|
Political
Wilderness!
In spite, of strong
arguments that Motion 131, The Labour Government - What do we
get for our money would do anything other than hinder UNISON in
its fight for Public Services, it was carried on a card vote with
478,088 FOR and 386,226 AGAINST, with a majority of 91,862.
It called for a consultation
on the future of UNISON's political funds.
Dave Prentis, General
Secretary argued, "The reality is we need all the political influence
we can muster. To walk away doesn't make sense."
And warned that to
do so would leave UNISON in a "political wilderness" leaving it
to the GMB and the T&G to set the agenda within the Labour Government
and said we should get on with the job making the APF and GPF
link work.
UNISON's political
funds were agreed at 1995 conference, giving members as individuals
the right to choose whether they contribute to the Affiliated
Political Fund, the General Political Fund, both or none.
Ironically, Conference,
had carried motion 13, The General Election and the Next Government,
earlier in Wednesday's business, recognising the lack of progress
in the Government's implementation of UNISON's priorities and
the conflict over Labours course of privatisation. This motion
sets a plan of action, within which the APF's role is crucial.
Tom Clark, South Lanarkshire,
speaking on amendment 13.1 said "Conference I believe that socialism
and realism can both be achieved. I believe and demand that this
Labour Government can deliver both."
Top secret
awards
A certain degree of
huffiness amongst Scotland's budding publicists has been detected
by the Briefings Team. Only one branch had heard anything about
winning a prize in this year's national competition. So, a lynch
mob set out to hunt down HQ staff here at conference if the hope
of finding out why Scottish branches had been so unfairly shunned.
Apparantly, the results
have been kept top secret by HQ in the hope of drawing a larger
crowd to the prize-giving do. The Briefings Team has been handed
a hot tip, though, that Scottish branches have won top prizes
in both magazine and website categories.
Find out at the: 2001
Branch Communications Awards Friday 22 June at 12.45pm Rainbow
Room, Brighton Conference Centre (Prizes to be presented by Keith
Sonnet, Deputy General Secretary)
Any Old Iron!!!
Michelle, from South
Lanarkshire, got a shock when she went to iron her clothes and
discovered that the management had hired out her iron to some
other unknown hotel guests ..... permanently!
Michelle was in intense
negotiations with the management for several hours. The outcome
was that a note was shoved through her door containing the following
management side offer.
Dear Mrs Brankin, Our
housekeeper has checked the storeroom and no iron to the description
of yours has been found.
However she will try
and retrieve the irons that were given out on request over the
last couple of days. May i again appologise and if in the out
come that we cannot find your iron i would ask you to purchase
one and bring me the receipt, in turn i will refund you the money.
This i can appreciate
is not the ideal solution, however it may be the only one were
left with.
Yours sincerely
Watch out for Michelle
at Scots Nite - she'll be the one in the crushed frock.
|
