The following information is taken from the website of the Certification Officer.
It relates to the hearing scheduled for: 19,20 and 21 December 2016 of a number of complaints (including from myself) against UNISON.
The complaints concern the Union’s election for its General Secretary in 2015. The…Read more…
A strange temporal coincidence…
If you are looking for relentlessly positive and upbeat assessments of all aspects of trade union organisation you may be in the wrong place. This blog has been a critical voice now for more than a decade.
It is hardly a novelty for me to suggest that …Read more…
Solidarity with the Durham teaching assistants
Solidarity to the Durham teaching assistants as they start today their first two day strike. This is in opposition to an attempt to drive down pay using the excuse of “equal pay” to impose cuts on a predominantly low paid female workforce.
The newsis that their action is effective.
Let’s hope they…Read more…
Let me tell you where to put your red poppy…
My poppy is white.
I won’t wear a red one.
If you want a red poppy you commemorate the British war dead (but not others).
And you say that charity – rather than the state – should provide for those injured serving in “our” armed forces.
I do not recognise my presence in any first person plural…Read more…
This is what free speech in our trade union movement looks like (it’s not pretty…)
When I started this blog, a little over ten years ago, I explained why I was doing so, and said; “ I believe that this blog is entirely within UNISON Rules and I don’t intend to carry any content which attacks our Union. This is not to say that I won’t publish criticisms of policies or decisions…Read more…
Some inconsequential information
At a meeting of UNISON activists in London last week I shared with colleagues my decision not to seek an eighth term on UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) in the next round of elections.
I was pleased to learn that my friend and comrade, Sean Fox, the experienced and committed Secretary of…Read more…
Defend our libraries!
Good luck to all those marching to defend our libraries today.
I won’t be amongst the lively Lambeth contingent as I am not in London, but am confident of strong support locally and nationally for this timely and important demonstration.
The Tory assault on our library services is not letting up –…Read more…
Our pensions under attack again – from more than one direction
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UNISON Disciplinary Procedures
I have today had cause to reflect upon UNISON’s disciplinary procedures as they apply to lay members.
I have been interviewed, courteously and appropriately, by colleagues involved in an investigation into matters about which I blogged awhile ago.
I do not wish recklessly or carelessly to comment…Read more…
Full details of the complaints about the UNISON General Secretary election have been published officially
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The future of UNISON depends upon our members and activists
UNISON members need a trade union which fights for their interests rather more effectively than is currently the case.Today’s meeting of our NEC received a report back on pay negotiations from which one can draw the depressing news that pretty much all our public sector members are getting no more…Read more…
We are the Champions?
Following on from the General Secretary’s report to today’s meeting of UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) we received a report on the Union’s Public Service Championscampaign.This is a campaign, arising from Motion 31 agreed at UNISON National Delegate Conference this June, to promote public…Read more…
General Secretary’s report to the UNISON NEC meeting today
Today’s meeting of the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) began, following the normal introductions from our new President, with the report from our General Secretary Dave Prentis.In a wide ranging report Dave began with a tribute to Kirklees College UNISON Convenor Dave Ellis, whose sudden…Read more…
The politics of atrocity and tragedy
Having attended none of the Conferences or demonstrations taking place in London today, I missed Jeremy Corbyn being heckled by activists who believe he should call for regime change in Syria (in part no doubt because of the horrendous bombing of Alepp…Read more…
Thinking globally about trade union density
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Sometime inertia is better than momentum?
I don’t rate “Momentum” as an organisation.It seems to be a haven for ambitious people who want to flock around a Labour Leader respected above all for his lack of personal ambition. I know that many good people have joined Momentum, including many good friends whom I respect. I regret that I am…Read more…
Racism
The Governing party are in Birmingham cementing their rightward shift with anti-immigration prejudice and reaction.
Labour’s Leader is right to resist being drawn into the downward spiral of this racist narrative – and those on the Labour right who oversaw the loss of former…Read more…
Think globally. Act locally.
I congratulate all those who made it to Birmingham today to protest against the Tories. News reports suggest 20,000 people were present.
Last year the BBC reported that 60,000 marched in Manchester – at a time when the (then) Trade Union Bill posed an …Read more…
Working with the far left in the trade unions
A senior official of UNISON once told me that I “could have gone places” in our union if only I had not been “a standard bearer for the Trots.” I took this as a (not very intelligent) criticism of my willingness to stand alongside and defend comrades in organisations such as the Socialist Party and…Read more…
Succession planning in the labour movement
Having told the Lambeth UNISON Branch Committee five months ago that I will not seek to continue to be Branch Secretary beyond next January I am very mindful of the difficulty of succession planning.Bearing in mind of course that I make no criticism of UNISON’s General Secretary, I cannot help but…Read more…