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