Labour’s leader has chosen to take the tired old path of demonstrating his leadership credentials by picking a fight with the left of the Party at this year’s Conference. One part of this project is a proposal to change the system for electing Party Le…Read more…
Solidarity with Paul Holmes
Paul Holmes is one of the most dedicated – and decent – trade unionists I have ever met. He is the long standing Branch Secretary of one of UNISON’s largest branches ( Kirklees large by virtue of a high UNISON density rather than the size of th…Read more…
Injustice in the Labour Party
Whilst I was away for a few days I missed (for the first time in a couple of years) a meeting of the General Committee of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party (CLP), of which I am proud to be Chair. I was also proud to hear that our GC expressed…Read more…
Lambeth’s shame – and its misreporting
For anyone associated with Lambeth Council (by whom I was employed for 33 years from 1987 onwards) yesterday’s publication of the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is a significant moment. The report sets out a litany of the mos…Read more…
A lot more than fifty five years of hurt…
I have been blogging here for fifteen years now and (without checking back) I think I can fairly safely say that I have never blogged anything that was – even tangentially – about football.I don’t really follow football, any more than I follow any othe…Read more…
Everything you wanted to know about UNISON’s NEC members and their preferences – and quite a lot you didn’t
Having recently blogged about several of the Committees of the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) – from the jaundiced perspective of a longstanding NEC member who was carefully kept away from almost all Committees during my fourteen years – it’s …Read more…
UNISON’s Policy Committee – the (not really very) shocking truth!
If you’re reading this blog you may have wondered how often it happens to me that someone accosts me in the street and asks me what I think about the Policy Committee of the UNISON National Executive Committee (NEC). I am pleased to be able to put your…Read more…
What does UNISON’s Development and Organisation Committee get up to?
Since I seem to have taken to blogging about the various Committees of the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) I think it only right that I should turn my attention to the one Committee on which I served for fourteen years – the Development and Org…Read more…
UNISON has a new Presidential Team – what do they have to do next?
UNISON has announced the election of a Presidential team for 2021/22. The first job of the Presidential team is to make some recommendations to the NEC (to be endorsed at its next meeting)(which should be very soon) for the composition of the various C…Read more…
How does UNISON’s NEC manage its relationship with its staff?
Regular readers of this blog (Sid and Doris UNISON-Centre) sometimes wonder which of UNISON’s many Rules are most interesting and important.
UNISON Rule D.2.12 is one of the most important rules in the UNISON Rule Book. It deals with the employment of …Read more…
Industrial Action – #timeforrealchange in UNISON
Sometime soon the newly elected UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) will meet to allocate its members to its various Committees. Most of the NEC’s Committees exist pursuant to the right of the NEC – under Rule D.2.9 “to appoint such Committees from…Read more…
Making a date with the new UNISON NEC?
I was very pleased to hear that the newly elected UNISON National Executive Council started today as (I hope) they mean to go on, by electing a new Presidential Team.This blog exists, however, not so much to make the “big picture” political commentary …Read more…
What do the UNISON NEC election results mean for what UNISON does in the Labour Party?
Much commentary on trade union elections focuses on the implications for the Labour Party (which is more than a little irritating since trade unions are about a lot more than simply our relationship with our Party). However, as a Labour Party member (f…Read more…
#timeforrealchange at the TUC?
One things with which the new UNISON NEC (with a large majority of members elected on the #timeforrealchange slate) will have to deal at its July member is the making of nominations to the TUC General Council and the selection of NEC members to attend …Read more…
What have #timeforrealchange ever done for us? A Seventh Internationalist writes…
In many years of trade union activity I have come across comrades (and quite often friends) from a very wide range of different groups of what are often referred to as “Trots”. It is an observation so commonplace as never really to be funny that these …Read more…
Virtually no disagreement – is that a good thing?
For many years I would attend UNISON Conferences and blog about them here. Today, as a retired member, I obviously did not attend the Special (Virtual) Local Government Committee meeting which took the place of National Local Government Conference.Howe…Read more…
#TimeForRealChange – what will the UNISON NEC election results mean?
It’s good to see a strong, positive statement issued on behalf of a sizeable majority of the members of the newly elected UNISON NEC, which I shall take the liberty of reproducing in its entirety below;“The #TimeForRealChange campaign is delighted to a…Read more…
How does UNISON elect its President and Vice-Presidents?
As a service to readers of this blog, particularly those who believed that the UNISON NEC elects one Vice-President each year, with the Junior Vice-President going on to become Senior Vice-President a year later, and President a year thereafter, …Read more…
UNISON National Executive Council shifts to the left
The results of the elections to the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) declared today mark a significant shift to the left. 36 of the successful candidates had supported Paul Holmes (who had come a strong second in the General Secretary elec…Read more…
Sticking with the Labour Party
I’m not quite up to serious demonstrating at the moment (though I hope that regular exercise will help me better to combat the fatigue caused by my cancer medication so that I can get back out there more).Therefore, just as I missed the March for…Read more…