council to step up national campaign activity.
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Is that a cosh concealed in your trousers - or are you just pleased to see composite 10?

I've just heard the professionally inoffensive General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (Brendan Barber) accused, on the Today programme, of approaching the Government over its spending policy "with a cosh concealed in his trousers."



This was not a reference to Mae West but to Composite 10, to be moved at this morning's session of Congress by our own Dave Prentis. This calls for a wide range of campaign activities in defence of public services, including the co-ordination of industrial action.



The composite, like many at the TUC, is certainly long. As to whether it will lead to a movement which is firm in its opposition to the ConDems we shall have to see.

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Moving forward in unity - our leaders will be right behind us!

Dave Prentis has announced to the Unison delegation meeting that we will be providing leadership this week, in keeping with our position as "probably" the largest union in the TUC.



Dave called for unity, which seems a good plan for trade unions facing attacks unprecedented for decades. This unity is reflected in the fact that - with one exception - Unison will be supporting all the motions in the Final Agenda (in some cases with qualifications). The exception is a motion from NAPO which criticises OFSTED (about which no decision has been taken and constructive discussions were reported to be taking place). It seems that UNISON will be voting for everything this week.



Dave reported on forthcoming events, including the ETUC Day of Action on 29 September, the lobby of Parliament on 19 October and the associated Regional activities.



In Scotland - which is a nation not a Region - the STUC are of course organising a national demonstration on 23 October. Unfortunately our UK wide leadership will be concentrating, for the time being on "supporting and encouraging" our Regions to co-ordinate resistance to the ConDems.



With luck, the unity and determination which will be shown, not just at Congress but in the rank and file action which will increasingly be taken against the cuts, will give our leaders the confidence rapidly to shift from "supporting and encouraging" to leading.



We need to be led from the front now, as well as in the spring.

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Good news from a fellow blogger

A hat tip to a fellow blogger (http://www.lawatwork.blogspot.com/) whose long term recollection may be doubtful but who was able to share with me the news that Margaret Greer has been re-elected as Chair of UNISON's Regional Black Members' Committee.



As we have demonstrated through detailed work in Lambeth (http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=17917), black workers can all too easily be disproportionately targeted at a time of cuts.



Lay-led self-organisation by black workers (as by members of all our self-organised groups) has a vital role to play in ensuring that our commitment to equality is to the fore as we resist the cuts. Black members in UNISON's Greater London Region reaffirmed this today.

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Share and share alike?

Most innovations promoted by politicians turn out to be a mistake - and the same may be true of the (deliberately?) headline grabbing plans of Camden and Islington Council's to share a Chief Executive and senior management team. (http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/press/2010/september/camden-and-islington-councils-announce-intention-to-share-chief-executive.en;jsessionid=03313EAC7CEC0C20F16E9D4DEF900DE7).

It's tempting to think that local government could get by with a lot fewer of those earning over fifty (never mind a hundred) grand (surely 50k is more than enough for a decent life?)

Given that understandable feeling, and the added temptation of supporting "innovation" by Labour Councils in the teeth of deliberate butchery of public services by the ConDems, there must be a risk that some trade unionists will welcome moves such as those announced by Camden and Islington.

I will wait to hear from colleagues in Camden and Islington UNISON before settling on a point of view - but my instincts are to suspect such an obvious gimmick.

How will such peripatetic senior managers manage and support their staff? To whom will they be accountable? How will they deal with the exercise of delegated powers where there are conflicts of interest between two boroughs? To which organisation's staffing procedures will they be subject? Will they be employed by one borough or the other (or some new entity)?

These questions may amount to (small "c"!) conservative carping but - even if they do - they are still good questions. Those of us who have watched senior local government officers escaping from accountability to elected Members over the past quarter century are bound to worry about such not-yet-even-half-baked proposals.

I will however share the view I expressed today to another Chief Executive. There are numerous local authorities who could merge management teams in a way which would improve services whilst reducing expenditure.

I'll tell you how...

Every Council which has an ALMO could bring the ALMO back in house - saving not just the salary of their ALMO Chief Executive but also the costs of the pointless and ineffective structures of ALMO governance.

The unprincipled bribery by which the previous Government sought to cajole Councils into establishing ALMOs will not be funded by the ConDems. There is no longer any point to the existence of ALMOs (even had there ever been). It is silly to pretend otherwise.

Before any Council with an ALMO threatens another job they should abolish their ALMO in order to achieve the painless cuts of eliminating the purposeless duplication to which this futile - if not harmful - "innovation" gave rise.

No one really wanted ALMOs and no one will mourn their passing.

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To Hell or Connaught

The bankruptcy of one of our major local government contractors demonstrates the folly of relying upon the private sector to deliver public services.

Public sector organisations don't go bankrupt, leaving enormous uncertainty about how the services they provide will be continued.

Experiments in diversifying the provision of public services over the past generation have generally been expensive failures.

It is both timely and appropriate that on the day when the failure of the private sector has been demonstrated so starkly, UNISON and PCS (the main public sector trade unions) are launching a joint campaign to defend our members.

About time too!

Support the tube workers!

Members of RMT and TSSA taking strike action from this evening on the tube deserve all our support.



Job cuts never improve services - and having fewer staff on the underground network obviously compromises safety.



Over the coming months many more of us will face the need to take action against job cuts and it is important that we show solidarity with each other.



Details of picket lines are available online from the RMT at http://www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/node/1682.

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Jasper's mad attack upon the workers

At long last the cheap journalism of freedom of information requests made months ago by implausibly named Torygraph hack "Jasper Copping" has seen the light of day (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7981717/Taxpayers-spend-millions-paying-for-trade-union-activities.html).



The Poujadiste wing of support for the ConDems is trying to open a new front in its war on the working class with tabloid attacks upon the notional costs of trade union facility time.



Trade union time off is both a statutory requirement and a common sense arrangement.



In some ways it is shaming only to be attacked by the Tories' media equivalent of a third eleven.



Still it will be a useful test of Labour leadership contenders how effectively they now defend our unions in response to this attack.

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Unblairable!

So Tony Blair says that he knew Brown's premiership would be a disaster (http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/sDtTw6B1McjXe3RtcOrYA_w/view.m?id=553170&tid=120787&cat=News).

I can't help feeling Blair brings all the perspective of an Ouslum bird (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oozlum_bird?wasRedirected=true) to this question, since he clearly feels that the route to a fourth term went via an intensification of the deeply unpopular, reactionary and counterproductive New Labour project.

In fact pretty much the reverse was true - and as long term readers (Sid and Doris Blogger) will recall, this blog supported a real alternative to both Brown and Blair (http://www.john4leader.org.uk/).

For the same reason I shall not be giving my first preference to the political heirs of either of our previous Prime Ministers - although I shall probably use up preferences trying to block Blair's obvious preference.

John Millington, writing in today's Morning Star, gives a fairly good summary of the change of direction required of the Labour Party (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/94704) - and it is not the one for which Tony Blair is calling.

We must, John says, learn to become the party of labour again. To do so Labour Party members must participate in trade union led mobilisations against public spending cuts. I agree.

There are those in the trade unions who will find it hard to work with Labour Party activists, because of justified anger at the conduct of Labour in Government, and distaste for the hypocrisy of those who may oppose, when done by the ConDems, things that they would have sought to justify if done by New Labour.

That is understandable. However, it is not only that John Millington is correct that the Labour Party remains "the only credible electoral alternative to a ruthless ConDem government." It is also important to recognise that many of the votes cast for Labour in May were votes cast against Tory cuts by working people who will expect to see such opposition from those whom their votes elected.

Many good comrades on the left devoted a lot of energy over recent years trying to offer working people a socialist political alternative to the left of Labour. A series of such offers were rejected. Now that we face a wholesale assault upon the working class and the Welfare State we don't have the time to chase that dream.

We have to use the labour movement we have, imperfect as it is, as best we can. We must use our trade unions to fight the Government - and those (including Labour Councils) who do their bidding. We must demand support from Labour politicians - and those of us who are Party members must do all we can to put the legacy of "Ouslum" Blair where it belongs.

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Critical Engagement? No Thanks!

Brendan Barber's introduction to the General Council's report to the forthcoming Trades Union Congress (http://www.tuc.org.uk/congress/tuc-18386-f0.cfm) characterises the response of our movement to what he describes as the "onslaught" from the Coalition Government as one of "critical engagement."

This, he says, has two strands. The first is to engage with Ministers to put our arguments, as when the Equality Minister faced questioning at TUC LGBT Conference. The second is to publicise our criticisms of Government policy.

Neither of those strands of activity are wrong of course, although the latter strand should be going further faster to mobilise the mass opposition to what certainly is an onslaught on the working class and the Welfare State.

However, the political thinking expressed in the description from the TUC General Secretary of how these two "strands" are woven together into a "strategy" reeks of a wholly anachronistic corporatism completely at odds with the reality which now confronts us.

"Critical engagement" reminds me of 1980s debates on the local government left about how to respond to the then Tory Governments Civil Defence Regulations which compelled reluctant local authorities to waste time and money preparing plans to keep services running after a nuclear war.

Lacking the political weight to deliver a policy of (unlawful) outright non-compliance with these daft Regulations, the anti-nuclear local authorities generally adopted a policy of "critical compliance" - engaging in implementation whilst criticising what was being done in private and in public.

The "Nuclear Free Zone" (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-free_zone?wasRedirected=true) local authorities of the 1980s were forced into "critical compliance" because they were politically and constitutionally subordinate to the Government, junior partners in the administration of the state.

The mentality that seeks now to characterise how the trade union movement should respond to the ConDems with the phrase "critical engagement" is one which sees the TUC as subordinate to the Government, essentially a junior partner in the regulation of employment.

This is not the TUC we need. Nor is it a role for the TUC which is on offer from the Government of Millionaires. We now need a trade union centre which sees its role primarily in terms of coordinating the organisation and mobilisation of trade union members.

The Government are not waiting to attack us and the proposal to leave a national demonstration until the spring shows no understanding of the problems we face (of course there should be a national demonstration in the spring - but it shouldn't be the first one we organise between now and then!)

We need to move on now from "critical engagement" to "creative confrontation" if we want to use our real power to best effect to limit the damage from the Government's attacks.

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Using legal action against the cuts

Full marks to UNISON for launching a legal challenge to ConDem plans for the break up of the NHS (http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1958). Its good to see a combative approach to a reactionary Government which won't even pretend to listen to us.



At this relatively urge stage in building effective opposition to the anti-working-class policies of the Coalition legal challenges may buy a little time and gain publicity (sounding warning bells for those not yet sufficiently alerted to what is coming).



The Fawcett Society's welcome legal challenge to the Emergency Budget for breach of the gender equality duty (http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=1165) clearly comes into the same category.



Ultimately however legal challenges to an elected Government are unlikely to prove more than, at best, a delaying tactic. They may slow the Government down and shake its morale. They may also weaken the Coalition.



What is most important is that we mobilise effective campaigning activity locally and nationally, including preparation for industrial action against the impact of cuts.

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Good work by the IFS poses a challenge to the TUC

Good for the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) for debunking Tory claims that the Emergency budget was not distributionally regressive (http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5245). In Plain English the IFS show that the ConDems are hitting the poor harder than the better off with June's changes to tax and benefits.

They contradict the Government by taking out of their assessment of the impact of budget measures on different income groups those measures already proposed by the last Government - and by taking account of the impact of measures which the Government conveniently ignored.

The full research is online (http://www.ifs.org.uk/pr/progressive_budget.pdf) and is receiving positive media coverage.

One important factor taken into account by the IFS is the plan - from April 2011 - to uprate benefits and tax credits (as well as occupational pensions) in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI), which will cause benefits to decline in value by an increasing amount each year. This is clearly a regressive measure hitting the poor harder in absolute as well as relative terms.

Here is a simple issue around which to unite, not only those, working and retired, who have seen the value of our occupational pensions attacked but also all those whose living standards will start to decline from April as the uprating of benefits and tax credits is depressed.

The trade unions can lead a campaign to reverse this measure in the name of equality as well as enlightened (and entirely legitimate) collective self-interest. This would fit perfectly alongside existing campaigns - including UNISON's Million Voices (http://www.unison.org.uk/million).

The TUC General Council has the power to do this - but only if we start taking action. It is a shame that proposals for a demonstration on 23 October were scuppered at the July General Council but at least those of us in London can consider marching to the lobby of Parliament which is being arranged.

Before the autumn everyone should invest in some comfortable and robust footwear as we will be doing a lot of marching, lobbying and protesting (ideally being led by our leaders).

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Labour leadership preferences...

In a moment snatched from dealing with the current reality of redundancies I have contributed to an email discussion between members of the Labour Representation Committee about the Labour leadership election and - since work pressures restrict blogging just now - thought I would inflict my meandering upon you, dear reader.

The LRC has rightly supported Diane Abbott as the candidate for whom Labour Party members should cast their first preference vote. This sensible decision reflects an appreciation of the fact that her vote will be read as an index of support for broadly socialist policies amongst rank and file Party members and trade unionists.

However, the question then arises as to whether to cast a second preference vote between the two disappointing sons of a good Marxist father who seem likely to make it to the final round of voting.

I agree that there isn't much in it between any of the four white male fortysomethings in suits but I do offer this observation.

A problem for some years has been the unwillingness of the leaders of the biggest trade unions to exert effective political pressure on the Labour leadership.

This refusal has its roots in the "division of labour" between the political and industrial wings of the movement. One of the things I think we created the LRC for was to try to transcend this historic weakness of Labourism (whether left or right, "old" or "New").

Given the support for Ed M from these same leaders is it not worth considering the possibility that it may be - at least - marginally easier to argue with them to place demands on the candidate they have endorsed and supported?

I don't claim that this is a vital point but it nudges me in the direction of thinking that, whilst I will cast my first preference vote, if not enthusiastically then at least in a determined way for a (deeply flawed) candidate of the left, I shall (holding my nose) cast a second preference for someone we should consider not endorsing in any way but supporting "as a rope supports a hanging man"

That said it is far more important, I think, that LRC members discuss how we build working class opposition to the Government (and those who do their bidding) - and pressure on trade union leaders to support this opposition.

I will vote not on the basis of the merits of the candidates but on the basis of a decision (which may be right or wrong) about how the voting in the election will impact (to however limited an extent) upon these more important issues.

We desperately need effective opposition to the ConDems - and the trade unions need to use every tool we have, including our influence over what ought to be the Parliamentary opposition to an unprecedented assault on the Welfare State.

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Unity is strength

It is the middle of the summer holiday - but that doesn't mean redundancy threats have gone on holiday - even those applying to workers whose conditions of service mean they aren't here to defend themselves in August.



I spent some time today (in a joint union capacity) filling in for NUT comrades who are - quite reasonably - on leave. I was arguing with management in attempt to save some teaching jobs from redundancy.



I don't know whether we'll win the argument but I do know that everyone whose job we do save (and we can count dozens already in the current restructure of Lambeth's Children's and Young People's Services Directorate) will be the beneficiary of trade union unity.



At a local level the members of each union are strengthened by unity and cooperation between all unions. Whilst there can and will always be room for healthy rivalry and competition this is far less important than unity.



This observation must surely be even more important at a national level.



In common with other delegates to this year's TUC I got my first electronic mailing for next month's Congress this afternoon.



This will be the last Annual Congress - from now on - for the first time since 1868 - Congress will be a Biennial affair, signalling the scaled down ambition of our leaders.



This could however be a Congress that matters more than for many years - if it puts into practice the unity in action which so many of us apply daily at a rank and file level in order to mobilise our millions against the Government of Millionaires.



Our pensions have been cut, our pay frozen, our jobs threatened and our services face devastation. Six and a half million members of TUC affiliated unions have the power to stop this - if we act in unity.



Will we use our power?

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Equality, cuts and contradictions

I’ve blogged before to welcome the admirable legal challenge from the Fawcett Society to the ConDem Emergency Budget for breaching the Gender Equality Duty through a complete failure to assess (never mind attempt to redress) the disproportionate impact of deficit reduction measures on women when compared with men.

Having this evening represented Lambeth’s Joint Trade Unions at a meeting of Lambeth’s Equality Panel, reviewing the equality impact assessments of controversial proposals for spending reductions I am more certain than ever that UNISON activists need to get to grips with the application of the statutory equality duties in a time of cuts.

These laws are no more a panacea than are any other laws, but just as trade unionists willing to put in the graft can make use of the redundancy consultation requirements of Section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act in the noble cause of damage limitation, so we can and must use the statutory equality duties wherever they apply.

There is a contradiction between seeking to implement public spending cuts and seeking to promote equality of opportunity - yet public bodies aiming to do the former retain a statutory duty to do the latter.

Our job is to get inside that contradiction and use it to defend jobs and services – and hasten the political crisis which the ConDem Government deserves.

Flying piggy banks

You have to wonder what is going on in the minds of those trade unionists engaging in the Hutton review of public sector pensions as if it was a genuine exercise in assessing how to maintain fair and affordable pension provision for millions of public servants.

It's not. It's a softening up exercise ahead of a further assault on our living standards in retirement - and we shouldn't be flagging up elements of our own pension scheme to encourage that assault.

According to the Municipal Journal (http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=91022), the GMB are backing a career average rather than final salary future for the Local Government Pension Scheme - with support from the employers and (at the least) no opposition from Unison. (That part of the story I am chasing up).

Now I am not opposed to a career average pension in principle. In the abstract it is fairer than a final salary scheme and if we were designing a scheme from scratch on a blank piece of paper it would have much to commend it.

However, we don't live in an abstract world and the concrete reality is that the ConDems don't start with a blank piece of paper but with a straightforward desire to save money and attack our living standards.

According to the MJ "GMB pensions officer Naomi Cooke, said the union would only tolerate a switch to career average-linked retirement pots if the overall value of the LGPS – currently regarded as the 'gold-standard' public pension because of its final-salary structure – remained the same – around 20% of pensionable payroll."

We might as well say that we make such suggestions only on the basis that future pensions are paid from flying piggy banks.

Wake up comrades! The Government have already made a very serious and significant attack upon all our public service pension schemes (http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.com/2010/06/unisons-retired-members-under-attack.html). Year on year the switch from uprating pensions in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will depress pensions and reduce the cost of the scheme. Although this scandal gets a mention on the TUC agenda our trade unions are doing far too little to alert our members to this lifetime reduction in our deferred pay.

The ConDems aren't wondering about how better to share out a fixed pension pot, but how much they can steal from that pot - as indicated by the fact that they have already started.

Rather than offer them suggestions which they will take as cuts (a switch to a career average could be an opportunity to level down pensions in order to align the mean pension with the median rather than the other way round) the unions need to be campaigning urgently amongst our members for the unified national strike action which alone can defend our pensions.

The longer we leave it to take on this Government the better prepared they will be and the weaker we will be. Trade unionists need a boost to our confidence to mount the "fight of our lives" - the discussion we need to be having about pensions is not with Hutton but with our own members, gearing up to fight.

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Hands Off Our Pensions

I think that when the leading independent money saving website tells me that someone is nicking money off me I ought to pay attention.

At our National Delegate Conference our General Secretary told us he would lead a fight against attacks upon our pensions. A massive attack has now taken place. The fight back is awaited.

If anyone in the trade union movement is looking for a dispute which will unite our members in opposition to a Government of scoundrels I suggest we have the issue right here.

Four more voices for public services...

With an impressive 17,315 names signed up to UNISON’s “Million Voices” campaign in defence of public services, today brought the news of four more voices soon to be added (or at least increased in volume).

At twenty to seven on a Friday evening in early August, members of UNISON’s National Executive Council received a letter from our General Secretary informing us that the current establishment of three Assistant General Secretary posts in UNISON (two of which have been vacant for some years) will be increased to five.

This widely anticipated move (which some informed sources say reveals much about earlier decisions around the timetable for the recent General Secretary election) will add four more AGSs to complement the current incumbent, Bob Abberley.

Our General Secretary points out, in his letter, that “UNISON will begin the move into its new national centre at the end of the year. We have an opportunity to combine this with a new senior management structure in place to support our work. A new centre and a new start”. Having voted – against the incumbent General Secretary – for a new start for UNISON earlier this year, I was interested to hear about this “new start” from the successful candidate of the status quo and take this opportunity to share some further information.

The NEC Staffing Committee (which has a high degree of autonomy from the NEC as a whole, to which it is not collectively accountable) has agreed the following responsibilities for those whom Mabledon Place insiders are reportedly already referring to as the “Famous Five”;

The AGS for Organising and Recruitment will have responsibility for UNISON’s national and regional organising strategy and will lead a new National Organising Unit. The postholder will provide a strategic overview of the union’s learning and activist training services.

The AGS for Bargaining, Negotiating and Equalities will be responsible for helping to set and deliver the union’s wider bargaining agenda. The postholder will have overall responsibility for service groups and will lead and manage a number of specialist units for procurement, bargaining support, equal pay and local government and public sector finance.

The AGS for Communications, Campaigns and Policy will have responsibility for developing UNISON’s campaigns, external profile, influence and policies. The postholder will ensure strategic planning and co-ordination of key campaigns to build effective participation at national, regional and branch level.

The AGS for Organisation and Resource Development will be responsible for resource, ICT and systems management, financial management, staffing and management of the national centre. The postholder will lead and champion internal management of change through a new Change Management Unit.

The AGS for Regional Management and Governance will have responsibility for strategic management of the regions to ensure effective implementation of the union’s organising, campaign and policy objectives. The postholder will oversee governance to ensure partnership working with lay structures and be the voice of the regions in the national leadership.

Public service workers will of course be familiar with the idea that the way to respond to challenging circumstances is to appoint more senior managers. This approach does not universally find favour with UNISON members when it is applied by our employers. Had the National Executive Council of our trade union received any detailed report in advance of this decision having been taken I could perhaps explain its rationale and let you know about the other options which had been considered and rejected. As it is I can’t.

I’ll happily share the letter with UNISON members in the Greater London Region on request and understand that it will be issued to all staff on Monday.

For those with time on their hands to speculate as to who will get these jobs, NEC members have been told that “As part of a restructuring process, the new posts will be ringfenced to existing staff and members and advertised internally through In Focus, the website and eFocus. Appointments will be by the usual Staffing Committee processes, aiming to get the new secretariat in place by late Autumn.”

Many of us who are lay UNISON activists will be familiar with arguing for “internals first” or “internals only” recruitment to avoid redundancies (although not normally to give restricted access to significant promotion opportunities). However it appears that we are not simply restricting this recruitment to our current staff (which – since our finances are sound and we are not looking to make redundancies – is comprehensible), we are also including our 1.3 Million members within the ring fence for these four new posts of Assistant General Secretary.

This is a rather large ring fence, the dimensions of which may perhaps have been influenced by some rather dispiriting content in that part of the General Secretary’s letter to the NEC dealing with the background to these proposals, in which he commented that; “over the next few years, thousands of UNISON members stand to lose their jobs, including many of our key activists.”

Obviously it’s as well to be prepared for the worst, but I would rather hope that our Union might be in a position to resist some of the job losses which the ConDem Coalition have planned for us. In fact, I know we can resist job losses because, at a local level, this is what effectively organised UNISON branches already do.

Furthermore, whilst being a UNISON activist is no passport to job security, it does seem to me to be a counsel of despair to anticipate that we will lose “many of our key activists”. (One might almost think that the real import of the letter was to prepare for one or two “key activists” to be lost to activism through appointment as an Assistant General Secretary – but lay activists don’t generally join the organisation as employees at such an exalted level)(yet?).

We certainly face the threat of a great many job losses. Our struggle can make a difference to how many jobs are lost, and to where they are lost from. As a Branch Secretary as well as an NEC member, I start with the position that we will resist every job loss and that we will in particular resist the threat of compulsory redundancy of any of our members. I also expect our Union to protect our activists. My time for the next few years will largely be taken up defending jobs and services and I shall certain consider it a failure if, locally, we lose “many of our key activists” to redundancy.

I think therefore that I will rule myself out of contention for any of the AGS jobs (however much my application would have been welcomed by regular readers of this blog, Sid and Doris Mabledon-Leninist). There is a lot of work to be done by trade unionists in the next little while, almost all of it by the rank and file at local level.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I make a point of trying to enjoy every one of the 34 days paid leave I get - since several of them are the direct product of an important trade union victory thirteen years ago - when the joint trade unions in Lambeth Council saw off an attempt to attack our conditions of service.

Since that victory, thousands of workers have between us enjoyed tens of thousands of days of paid leave which we would otherwise have lost. (That's several lifetimes of cumulative leisure!)

We won then because of three factors. The first was unshakeable trade union unity. The second was a credible determination to take united action. The third was an active engagement of the union membership, reflected in over a thousand individual responses to the Council's "consultation" on conditions of service - 98% of them supportive of the trade unions and critical of the employer.

These factors contributed to the employer backing down before a single ballot paper had been issued.

We may face similar challenges all over the country now as a result of the "Reducing Workforce Costs" document issued by the national employers in local government -concerning which the Trade Union Side has now registered a dispute (also covering the failure of the national employers to make a pay offer this year).

The trade union side aren't (probably wisely) threatening immediate national strike action over pay and conditions. Instead they hope to use the arbitration clause in the National Agreement.

Given the response of the London employers when we tried to use the arbitration clause to resolve the London Weighting dispute (and the employer-side anger when ACAS gave us an extra 0.3% recently), it will be interesting to see how the national employers respond, and what that means for national bargaining.

At local level - in our branches - we need to see threats to conditions as a challenge and a (potentially unifying) opportunity to build and take united action. Whereas job cuts always fall unevenly and tend to divide workers, attacks on conditions fall more evenly and make it relatively easier to build united opposition.

For myself, I shall go back to enjoying the holiday won for me and defended by trade union action (secure in the knowledge that - while I have been away - my branch appears to have won a reprieve for the jobs of 65 front line workers. Perhaps if I took a longer holiday even more jobs would be saved?)

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Equality impacts on ConDems

Local cuts had already focused my attention on the equalities dimensions of the coming attacks on jobs and services (http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.com/2010/07/cutting-away-at-equality.html) so I am incredibly pleased at the news that the Fawcett Society, having considered the disproportionate impact of the unnecessary "Emergency" Budget on women (http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=1164) are to launch a legal challenge (http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/szY1DW7s1YX1_ev4Q2pP53Q/view.m?id=522316&tid=120787&cat=Politics).



The Fawcett Society challenge focuses on blatant non-compliance with the Gender Equality Duty by the Treasury who apparently failed to assess the gender impact of the Budget before putting it before Parliament. This breaches Section 76A of the Sex Discrimination Act.



As we face cuts on a scale reminiscent of the 80s and early 90s it is all to obvious that in some ways (trade union density, trade union law) we are weaker and more constrained now than we were then.



However, we also have some new tools to test in defence of public services. The statutory equality duties which are the fruits of generations of struggle can now be pressed into service to resist cuts which impact disproportionately on the already disadvantaged.



Legal action is no substitute for industrial action, nor for the political pressure which is the ultimate objective of both. However, the Fawcett Society are about to help us all find out what can be done with these legal duties.



The TUC should take note - and all of us who are trade union activists need to brush up on the equality duties (and on tests of statistical significance!)

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