The NEC approves UNISON's budget but not the Chancellor's

Yesterday's NEC meeting (of which there is and excellent report elsewhere) coincided with the Pre-Budget Report. This meant that as me met and discussed the service and pay and conditions cuts that our members are facing and how we are responding through our Million Voices Campaign, the Chancellor was telling MP's what would be in the budget, and sadly not what was in UNISON's excellent alternative budget.

For me this meant the rare experience of being asked to right an article for progress, the shall we say 'loyalist' Labour website. Now with promises of caps on our members pay and pensions, my reaction to the PBR was never going to be a glowing endorsement of the Chancellor (though of course on the important issue of spending he gets it absolutely right that spending cuts now not only would damage those services but also the economy). As what one of our officers said to me, it's the difficult audiences not the easy ones that are the most important to get to.

Which is fitting given some of the debate around the Million Voices Campaign at the NEC meeting. I had to intervene after another member of the NEC criticised us for allowing Labour MP's to sign up to the campaign, when surely they are a key audience we need to influence? I posed the question of who they think will make the decisions, and will any other political party come to our defence? And I also pointed out that getting the MP's to sign up couldn't be the end point, but that now they (and particularly the Cabinet members) have signed up to a clear statement against cuts and privatisation it is our job to hold them to that.

Ultimately, that's the difference between those of us who want to campaign and win with our members, and those that want to posture and grandstand.

World Aids Day: Remembrance and Action

World Aids Day is an important time to stop and think, and an important moment to be open and honest, raise awareness and dispel the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

I will always remember the first time I wore a red ribbon on the 1st December. I was at secondary school, and I didn't think twice about proudly wearing it in support of people with HIV/AIDS. However it became a struggle to keep it on through the day as kids taunted me for wearing it, saying it meant I had AIDS.

I'd love to think this wouldn't happen today (this was well over a decade ago), but the fact is stigma and prejudice against people with HIV is still rife. That is why World Aids Day and the wearing of red ribbons are still so important, and why HIV/AIDS is still an important Trade Union issue. Like all discrimination, Trade Unions take a hard line. Unions and campaigners were successful in getting protection of people with HIV as part of disability discrimination legislation, but as with all such issues the law is only as good as how it is implemented on the ground. All Trade Unionists need to be continually vigilant against discrimination.

More than this, HIV has become a massive issue for workers across the word. HIV has devastated working people in many developing countries, damaging their ability to live and work and their ability to organise together to make things better. UNISON can be rightly proud of our response and our work with our sister unions internationally. This focuses on supporting Southern African unions in developing their response to HIV through the organisation
Public Sector Unions fighting AIDS in southern Africa (PSUFASA).

So today, lets remember all those who have suffered, think about those who are still dealing with HIV and re-double our support for all the work going on across the world.

End of an exhausting week - The general election starts here

Trains and hotel rooms have been a feature of this week, and I'm now on the train for the West & East Midlands Branch Officer Training Weekend. It's been a good weekend with great comrades all developing their skills in leading our Branches forward.

The exhaustion however come from earlier in the week at Labour Party Conference (as well as the hell of a shift I did at work on Friday when we were so short staffed I had the Matron working on the ward).

As I posted earlier this was a key conference it being the last one ahead of a General Election, and with public spending at the heart of the political debate UNISON needed to ensure our members' voices were taken right in there.

That's what UNISON's Million Voices For Change is about.

Speaker after speaker in the Conference, in policy seminars and fringe events spoke saying the were 'One of UNISON's Million Voices' with the clear message that a million voices is a million votes. Not just the UNISON delegation, but UNISON members from CLP delegations taking that agenda forward, challenging the spending cuts consensus and the privatisation dogma.

That message seems to be getting through, at least to the Health Secretary who reiterated his recent important announcement that the NHS would be the preferred provider, with other providers only being used when the in-house provision had failed to meet the requirements over a lengthy process of improvements.

But we've still got plenty to do especially on the cuts agenda. Labour's welcome commitment to protect 'front line' services is welcome - but the message needs to get through that our 'back office' staff are essential to allow those on the front line to do our jobs.

I pressed the Andy Burnham on who was a front line service in the health policy seminar, with loads of our delegates speaking up for the backbone of our NHS.

But a key message I got from the week was how important it is to keep a Labour Government after the next election. The Sun front page brought home to me how real the possibility of a Tory Government is, making me worried for my job, the services we provide, and the future of my family. We need to look at how we mobilise support for our public services and the Don't Wait part of the Million Voices Campaign is a brilliant start.

We need to make sure our activists know why this political work is important. Speaking to a fellow Branch Chair this weekend, who chairs a police staff branch, she told me how she's turned off by politics. So I spoke about the massive threats there are to Police Staff after the next election. The Tories won't want to be seen to cut police officers for fear of the public reaction so police staff will bear the brunt. We've already heard what the Tories think of PCSO's (Cameron singled them out for criticism in a previous Conference speech)will they survive a Tory Government?

It's these honest and frank conversations we need to be having with all our members, especially our activists. Not singing Labour's praises from the roof tops like they've done nothing wrong, we all know the deep disappointment and anger we feel at many Labour policies. But we need to make the choice clear - Do you trust the Tories with you job and your services?

A key week ahead in Brighton

Having been elected onto UNISON's delegation by the National Labour Link Committee I'm currently speeding on the train towards Brighton for this year's Labour Party Conference.

This is a really important conference given the economic circumstances on top of it being the last before a General Election.

For UNISON we will will be taking UNISON's Million Voices into the heart of the party and making sure we are heard. Our primary issue, and the contemporary issue UNISON has submitted to the Conference, is the public finances and how we can protect public spending and head off damaging and wasteful privatisation.

The mission for the delegation, as highlighted in Dave Prentis's speech to our National Delegate Conference in the same hall at the beginning of the summer, is to make sure that the Labour Party goes into the next election with policies our members can support.

TUC Congress so far

Well we've done a couple of days of TUC now. TUC's not known for controversy and there's only been two speeches against so far (one being a UCU speaker who spoke against the motion on high heals on the basis of what she's read in the Daily Mail rather than the motion!).

We seem to be saving the controversy for the end of the week, the likely flash points being Palestine (where the General Council didn't agree to a suggested more moderate statement), and political representation (which I'm sure will be the most reported).

Today we heard from PM Gordon Brown. Lots of the speech was good stuff, very much ticked the boxes. However as expected the word cuts appeared, and we need to make clear that 'back office' is vital for supporting the 'front line' to do our jobs. The PCS are also concerned about announcements which seemed to be targeted at the highest earning civil servants but would have a damaging effect on their lower paid members.

I have to say I'm not enjoying Congress as much as I have previously, though that's mainly because of the social scene being poorer than usual because of a combination of being in a different city and the recession (unions are a lot less inclined to splash out on free food and drink).

UNISON West Midlands are winners!

This great vid has been made by UNISON West Midlands and has won the TUC's competition. Congrats to the team involved!

Check it out

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded

Now my belief in the the NHS model of free at the point of delivery and delivered by the public sector is fairly unwavering, as is my absolute desired never to work in private healthcare. However it's always nice to have your beliefs re-enforced.


I was out for the leaving meal for one of my colleagues and another had come back for it, having left a few months ago to move to Manchester. She's moved up there to be close to her partner and got a job in a private hospital.

Her stories from just a few months make your toes curl, as a member of staff or a patient:

• The time taken working out how much nursing time you could justify for each patient, sat for hours with a calculator instead of caring for patients.
• The lack of any sick pay, leading to staff coming in when unwell, not just threatening their own health but putting patients at risk.
• The patient who came in the night before surgery only to be told that due to an error he'd been under charged, and would have to make up the difference for his surgery to go ahead. That was £3000 underpayment, having to be paid there and then otherwise surgery cancelled.
• The elderly man who because of complications had a long stay in ITU after his surgery, leading to a call from the insurance company saying that from midnight they'd stop paying.

Well as I told my friend, 'that'll make it into a speech' and they probably will.