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UNISONScotland Activists' Zone

National executive council

Our elected national executive council (NEC) consists of members from all regions and service groups, plus four ordinary members. The NEC decides on issues and campaigns between conferences and works with UNISON staff to support members. At least two thirds of the seats are held by women and 13 seats are reserved for low paid women. Click here for Scotland's NEC members

 

 

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National Executive Reports

NEC NEWS SUMMER 2006, Jane Carolan

Middle East Crisis

Jane Carolan
NEC member Jane Carolan Reports August 2006

UNISON has lobbied the British Government extensively on the need for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. The union has expressed the view that what is happening is a humanitarian catastrophe leading to the massacre of innocent women, children and men. As the crisis started, the union lobbied the Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket to call on the British Government to add their voice to the international call for an immediate ceasefire. In addition the union has worked through the TUC to ensure that the trade union movement has a unified response, culminating in a statement agreed at the TUC General Council on July 26th.

The lack of a response from the Government has led UNISON to step up its efforts with the General Secretary Dave Prentis writing to all Labour MPS (2nd august) to put pressure on the government as the crisis intensifies. To quote Dave "We in UNISON cannot understand our government’s lack of action. What is our government waiting for?"

Pensions –

Judicial review

The union now has a date for the judicial review of the changes that have proposed to the LGPS by the employer’s side, particularly in relation to the claims that the scheme breaks the new age Discrimination Regulations. Negotiations in the meantime on the new look scheme are continuing, all be it very slowly. Keith Sonnet and Heather Wakefield are continuing to lead the negotiations on the unions behalf, with a team of lay members from the Service Groups involved.

State Pensions

While the union has been deeply concerned with the LGPS, the State pension scheme has been the subject of government consultation, and the results will affect all of our membership. UNISON’s main points to Government have been support for:-

  • Reintroducing the link between the state retirement pension and earnings.
  • Retention of the state second pension, based on a publicly administered scheme where savers have strong representation
  • Action to assist women and carers by reducing the qualifying years and improved carers credits.
  • Compulsion in Employers contributions

However we remain opposed to the increase in the state pension age beyond the current level of 65, and will campaign against these proposals.

NHS Pensions

After a lengthy period of intense negotiations, conducted under the PSF Agreement a new scheme has been proposed and is the subject of consultation among Heath group members. A series of regional briefings will take place between September and November.

 

Equal pay

All branches will have received the union’s advice on the Allan judgement against the GMB. It has been reported that the case will go to appeal early in 2007; in the meantime some of the cases that have been brought against UNISON are likely to be heard in the autumn.

Following the judgement the union has decided to review the Equal Pay Strategy and the Protocol advising branches on how to proceed. The review will be conducted under the auspices of the Service Group liaison committee that has the remit from the NEC for dealing with such matters, reporting regularly to the PDCC and the NEC.

NHS Crisis

Our colleagues in the South are facing an unprecedented level of upheaval within the NHS with the latest round of "reforms" paving the way for further privatisation, budget crises and job cuts. While UNISON continues to support reforms designed to improve patient services the government has stuck to an ideological blueprint that seeks only the increase in private sector involvement within the service, without any consideration of whether such reforms are of benefit to anyone but those who make a profit out of them. For more detailed information on the problems, www.UNISON.org.uk/healthcare

UNISON is at the forefront of the fight to save the Health Service under the slogan "Keep our NHS working". Leading a coalition of all the unions in the Health Service, including those not affiliated to the TUC such as the BMA , our union is preparing a rolling programme of action and it is hoped that the programme will be one that is rolled out jointly. Urgent lobbying of the government at the highest levels is continuing on a regular basis.

While health branches will obviously have a lead role to play in providing the focus for local campaigns, it is being emphasised that the NHS is a UNISON issue, as we are all service users. The national union is providing detailed campaigns assistance and materials to local branches, and to date a number of successful local rallies have been held, most recently in the socialist (?) citadel of Cheltenham where over 10000 took to the streets.

In addition the coalition is planning a series of major national events. These include

  • Parliamentary Lobby Oct 2006-
  • National Demonstration Early 2007.
  • TUC fringe event
  • Labour Party fringe event

For Scottish branches, there may be a tendency to wish them "Good Luck" and let them get on with it. However, it was MPS from the Scottish back benches who proved to be the trump card when the government had a problem getting a majority on the issue of foundation hospitals. If Scottish branches don’t take the trouble of lobbying Westminster on the issue, it will be MPS representing Scottish constituencies, who may well support the Westminster Government again, much to the detriment of the NHS and our colleagues who work in it. WE DEFINITELY HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY.

National minimum wage Target

In accordance with the agreed procedures, the Policy Committee and the Service group liaison committee have begun the consultation for setting the union’s minimum wage target in preparation for our next presentation to the Low Pay Commission. This will consider its recommendations for the minimum wages rates to be set in OCT 2007 and 2008.UNISON takes strategic approach that encompasses examining all the indicators including half male median earnings, the Living wage figure, rates across the key UNISON bargaining agreements, rates in comparator groups, (such as the Civil Service) and the negotiating policies of our service groups.

Our target as a union is set as both the basic negotiating target and our target for the minimum wage. This provides a realistic target around which to campaign and negotiate and which highlights the inadequacy of current pay and minimum wage rates.

All regions and service groups will have the opportunity to comment.

REDWATCH

Redwatch is a fascist website that encourages violence against anti fascists in the UK, often using photos and the names and addresses of individuals. UNISON activists have been named on the site and been subject to harassment. Other cases, for example, have seen trade unionists featured on the site subject to violent physical attacks, including one Liverpool anti fascist who was subject to razor slashing.

UNISON and the TUC have called on the government to ensure that internet service providers block the site by denying access to the site in the UK. (It is hosted in the USA). Due to a loophole in the law sites such as Redwatch are not covered by the governments E-crime strategy which focuses on child pornography. However laws such as the Public Order Act and the Protection from Harassment Act could be brought into play. We have been pressing the government to take action and to plug the gap in the law. The Home Office have agreed to futher consider the matter and have agreed to consider asking for FBI cooperation . Further meetings are due in October.

(Further information is available on www.stopthebnp.com)

TUC CONGRESS 2006-

Following two meetings of the delegation, it has been agreed that the UNISON motions to the TUC will be on:-

  • NHS
  • Public Services.

The motions are chosen to represent the union’s major priorities as we move into the autumn campaigning season. In addition we are allowed two amendments and I would hope that it would come as no surprise to anyone that one amendment is on Pensions particularly the unfinished business with regard to the LGPS, and the other on the Marketisation of Education.

Congress itself takes place 9th till 14th September

RESTRUTURING OUR UNION

Following a motion passed at conference 2005, a lay project team has been looking at the measures to make the union "Fit for purpose" in 2006 as opposed to the structures that were invented in 1993, given that the world and the services that we work in have changed meantime. The group held a seminar at the beginning of July and have come up with a set of proposals that will be circulated to regions for consultation. The consultation will form the basis of a report to conference 2007.

Should any branch or member have comments or questions based on this report, or just have general questions about what the NEC is doing I can be contacted at

j.carolan@UNISON.co.uk

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