Unison Regional Secretary breaking UNISON Rules for Dave Prentis in election-rigging scandal

Here is the link to a recording of a briefing for Regional Organisers at UNISON’s Greater London Regional Office which took place at Congress House in London. Those attending were paid UNISON staff, attending in the time for which they were paid by the Union (at 2pm on Wednesday 21 October). Every UNISON member in Greater London – and every trade unionist who cares about democracy in our movement – should listen to this recording (be warned – it lasts more than twenty minutes and is mostly a monologue).

The person who does most of the speaking is the Union’s Regional Secretary (staff say this is normal at such briefings…)  In clear contravention of the election procedures, which instruct staff that they should not in work time “carry out any activities intended or likely to … …affect the election or candidature of any person“, she gives detailed instructions to staff, as their manager, about campaigning for Dave Prentis. She makes clear she is speaking as a manager to staff by repeatedly referring them to Regional Managers.

“You clearly cannot be caught out saying ‘vote for Dave'” she says, and warns staff to be careful that, if there are witnesses to conversations in which they are lobbying for Dave Prentis to be sure that they are “friendly witnesses.” She names the official in whose (UNISON) office Dave Prentis’ election leaflets will be kept but advises staff not to mention this by email.
This is unequivocal evidence of the most blatant disregard for UNISON Rules on the part of the Greater London Regional Office. Careful listeners will also pick up clearly just how much respect the office has for the Regional Convenor and her team (and it’s not much). Paid officials joke about using the name of the Regional Convenor to justify distributing election leaflets for Dave Prentis – and about how to distract branches which they describe as “the opposition.”

UNISON must now take immediate action against the members of the Regional Management Team who were present at the briefing – and that is only the beginning of what may need to be done as the integrity of the General Secretary election (or at least of the campaign for Dave Prentis) is now plainly undermined.

This report  is reproduced from https://uniondemocracyblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/rogue-unison-regional-secretary-breaking-unison-rules-in-election-rigging-scandal/

Lambeth UNISON Call For a Branch Based Right to Strike Campaign

The Tory's new anti-strike laws would require a 50% turnout threshold in a ballot and an additional 40% yes vote requirement in “core public services” (health, education, transport and fire services). Essentially outlawing all national public sector strikes.

The laws also go after funding of political parties by trade unions, making it a requirement for union members to “opt-in” to a union's political fund rather than “opting-out”. 

Lambeth UNISON are working with other labour movement organisations to initiate a Right to Strike campaign. A model motion for union branches is below.

This branch notes:

1. The plans announced in the Queen's Speech to limit even further our already very limited right to strike.

2. The plans to force unions that affiliate to political parties to operate a system of members “opting in” to pay a political levy, rather than “opting out”, further limiting the labour movement's ability to maintain a political voice.

3. That Lambeth Unison is initiating a Right to Strike campaign

This branch believes:

1. That it is entirely possible these attacks can be stopped or pushed back, particularly given the government’s small majority and its obvious hypocrisy when it was elected by less than 25 percent of the electorate – but only if there is an urgent and determined public campaign. Letting this go without a fight would be disastrous.

2. That all the indications are that the initiative for such a campaign will have to come from the rank and file and local branches, in order to push the whole movement into action.

3. That there is a crucial wider struggle to repeal the existing anti-union laws, but the best way to pursue that is to defend ourselves, win this fight and then pass over to the offensive.

This branch resolves:

1.       To support Lambeth Unison's initiative; delegate comrades to be responsible; publicise as widely as possible to get support from other branches and organisation of the unions; and work with Lambeth to host a campaign meeting soon.

2.       To make an important focus of the campaign a push for the unions, the Trade Union Freedom Campaign, etc, to organise a national demonstration in London, marching to Parliament, early in the autumn.

3.       To make an important focus of the campaign, working within our communities to explain the right to strike is a democratic right which should be used to fight on issues beyond the workplace around issues such as welfare, health, housing, and liberation politic

4.       To organise local campaigning, including a leaflet, stalls, a public meeting with the trades council and others, information and a petition to circulate among members, and calling for the council and local Labour MPs to publicly condemn the Tories’ plans and advocate Labour repeals them when it comes to office

  

5.       That this campaign should include discussions about the importance of and openings for unions being willing to defy the law.

6.       To continue to call for the repeal of all the anti-union laws and the introduction of positive legal rights, including rights to strike, picket and take solidarity and political industrial action.

Unison Special Conference and winning rank and file control of our Unions

In the aftermath of the Unison Local Government Special Conference, Unison activists are rightly discussing where next, how can we build on this policy victory and make it a victory for low paid workers in our re-opened pay battle. In this contribution Ed Whitby (Unison branch activist from Newcastle - in a personal capacity) discusses how we continue to reclaim not just this pay battle, but also the structures of our union from the workplaces and branches upwards.
(the article is cross posted from workersliberty and is also partially a response to comrade Rogers posts at his blog see here

The momentum for last month's Special Conference came from the anger of many members across the country, but significantly in the North West, about the failure of local government unions to lead a serious fight to defend our pay, terms, and conditions. In Unison's largest region, where density is highest and strikes most solid, this anger, and the desire to hold the Unison leadership to account, was strongest. This region is also one of the worst-hit by government cuts.

This mood is in many ways a culmination of successive failures: the 2011 pension battle, the false starts and eventual capitulation in the 2013, 2014, and 2015 pay campaigns, and the failure to lead a serious fight against five years of severe cuts in local government.

Those campaigns failed, in part, because of the huge democratic deficit inside Unison. Campaigns are “led” (although, in fact, not led) from above, with the membership treated as a passive stage army to be marched up the hill of one-day strikes, and then demobilised when the union leadership decides the membership has exhausted its will to fight. That conservatism and defeatism is projected back onto the membership itself, who then feel too demoralised to do anything other than vote for shoddy deals, and the employers win.

The decision of the Special Conference to resume the 2015/2016 pay fight is a huge victory, but it does not, by itself, redress that fundamental power imbalance within the union. It does not create rank-and-file control. It does not erase the very real demoralisation (more-or-less engineered by the leadership) that still exists amongst much of the membership.

Some left-led branches, with the powerful North West Region acting as a lever, have been able to coordinate and achieve something significant within the union structures. But what happens next? What happens in Northern Region, in Wales, in the South East Region, where those wanting to carry out the policy of the Special Conference are in smaller numbers and have less influence in branches or regions?

How do we win the fight to open up and democratise branches and regions? How do we transform our union structures – not winning mere changes of personnel on national committees, but fundamental transformation of the way our union is run?

At present, the far left in Unison seems unable to think beyond ensuring a few left-wing individuals get elected / re-elected to national committees. But having left-wingers on national committees is of limited use if there are no rank-and-file structures to discuss what they do, and to hold them to account.

The frequent incompetence of the existing bureaucracy shouldn't fool us into thinking that all we need to do is win a few more seats on the NEC, or the SGEs, or win a few more policy debates at NDC, to turn things round. The experiences of “left-led” unions like PCS and NUT, who have suffered heavy defeats with similar failures to fight in a sustained and coordinated way, should give us pause. There's more to winning reform in unions than electing better people to committees.
Genuine rank-and-fileism means, fundamentally, union members being self-organised in strong branches, with as little distance between the structures of the union and the workplace as possible. It means transforming union structures to get rid of the corps of highly-paid, unelected, unaccountable officials and ensure that all union officials who have any direct role in the day-to-day running of the union are elected and paid no more than an average workers' wage. In the immediate term, before winning such reforms, it means strong, militant branches organising horizontally, not “outside of union structures”, but in grassroots networks within the union that can discuss and plan strategies for action. Building rank and file organisation is key but is not counter to using official structures. A decent rank and file organisation would fight for good policy at every level, stand accountable reps and would fundamentally transform the union because it would have the ability to argue for and in practice to carry out those policies.

The Local Association National Action Campaign (LANAC) in the National Union of Teachers is a useful model. LANAC is based on union structures, and is made up of delegates from affiliated NUT branches (with observers from NUT workplace groups). As such, it aims to transform both the culture and structures of the union by fighting for democratic reform and more radical industrial strategies. It is a quite different model from the moribund “Broad Left”-type approach, which merely seeks to cohere left-wing individuals to intervene in union elections or conference policy debates.

The victory at the Special Conference shows that battles of policy can be won within union structures. But while those structures remain under the control of the same bureaucracy that sabotaged the pay fight in the first place, independent rank-and-file organisation (beginning at branch level) will still be necessary.

Consultation on prospective pay claim for 2016/17

We should welcome the move by our Head of Local Government and Service Group Executive to bring pay claim discussions earlier, so that we can give employers a deadline to respond, which allows us (if the employers fail to meet our claim) to put in place a serious strategy to win our claim and time to convince our members that we can win, and achieve a strong ballot for such a strategy.


So consulting now our members this early this year (and hopefully every year) should mean that we know what the employers response is by the end of the summer, unlike last year where employers hadnt made an offer just a month before its implementation date.

But what should such a claim be, when we have just held a special conference successfully winning a strategy of re-submitting a claim for the present year from April 2015.

So with this in mind, the proposal from the leadership: "Deletion of NJC pay points which fall below the level of the Living Wage - £7.88 per hour (scp 6-10) - and a flat rate increase of £1 per hour on all other pay points" leads us with some problems.

If we are successful in this years 2015-16 pay campaign, which we must go into every pay dispute intending to win it for our members, then would the claim remain for a flat rate £1 per hour increase?
Or should we propose that 2016-17 claim should be removal of the next 5 spinal column points, rather than naming the specific ones.

Or should we in reality see the time is right for a flat rate starting salary of £10 per hour? If Labour are fighting this election with a commitment to bringing the minimum wage (note not the Living Wage) to £8 per hour by the end of the parliament, then our aim for our members must be greater than £7.88, or even £8.88 an hour, especially since we are talking about our claim for 2016/17.

At local government worker blog, we'd be keen to hear what other branches, regions and activists are proposing in the consultation which is taking place in the next 2 weeks.

Please post any comments below

How to ... 1

How to ....

What was passed at Special Conference

The important vote was on Comp C - with 62% supporting on a card vote

Composite C A Decent Pay Increase For Local Government Members
(Motions 5 and 21)
Member and activist confidence in the relevance, integrity and mutuality of the NJC bargaining machinery on a „sector-wide‟ (cross-nation/whole nation) basis and UNISON‟s role within it is at an all-time low.
In light of all the above this Special Conference agrees it is imperative that proactive engagement, campaigning and negotiations on NJC pay are reinstated now if we are serious about seeking to secure a fair and decent real term pay rise for NJC workers.

This Special Conference instructs the UNISON National Joint Council (NJC) Committee:
1) To formally submit the following to the NJC Employer‟s body with immediate effect as an additional NJC Pay Claim for the 2015/16 pay round (to be implemented from the settlement date of 1 April 2015);
2) The full-time equivalent (FTE) Living Wage rate to be the minimum pay value of the NJC pay spine;
3) An equivalent flat rate pay increase to be applied to all other NJC pay scale points.
4) To communicate our position to the other NJC Trade Unions;
5) To work with NJC branches and regions/nations to identify and submit, as soon as possible, equivalent local, regional or national pay claims as appropriate for groups of members who have previously transferred out of local government and are currently outside the NJC pay bargaining machinery or other collective bargaining arrangements that cover pay awards.
This Special Conference believes all these measures are necessary to ensure UNISON demonstrates to all Local Government members this union, with our members support, is prepared to take strike action to secure fair pay no matter which Government is elected in May 2015.
5 North West Region
21 Manchester Branch

But also others were passed including
Motion 1

1. Aftermath of the National Joint Council (NJC) 2014 Pay Campaign
This conference notes:
1) The profoundly disappointing outcome of the 2014 NJC pay dispute, which effectively resulted in another real terms pay cut for the vast majority of members across local government and left tens of thousands of the lowest paid on hourly rates still below the current Living Wage.
2) The employers‟ proposal that was the subject of members consultation after the NJC committee meeting on 09 October 2014 bore no resemblance to the original flat rate, £1 an hour joint trade union claim and was not an appreciable improvement on the March 2014 offer of 1% from the then Tory-run local government employers‟ body.
3) The suspension of industrial action squandered the opportunity to create a „united front‟ in October against public sector pay restraint with fellow UNISON members in the NHS and other trade unionists in the run-up to the TUC‟s 18 October national demonstrations.
4) The NJC „deal‟ also appears to preclude any industrial action over national pay for the first 11 months of the next Westminster Parliament at a time when the Tory-led coalition has categorically restated its determination to enforce public sector pay restraint as a central component of an ongoing draconian cuts programme.

5) The commitment to adhere to Tory-dictated spending limits and pay restraint stated repeatedly by Labour‟s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who has even refused to reverse the current Government‟s veto of the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation for 2014.
6) Votes to reject the employers‟ proposal and resume industrial action in a clear majority of branches that exercised their right to campaign for rejection of the proposal.
This conference believes:
a) The outcome of the dispute has further imperilled the future of the NJC as the forum for collective bargaining on pay and conditions.
b) The dispute itself proved an effective recruiting tool in many UNISON branches, but the outcome risks demoralising activists and jeopardising the prospects for effective resistance both to further erosion of real pay and the assorted other attacks being unleashed on the local government workforce generally.
c) The dispute lacked a credible industrial strategy, with no clear commitment to build on the broadly successful action on 10 July.
d) In future, there should never again be a suspension of planned industrial action accompanied by moves to consultation in the absence of confirmed offer from the employers‟ side as opposed to a „proposal‟.
e) Members‟ interests should never be subordinated to the union‟s relationship with the Labour Party, or indeed any other political party.
This conference resolves to call upon relevant national bodies (such as the Service Group Executive, the NJC Committee and National Executive Council) to:
i) Ensure far greater transparency around negotiations with the employers‟ side with the dates/times and venues of any talks shared in advance and a „headlines‟ report from meetings to be sent to NJC committee members and to branches within 24 hours.
ii) Ensure that where a decision has been made to pursue discontinuous industrial action that there is a clear commitment to and timetable for escalation of action from the outset of the action.
iii) Encourage branches to either establish or expand industrial action/hardship funds.
iv) Identify and act upon feasible means of reopening the 2014-16 NJC deal.
Camden UNISON

and amendment:

1.1
In numbered paragraph 3, add after "industrial action":
", was contrary to the spirit of the Industrial Action Ballot, when members voted in the knowledge that more than one day of strike action would be necessary to secure an acceptable settlement, and"
Knowsley

Local government workers pay fight is back on

This brief statement has been initiated to begin a discussion on "where now?", by some of the delegagtes after todays conference. Please post below to add names to the statement, suggestions/ additions / proposals. Thanks Or email locgovworkers@gmail.com

Local government workers in Unison today overturned the leaderships sellout of the pay dispute. Unison Special Conference voted on motions to re-open this year's pay claim and passed the motions by between 62% and 68%. The motions called for a fight for the living wage and equivalent flat rate increase for all workers, in the run up to the general election and the first year of a new government.

The leadership of our union will now have to act on these motions.

It is crucial now that those branches central to this and the left launch a campaign to rebuild branch activity around pay. We have to learn the lessons from the northwest organising against the bureaucracy and coordinate branches without fear of leadership backlash. Now is the time to build a branch based rank and file of local government workers not just in Unison but with other unions too.


Marshajane Thompson (Havering Branch sec /london region delegate)

Ruth Cashman (chair Lambeth unison/ delegate)

Andrew Berry (Islington unison / disabled member delegate)

Tim Nelson (North Somerset delegate)

Ed Whitby (Newcastle unison convenor/delegate)

Vicky Perrin (NEC and delegate)

Glenn Kelly (Bromley branc  sec / delegate)

Sarah Feeney (West Midlands regional delegate)

all in a personal capacity obviously

Time wasting?

Today's conference was about allowing members and branches to hold leadership to account for a failed pay dispute.

30% of branches called this conference because members are angry and think unisons democratic structures are not working

So taking up 50 mins of conference time to allow extra 20 mins to read documents after the debate on that document had already happened is ridiculous 

That the chair didn't put this to a vote is an abuse of democracy

When members feel unisons democracy is letting them down, it is especially poor to continue to act undemocratly. Get back to the agenda!

FIGHT FOR RANK AND FILE CONTROL OF UNISON
a contribution from Ed Whitby delegate from Newcastle (pc) also included in the Worker's Liberty (www.workersliberty.org) bulletin to todays conference

The defeat of the Local Government pay dispute and the NHS pay dispute have shown the current weakness of both the national leadership as well as branch and workplace organisation.

Today's special conference gives us an opportunity to connect a movement against the rotten pay deal with a positive plan to ensure we cannot be sold out again. The process of reforming the structures and behaviours of the national union has to be backed up with stronger branches, livelier and bigger branches, representative of the workers in the workplace. Where action is taken it should be to win, not as a token demonstration of anger.

Unfortunately much of what is needed has not made it through the prioritisation stage on to the conference floor. Given the extent of bureaucratisation in the union, in reality national committees and regional committees are the only ones who can confidently get motions on the agenda.

Nevertheless, some good proposals have made it onto the agenda. We should vote:

- to recognise that members were consulted on proposals and not an offer

- to bring back lay member control of our union's negotiations (and vote for all motions and amendments that seek to achieve this)

- for motions that propose a more transparent consultation process before making decisons to call off action

- to condemn the decision and leadership strategy that has negotiated a two-year deal which in practice offered little more than the present 1%  and tied us to not taking action in the run-up to the 2015 general  election and local elections.

Our starting point must always be supporting workers in struggle  against their bosses.

To build a movement capable of winning and popularising socialist ideas we have to fight for the control of disputes to be at the workplace level, with strike funds and strike committees, cross-union where relevant, that meet regularly to democratically decide how to push a dispute forward. We need to be creative and present a strategy that can include selective action and a strategy announced at the start of a dispute. To do this will require the left to put motions forward at conference and also to 
transform our branches and discuss these ideas with the people we work  with (not just those who are currently active).

Control at the workplace level will require fighting for such policies regionally and nationally. If we can connect branches across the country and develop cross-union local disputes we will be much better placed to win, create new activists, and break down the divide between union  members’ local and national union structures.

What is not on the agenda or might not be reached is more discussion on strategy that can win. This would include both national and branch funds - a war chest that shows we are serious about taking more than 3 days of action. Regarding timing of pay negotiations and disputes, by not even 
balloting on the employers' offer after it is due, we are asking our lowest  paid members to chose between a pay rise they can live on, or a dire deal straight away. We need to discuss how we fight and win a serious flat rate increase for our members, and control this in branches and by members.

Sections of the left in Unison have taken the defeat as a basis to direct their energy into the upcoming elections for the National Executive and General Secretary, as a way to build confidence. Calls for the left to unite around agreed candidates are of course welcome, but they don’t allow discussion of ways to transform the union or to build power in individual workplaces.

We need as a matter of urgency to build on the possibilities this special conference has given us to set up a new rank and file organisation for local government including re-energising blogs such 
as lgworker... and linking up rank and file branches and worker groups in branches, and across unions.

Manchester Branch arguing for support for Composite C (which they are part of)

We are moving this composite because recent pay negotiations have left us looking timid. Left us looking weak.
In our country, with a Tory Government, with a Tory dominated Local Government Association and with a Tory loving press, looking weak is a dangerous thing to do.
The Tories are like sharks who smell blood in the water. They will keep coming back. They will keep driving down pay and could start slashing national terms and conditions.
People are telling us that they are losing faith in national pay bargaining. Money is tight for everyone and a decent rise seems a long long way away.
We need to act. We need to restore confidence in the system and in the union. We can’t be seen to be sat on our hands as members get poorer and nothing changes.
2017 is too long to wait if we are going to be taken seriously. Writing letters, signing positions and ‘making the case’ is not enough. Our members need action.
This composite calls for just that. It will commit us to making a new pay claim for 2015/16. A decent, fair claim that will deliver for our members.
This motion will show our strength and our resolve. And it will show our members that we are a union that will always try and get them the kind of pay they deserve.
At its best UNISON is a fighting, campaigning union that does all it can for its members. This motion will help UNISON to be the best it can be.

http://www.unisonmanchester.org/national-news/our-view-on-composite-motion-c-a-decent-pay-increase-for-local-government-members

Jon Rogers on re-opening the pay dispute 2015/16 (Composite C at todays Unison Special Conference)

Here are two posts supporting Composite C
Jon Rogers (personal blog see post here: http://www.jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/support-composite-c-at-special-local.html?m=1)

I was very pleased this evening to attend the excellent eve-of-Special-Conference fringe meeting hosted by the Camden branch.

The attendance at the fringe meeting was (in spite of the fact that so many delegates are not yet in London) more than enough to call for a card vote.

But we won't.

Unless and until we must.

We won't waste time.

There was an overwhelming mood to get through Conference business (without stifling debate) in order to ensure that delegates can have their say on the one Composite motion opposed by the Service Group Executive.

It would be a mistake to waste Conference time challenging the foolish decision to take a ninety minute lunch break out of an already foreshortened Conference.

It would be equally unwise to take time to point out that Composite A (the "get the leadership out of jail free" Composite) ought not to be on the agenda because its major component part (Motion 44) was incompetent in the first place.

Such challenges will take up Conference time without any realistic hope of a positive outcome, whereas there is genuine uncertainty about the outcome of substantive debates on policy.

We have little time.

We have much to do.

Comrades with good political points to make must make them briefly.

We are not going to the Special Conference to listen to speeches. We are there to make policy.

I have every confidence in the ability of rank and file activists to make good arguments with brevity and wit.

If we listen to a hundred good speeches but fail to agree Composite C we will have achieved very little.

The audience tomorrow is not the entirety of our membership, it is a small subset of the leading activists in our local government branches.

It is unlikely that the greatest of speeches tomorrow will win new adherents to socialism, or recruits to any organisation.

There is no significant controversy on the order of business ahead of Composite C.

If we debate Composite C delegates must be prepared to call for a card vote.

For, win or lose, we must know who was with us and who opposed having a worthwhile trade union (and a card vote is more likely to produce the result which supporters of Composite C seek).

Delegates must be prepared to move "the question be put" ruthlessly and without consideration for the desire of other delegates to make valid and important points.

And other delegates must reflect upon why they were sent to London tomorrow - and support such moves.

We are a trade union, not a debating society.

We need to show the same discipline on Conference floor tomorrow that we would hope for on a picket line.

And we must ensure that every UNISON member in local government can know how their delegates voted on the key question of whether we seek to resist the capitulation on local government pay.

 

http://www.jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/support-composite-c-at-special-local.html?m=1

Manchester's Unison branch web post

Today UNISON branches from across the country are meeting to find a new way forward and a new agreement on pay.
This is what we are hoping to achieve:

1: We believe that lay officials, members of UNISON elected by us, should be able to take part in negotiations with our employers on our pay.
The door to the conference room should not be locked.

2: We believe that we should be asked before our strike is called off. Branches should be consulted before descisions are made.
It’s our choice to strike. It should be our choice to return to work.

3: We believe our members need a real pay rise. We should submit a new pay claim for 2015/16.
We are all getting poorer. We can’t wait.

4: We believe members deserve the truth about how much money they have lost. Let’s give them clear simple figures showing what they have lost compared to inflation.
Let’s stop hiding the shoddy deals.

5: We believe we have to be honest with ourselves.
There’s no point saying that everything is fine because the last pay offer was agreed by the members. It doesn’t mean the members are happy. It doesn’t mean that we have the best protocols for negotiating pay or making decisions about industrial action.
Even if you believe that the deal was a good one, or you believe that the NJC committee made the right decision by calling off the strike, these are still good changes for us to make.
They will restore trust and confidence in national pay bargaining and they will bring our service group back together.

We can put the disagreements and disappointments behind us and get back to doing what we do best. Fighting for a good deal for UNISON Members.

http://www.unisonmanchester.org/national-news/what-we-believe-local-government-special-conference

Unison Special Local Government conference debates pay deals and strategy today

We apologise to those not in Unison for today this blog will focus on what could seem like an internal debate between the membership and sections of the leadership over this years pay debacle.

But we recognise that what happens in one union is important and useful to our comrades in sister unions in local government. Hopefully discussions are happening within branches and nationally how to avoid this. So whether you are in Unison (as an activist, officer or ordinary rank and file member) or in another local government union, please follow the posts on this blog

If you are on twitter at conference today we will be tweeting from @lgworkers
And using the hast tag #uslgc15

So follow this blog,  follow our tweets and keep in touch. 

More motions being submitted to Special Conference

NJC Proposals and decision to cancel the strike
This union notes:
·         The 2014/15 NJC pay claim was not awarded by the employer.
·         Following the strike on 10 July 2014 there was no further action taken by Unison members in pursuit of the claim.
·         The decision to call off the strike due on 14th October 2014 was made on the basis of the promise of a revised offer following a negotiating meeting which did not involve any elected lay members of the NJC Committee
·         The decision of the NJC Committee to tell members this proposal was the best that could be achieved by negotiation and that the only alternative was significant all out action was taken without any consultation with Branches and Regions on the specific nature of the 2 year proposal.
·         The 2 year deal nature of the deal does nothing to address the increasing decline in real term pay, but actually prevents members unhappy with this year’s campaign to propose a different strategy for 2015/16.

This Union resolves to:
·         Censure the leadership for failing to consult branches and regions over the revised offer before calling off strike action.
·         Ensure in the future that decision to suspend strike action must involve a consultation process involving Branches and Regions on an actual offer from the employer


Future Pay Consultation  and Pay Proposals going forward
Notes:
·         The current timetable for pay claims means that members wait several months for new pay deals to come into effect, hitting lowest-paid members hardest, and means lower-paid workers are more likely to accept whatever pay deal is offered at an earlier stage.
·         Unison represents some of the lowest paid workers in Britain, for whom industrial action can cause significant loss in pay.
·         Unison’s rules state that strike pay will not be awarded until the fourth day of strike action.

Resolves that:
·         All future negotiations with the employer should involve lay elected representatives of the NJC
·         Unison should begin its pay claim process earlier, and demand that employers respond to the union’s claim at least four months before any pay award is due to come into effect.
·         Claims should be made annually and no settlement should be accepted for a period longer than one year.
·         If employers fail to do this, Unison commits to launching a dispute to win the pay claim through industrial action.
·         The question on the ballot paper should normally include strike action and action short of strike / work to rule unless a very clear mandate from branches and regions to do otherwise.
·         Any offer made by the employer that is below the level in the NJC claim should be put to a workplace ballot before any action is suspended.
·         To win any pay dispute including winning the commitment of our members to take action, we need a clear and transparent programme of action underpinned by a national commitment and preparation to resource and where necessary re-direct resources including an identified pot of money to fund industrial action
·         Such a strategy should include:
o   sustained and escalating programme of industrial action which moves beyond one-day strikes.
o   begin with a two-day national strike, with the union announcing an ongoing timetable of action beyond this, with the dates for further strikes set and announced in advance, and including:
o   Selective action involving groups of workers to maximise impact (e.g., parking inspectors, caretakers, revenue staff, etc.)
o   Programmes of action-short-of-strikes in between national strike days, including a work-to-rule and overtime ban
o   Attempts to coordinate where possible with other unions
o   A commitment to coordinate and distribute hardship payments, levied from both branch and national funds
o   Encouraging branches to convene local, cross-union strike committees to inform regional and national SGE strategy

Motions to Unison Special Conference submitted by North West Region and some other branches

The 2014 - 16 NJC Pay Proposals


This Special Conference notes the 2014/15 NJC Pay Claim submitted on 5 November 2013 was for:
·         A minimum increase of £1 an hour on scale point 5 to achieve the Living Wage and the same flat rate increase on all pay scale points.

This Special Conference also notes:s:
·         The claim was based on the Living Wage rate outside London. The impact of a Living Wage related NJC sector-wide pay award is different for Greater London due to both the different (and higher) Living Wage hourly rate value and the separate London Weighting allowances.
·         The 2014/15 NJC Pay Claim was adopted with the support of members, branches and Regions because it sought to address endemic low pay in local government, to halt further decline in real term NJC pay values and begin to restore the significant loss of real term pay values throughout the NJC pay spine.
·         There was (and is) widespread understanding it would in all likelihood take more than one pay round to achieve these aims and objectives.
·         The increase in the Living Wage rate since the claim was first submitted and a further increase to be applied from late 2015 (taking effect in April 2016) show starkly the current two-year NJC pay settlement puts us no closer to achieving any of the aims and objectives and the settlement both prolongs and deepens the problems for, at the very least, the further two-year period.
·         Every cumulative inflation forecast for the full period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016 demonstrates clearly the current two-year NJC pay settlement is yet another real term pay cut for the vast majority of NJC workers and does not address the massive reduction in real wages of the last few years.

This Special Conference agrees the widely supported and easily understood aims and objectives of the 2014/15 NJC Pay Claim remain just as relevant and even more pressing today.

This Special Conference further notes:
·         It is expressed Government policy shared by all the ‘mainstream’ political parties that public sector pay restraint and the pay award cap will remain in place until at least 2017/18.
·         None of the ‘mainstream’ political parties are publicly committed to removing the pay award cap and/or to a programme of restoring any of the lost real term value in NJC pay.

Submitted by North West Region Local Government Service Group


Decision To Cancel Strike Action On 14th October

This Special Conference believes the decision of the NJC Committee on 9th October to suspend the action planned for 14th October was a grave error which completely undermined the national campaign to secure a decent pay rise for Local Government members and an end to five years of real terms cuts in our member's living standards.

This led to complete confusion and dismay amongst both activists and members which was compounded by disbelief that a two year agreement had been entered into for a pittance above the 1% a year offer that was already on the table.

The decision to call off the strike due on 14th October 2014 was made on the basis of the revised offer following a negotiating meeting which did not involve any elected lay members of the NJC Committee.

The decision of the NJC Committee to tell members this proposal was the best that could be achieved by negotiation and that the only alternative was significant all out action was taken without any consultation whatsoever with Branches and Regions on the specific nature of the 2 year proposal.

Any decision to suspend strike action must involve a consultation process that is clear and transparent involving Branches and Regions which at a minimum is at least at the same level as the consultation process which agreed the claim

This Special Conference believes that such circumstances cannot be repeated if members are to have any confidence in the National UNISON leadership seriously addressing continual cuts in their earnings and living standards.

Submitted by North West Region Local Government Service Group


Future Pay Consultation Protocols

This Special Conference believes that the decision taken by the NJC Committee on 9th October 2014 was a complete denial of the intention and basis of the Local Government ‎pay consultation protocol which sets out the need for extensive consultation with members.

Any decision to suspend strike action must involve a consultation process that is clear and transparent involving Branches and Regions which at a minimum is at least at the same level as the consultation process which agreed the claim.

This Special Conference instructs the Service Group Executive to amend the Local Government Pay consultation protocol to reflect this requirement in respect of future pay claims.

This Special Conference determines that with immediate effect there shall be no meetings held by employed UNISON officers with local government sector employer representatives without the involvement and presence of at least one elected lay representative of the relevant UNISON Local Government Sector Committee.

Submitted by North West Region Local Government Service Group


A Decent Pay Increase For Local Government Members

Member and activist confidence in the relevance, integrity and mutuality of the NJC bargaining machinery on a ‘sector-wide’ (cross-nation/whole nation) basis and UNISON’s role within it is at an all-time low.

In light of all the above this Special Conference agrees it is imperative that proactive engagement, campaigning and negotiations on NJC pay are reinstated now if we are serious about seeking to secure a fair and decent real term pay rise for NJC workers.

This Special Conference instructs the UNISON National Joint Council (NJC) Committee:

1.    To formally submit the following to the NJC Employer’s body with immediate effect as an additional NJC Pay Claim for the 2015/16 pay round (to be implemented from the settlement date of 1 April 2015); The full-time equivalent (FTE) Living Wage rate to be the minimum pay value of the NJC pay spine. An equivalent flat rate pay increase to be applied to all other NJC pay scale points.

2.    To communicate our position to the other NJC Trade Unions.

3.    To work with NJC branches and regions/nations to identify and submit, as soon as possible, equivalent local, regional or national pay claims as appropriate for groups of members who have previously transferred out of local government and are currently outside the NJC pay bargaining machinery or other collective bargaining arrangements that cover pay awards.

This Special Conference believes all these measures are necessary to ensure UNISON demonstrates to all Local Government members this union, with our members support, is prepared to take strike action to secure fair pay no matter which Government is elected in May 2015.

Submitted by North West Region Local Government Service Group