Holiday reading

Well I’ve just come back from a bit of winter sun, which with our current shortages on the wards and an always busy load of union work, was greatly needed.

I read a few books while I was away, the new JK Rowling book of fairy tales (adapted for muggles like me), A spot of bother (a great piece of fiction which weaves through different lives in the run up to a wedding and is really funny and very insightful), and Obama’s ‘The Audacity of Hope’ (though I must admit that I’m only a 3rd of the way through).

Obama’s book is a fascinating look at American politics, though with the blinkers that brings (his pride that the American constitution was ‘a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or ism’ seems to neglect that the constitution has absolutely enshrined capitalism).

With the context of increased scrutiny that trade union funding and support for political parties are under in the UK, Obama’s discussion of how American unions supported him was particularly interesting. Discussing the support that some unions gave him during the Democrat primaries when he was in the Senate race Obama says,

“So I owe those unions. When their leaders call, I do my best to call them back
right away. I don’t consider this corrupting in any way; I don’t mind feeling
obligated towards home-care workers who clean bedpans every day for little more
than the minimum wage, or the teachers in some of the toughest schools in the
country, many of whom have to dip into their own pockets at the beginning of
every school year to buy crayons and books for their students. I got into
politics to fight for these folks, and I’m glad a union is around to remind me
of their struggles.”

This seems to sum up fairly well the difference between corporate donors and trade unions in our effect on politics.

As I said, I'm only a 3rd of the way through. But I hope to finish soon thanks to the number of train journeys this months necessitated by the Christmas period.

Interestingly while I was away we got chatting to a couple (one being a nurse at the local Birmingham mental health trust and proud UNISON member and COHSE before that, the other a Social Worker in Birmingham who left the union [I think it was NALGO] because they expected him to go on strike [and abide by the decisions of him colleagues – shocking]). The Social Worker told me he had no time for Obama and didn’t trust him because he was called Hussain, worrying in anyone, even more so in a Social Worker in a place like Birmingham.

A great day to kick off our celebrations – 10 Years of the NMW

I’ve blogged before about the National Young Members Forum’s plans for campaigning around the 10th Anniversary of the National Minimum Wage. Monday saw the first part of that campaign as it was launched with a seminar in London.

The day was a great gathering of people interested in the minimum wage from different perspectives. From the labour movement and the student movement to young people’s organisations and poverty groups.

The day was kicked off by our own Dave Prentis, highlighting the minimum wages importance. But not only that, he set out UNISON’s commitment to fighting for the minimum wage and a living wage.

It was followed by the legend that is Rodney Bickerstaff, former UNISON and NUPE General Secretary who was a driving force in the fight for the minimum wage. Rodney was able to give us a flavour of the history of struggle for the minimum wage, stretching back over a hundred years. But as is his style it was full of colour and entertainment.

Our own Heather Wakefield, speaking as a Low Pay Commissioner, tried her best not to dampen our spirits as she discussed the difficulties ahead in even getting a rise in the minimum wage for the next round. She also usefully set out the working of the commission and how we need to be getting involved.

A highlight for me was the speaker from ASDA. Now ASDA (particularly with their now parent company Walmart) didn’t strike me as the obvious ally. But it was fascinating to here from an employer why they (and the Employers Forum on Age representing a number of large employers) want to see the removal of age rates in the minimum wage.

On apprenticeships we heard about the scheme at North Yorkshire County Council, from both their Assistant Chief Executive (HR & Development) and UNISON Branch Secretary Wendy Nicholls. This is a scheme that UNISON is promoting heavily and included in the submission on apprentices to the Low Pay Commission. After a detailed presentation it was great to here the excitement amongst people such as poverty campaigners about the benefits schemes like that can have. It was also great to hear for NYCC that thanks to the promoting of the scheme we’ve done they have started getting approaches from other authorities interested in the scheme.

The morning was ended with the President of a Student Union in an FE college who gave a really passionate presentation on the minimum wage, highlighting the unfairness of both the age rates and the apprentice exemption. It was a great way to be sent off for lunch, and the end of the morning session ably chaired by President Sue Highton.

The afternoon was a chance to go into smaller groups and really look at the issues involved. I went into the group looking at the apprentice exemption ably led by the YWCA England and Wales. As part of the campaigning work that the young women they work with set, they have done some great work already around apprenticeships. Throughout this work the YWCA have absolutely smashed my preconceptions of them, especially as they aren’t a faith based organisation and they don’t do housing!

We then finished up with a panel session to wrap the day off with, which I chaired. This gave us all the chance to come together and have any final questions asked and round the day off.

I really enjoyed the day, after starting with some nerves that nobody was going to turn up to the party.

We’re currently working on a briefing to go out to Regional Young Members Forums to help them get involved with the campaign.
We will be organising another meeting of our partner organisations.
And setting the planning in motion for the 1st April event in Parliament.

World politics – just a light subject for today

It’s clear that the world is changing, though sadly comrades the revolution isn’t here yet. But what the global financial crisis has brought about is that, if we must live in a market driven society, then that needs to be accompanied with strong intervention into those markets. Now I definitely support the Labour Party, but we can’t quite wriggle out of all responsibility. 3rd way politics under Blair in the UK and Clinton across the pond deregulated much that in hindsight (esp. as I am no financial expert) it would seem shouldn’t. The disaster in the US was then along came Bush who continued the low regulation regime while deliberately skewing the tax system to benefit the rich. Now our Government does have some responsibility, though everyone appreciates this is a worldwide problem; but things are changing.

Within the financial storm that’s ripping across the world; there is becoming clear distance between those that would intervene in market and those that would pull out and leave them to fail. I think the route of that division is who you care about? I’m glad to say that our Labour Government have looked at the prospects for ordinary working people, middle and low incomes alike, and decided that we must intervene to protect them. Labour are borrowing in order to maintain public spending, both to avoid the way public services were devastated for a generation and to continue to drive the economy, while bringing forward and funding new capital projects to help meet the reduction in demand from the private sector. And they are intervening to help business stay open and employing staff, and when business do have to lay off staff, Labour will do as it did close to me with the Longbridge Taskforce, supporting people back into work or training.

Whereas the Tories, Cameron’s ‘caring Conservatives’, look to the wealthy who can weather the storm and in all likelihood come out on the other side with greater ability to get richer and richer. They would certainly not be maintaining public spending, and they certainly wouldn’t be using public building programmes to drive the economy. Instead, they’re spending their time trying to rubbish Labour’s record on debt (which is good by international standards and when compared to what the Tories gave us), and calling for spending cuts to keep down the deficit. And with their proposals to benefit the richest in society through inheritance tax, it really is tax cuts for the few, service cuts for the many. It absolutely shows that the Tories have not changed, and have not learned, from the disaster they inflicted on working people when the economy faltered on their watch. They cut public spending, ruthlessly attacked public services and public sector workers and left those in need with nowhere to turn. They failed to intervene to support companies and maintain employment, turning workers on to the scrapheap and telling them to get on their bikes.

And as for those ‘left wing’ Liberals, their response is tax cuts and closing the Government department responsible for supporting businesses. They have shown nationally what many have been saying about them locally, right wing with a nice face. Now I can’t talk about world politics without a mention of the US President Elect, and the hope for a US that is there supporting all it’s people and wanting again to be a friend in the world. But as for economics I know too little and in any case it’s too soon to tell. But what there is, is hope for change.

Labour still need to do so much more (and there are lots of other blogs about that), but at the moment they are showing their metal. I hope the people of Glenrothes give us a boost today, it's time to Go Fourth for our 4th term in Government.

Saw something great of the bus ride home

Having spent the day in Birmingham and the West Midlands' Organise! and strategy session (combined for the first time this year) I got the bus home.

On the bus a guy started to hassle a young black lad without any reason, it was great to see someone step in to tell this guy 'to be more respectful' and then pretty much the whole bus uniting in our intolerance of racism.

In these troubled times I think these sort of events lighten the heart and restore you faith that our society is far from 'broken'!

NEC sets out our response to the economic crisis

Having discussed and developed a statement on the financial crisis at the policy committee yesterday, the NEC unanimously passed the statement today setting out our policy on behalf of the 1.4 million members we represent.

This comprehensive statement calls for ways of mitigating the worst effects of the crisis; such as a windfall tax on energy profits, protections for pension schemes (particularly investment based ones like the LGPS), and the ending of the Government's unjust public sector pay policy.

We also highlight the ways to help us out, including significant cut to interest rates, and public spending to help drive the economy (while helping support those in need as a result of the crisis).
But further than this, the NEC points to the end of neo-liberalism and the supremacy of the markets, and how we must move forward in this new era with public investment and public ownership.

As well as going to the outside world, I hope this statement provokes further discussion throughout the union on the way forward.

We will also be making sure we are fighting for our members, and have set up a project to gather intelligence on job losses. We will also need to ensure we're supporting our members in increasing financial hardship, and UNISON Welfare, our unique charity for members, will have a vital role in supporting our members, particularly with debt problems.

Our members, like all workers, are suffering. Lets make it clear that we are the ones on their side.

Not enough time to blog?

Well, I’ve been huge busy, honest, and hopefully normal service will now resume (though I’m not the most prolific blogger). Being a busy boy with the union, finding some time to be a nurse, and completing a module at Uni (including a horrendous essay) didn’t leave much time for blogging.

And I’ve had lots to blog about; TUC Congress was great this year partly because it was a little reunion with some of my fellow Cuba brigadista’s. I was also immensely proud to second the FBU’s motion on Cuba, in what was an excellent debate. A highlight though was controversy on the first day when the Unite delegation lost it’s marbles and voted for all out public sector strike over public sector pay (not only illegal but fairly unachievable calling out members who are not actually in dispute). Thankfully their delegation literally lost their card vote, so the motion fell.

Then we had Labour Party Conference, a very different one from last year. Right from the moment our delegation met the emphasis was on the importance of showing unity and how the public wouldn’t forgive the party for turning in on itself at a time like this. This message came loud and clear from the delegates throughout the week, despite what the press tried to spin. I was asked to speak (surprise, surprise) and spoke in the Citizenship and Equalities debate in support of the National Policy Forum position in favour of Votes at 16. After some great speeches I’m glad to say that this is now officially party policy, and should be in the next manifesto. I did however use the end of my speech to point out that there is plenty of time left in this Parliament to deliver Votes at 16.

As always these conferences are as much about the fringes and the receptions as anything else. At TUC there was an interesting fringe organised by Unions 21 on recruiting new members which focussed on young members. It was interesting to hear what other unions were doing, and particularly how we are seen as a model! Again on the Cuba issue, a highlight of Labour Conference was a fringe were we were addressed by two of the wives of the Miami 5 who are wrongfully detained in the US and whose families have been treated appallingly.

Nearly in Brighton

It's TUC time again and my train is whisking me into Brighton. It's been a busy day, getting the train straight after our Regional Young Members Forum. After a busy week what with the Challenge Cup Final last Saturday, student nurse recruitment at Birmingham City University and a full day of staff side meetings (as well as doing some nursing).



I'll be getting off the train just in time (hopefully) to make it to the Policy Development & Campaign Committee for our pre-TUC meeting. This years looks like a fairly uncontentios year, though we are opposing a motion from the RMT wanting us to all take strike action together on a number of days against the anti-trade union laws. Erm, I don't think our members would thank us for playing politics with their incomes at a time like this.

Like most of these things the fringes and the bars are where it's at, I'll let you know how I get on!