I suppose I have to get round eventually to apologising to every other delegate to last year's Local Government Service Group Conference - and now is as good a time as any.
Thanks to my interventions on behalf of my branch we won a card vote for a reference back of the report of the Standing Orders Committee.
(Please note that all those who - like me - enjoyed the last paragraph are plainly in need of medical help, along with regular readers Sid and Doris Pedant...)
Since Conference had been warned before agreeing the reference back that, were it do so, no business could be transacted until we had the vote, that threat had to be made good.
And so we were subject to a forty five minute presentation from delegates from Newcastle City (including Kenny) about their response to public spending cuts.
This amounted to telling us that they had discovered that sometimes you have to engage with the employer as they make spending cuts in order to limit the damage.
I first made myself unpopular with some comrades in Lambeth by advancing - and winning - that argument in 1988.
From my knowledge of employee relations in London local government in particular I know that this is what many of us have been doing for the last two decades. It's just that we don't normally go round in advance boasting about our bottom line in forthcoming negotiations. That is rarely helpful.
So, here comes the apology.
I am desperately sorry to hundreds of delegates that, because you rightly voted for reference back on my recommendation, you were subject to three quarters of an hour explaining why you have to do what you do already.
For those who are gluttons for punishment you can read more online.
In what may be totally unrelated news, UNISON's Northern Region is the worst performing Region when it comes to recruitment....
Actually what it did was remove the entirely slim chance of hearing the one motion from Wales not rukled out of order.
ReplyDeleteConsequently the conference was entirely Anglocentric and has members in Wales wondering whether there is any point in attending if our motions are not heard.
A repeat this year would undoubtedly see sales of Pitchforks and Torches in the Boursemouth are rise dramatically.
Ok Jon and we had this debate many times before. To remind you again, whilst 6.4 people who read this blog would probably know what you mean (and of course those attending conference know what reference back bloody means) the very vast majority of your members, say in Lambeth (2356) do not. So the way you talk on here either means that you are only aiming this to the 6.4 people who read and understand jargon or you don't care about what everyone else thinks?? That will be your downfall one day? The trouble with theorists is that they fail to understand that their theories need to be understood by the vast majority if they have any chance of succeding? A lot of you lot on the far left have this problem...
ReplyDeleteNick Venedi