Goodbye Royston - UNISON to meet new Labour Administration

As UNISON predicted last year, if the Conservative’s cut our pay, they would lose control of Southampton City Council.  This has now happened and a new Labour Administration will take control of Southampton City Council next week.  I would like to thank all the UNISON members in Southampton who supported our unions campaign for a Labour victory.  Special thanks to all the Regional staff who took leave from work to campaign for a Labour victory in the week preceding the election.  We now have an opportunity to rebuild industrial relations in the Council and to establish a normal relationship with our employers.  I know most senior Council managers wish for this to happen as well.  UNISON and Unite are meeting this afternoon to prepare for our first meeting with the new Administration.

The meeting today, which will involve Branch officials, UNISON and Unite Regional Organisers as well as the Regional Secretaries of UNISON and Unite will focus on:

-                      Restoration of national pay and conditions.

-                      Policies to avoid future redundancies.

-                      Rebuilding of industrial relations.

Once discussions start with the Labour Group, UNISON members will receive feedback and updates.  All major decisions on the outcome of these negotiations will be reported back to joint UNISON / Unite membership meetings and, when appropriate, a full Branch ballot.

Royston Smith, the Conservative Council and their supporters amongst the senior managers in the Council have, over the last four years, tried to destroy the trade unions.  It is they who are now history.  UNISON will in the coming months ensure that Council wages and conditions are restored, compulsory redundancies are avoided and that Council workers and their trade unions are properly consulted on and involved in the major decisions taken by our employer.

Best wishes

Mike Tucker

UNISON National Executive Council Member /

Branch Secretary

UNISON Southampton District Branch

Civic Centre

Southampton

SO14 7NB

Tel:  023 8083 2740

e-mail: branchsecretary@soton-unison-office.org.uk or mike.tucker@southampton.gov.uk

Blackberry e-mail:  m.tucker@unison.co.uk

Click HERE for a copy of the hardship form for strike action on 30 November

12 March - Joint UNISON Unite Press Release                                                            

7 March 2012

Council trade unions call off 10 April SeaCity protest

UNISON and UNITE have cancelled a protest called for 10 April to coincide with the opening of the SeaCity Museum.  The protest and industrial action had been called as part of the dispute over the imposition by the Conservative controlled City Council of savage wage cuts in July 2011.  Since making the original announcement of the protest in February, the trade unions have been consulting their members and a range of Southampton community organisations.

The protest was not designed to diminish the memory of the Southampton seafarers, most of whom were members of trade unions, and we re disappointed that Conservative Councillors felt they had to make that allegation.

When the original decision had been made to call the protest the trade unions were not aware that the City Council had organised a parade of 500 children through the City Centre which would have coincided with the route the trade unions protest was due to take.  Not wishing to cause the children distress, nor to spoil an activity the children had been planning for some time, the trade union protest has been cancelled.

Council workers still believe that money saved by cutting their wages has been used to fund the construction of the museum.  The Council is refusing to say how much the museum has cost to build, where the money is coming from and how much the cost of interest on the loans taken out will be.

The trade unions action short of strike is continuing.  A six week hearing of the trade unions claim against the Council for failing to consult on the mass sackings in July will start at the Southampton Employment Tribunal on 5 November.

UNISON Branch Secretary, Mike Tucker, commented, “While cutting back services for the elderly, the disabled and young people, the Council is spending millions on a museum which is being opened on 10 April purely to enhance the Conservatives election campaign.  Council workers remain angry that their wages have been cut, while money is spent on Cllr Smith’s vanity project.  Basic services to the people of Southampton are more important than a museum being built to boost the political prospects of the Conservative Party”.

UNITE Branch Secretary, Mark Wood, commented, “Council leaders are lording over the rest of us saying there is no money and that we have to share the pain, whilst at the same time they max out on Southampton’s Credit Card; paying for a museum that the private sector was not interested in running or funding and spending millions on needless office refurbishments and pointless blue lights on the toll bridge”.

“Borrowing, estimated to cost almost £5 million a year in interest payments alone, while in some areas of Southampton 1 in 4 children are living in poverty and our elderly go without essential services, is just obscene to me.  This Conservative Council’s priority is clearly self preservation at any cost.”

For more information contact:

Mike Tucker, UNISON Branch Secretary, on 023 8083 2740 or 07768 293689

Ian Woodland, UNITE Regional Industrial Organiser on 07770 704480

Mark Wood, UNITE Convenor on 07918 673741

Rally and Lobby of Council

15^th February 2012

One Year On and we still say no to pay cuts!

UNISON and Unite are staging a rally and lobby of the Full Council meeting on:

Wednesday 15^th February

Starting at 1.00 PM

Front Car Park, Civic Centre.

Please come along and show the Council we’re not giving in!

6 February - Press Statement

Unions condemn Council plan to use Council workers pay to meet compensation claims

Southampton Council workers have reacted angrily to Conservative plans to use money saved from their wages to make compensation payments.  Conservative Councillors are proposing to establish a Pay Reserve Fund and transfer £600,000 each year into it taken from Council workers pay when pay was cut in July 2011.  £600,000 is to be transferred each year from money taken from wages into this fund.

UNISON, UNITE and UCATT are taking legal action against Southampton City Council for failure to consult on the mass dismissals that took place in July 2011.  They are also taking legal action for failure to adequately consult on over 250 redundancies which took place in 2011 and for unfairly dismissing almost 1000 UNISON and UNITE members.

The Council is calling for a 6 week hearing at the Southampton Employment Tribunal on the claims.  The next stage of the pre-trial process is scheduled for 22 February.

UNISON Branch Secretary, Mike Tucker, commented, “It is outrageous that the Council is proposing to make those it unlawfully dismissed and re-hired on low pay meet any compensation payments.  It is the Councillors who have acted unlawfully who should meet the cost, not hard working Council workers.  Legal action could have been avoided if the Council had not acted unlawfully in the first place”.

Ian Woodland, UNITE Regional Organiser, commented, “This is typical of this Council Leadership. Rather than resolving this industrial dispute they would rather spend our money and the money of all Council Service users fighting City Council staff. This £600,000 and the £80,000 the council is giving away as free tickets to the SeaCity museum opening gives out the wrong message to our members and tells them the Council is not interested in resolving our members grievances”.

UNISON and UNITE members are to demonstrate outside the Council meeting on Wednesday 15 February, 1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m.

For more information contact:

Mike Tucker, UNISON Branch Secretary, on 023 8083 2740 or 07768 293689

Ian Woodland, UNITE Regional Industrial Organiser on 07770 704480

Mark Wood, UNITE Convenor on 07918 673741

6 February - Council sets aside £600,000 to fight our legal case against them

Conservative Councillors are setting aside £600,000 from the money taken from our wages to fight UNISONs legal action against the Council.  The Council had set aside £650,000 to put back into our wages had their revised proposals been accepted last October.  The offer to reduce pay cuts was linked to the legal action being withdrawn.  The Council is now going to set aside £600,000 each year to meet both the legal costs and any compensation payments.  The Council is to use money taken from our wages to pay the cost of compensation if the Employment Tribunal finds that they have acted illegally.  The Council’s actions are the equivalent of making the victim of a crime pay for their own compensation payments.

The three legal Cases against the Council are for failure to consult over the mass dismissals for all staff, for individual redundancy dismissals and for unfair dismissals for just under 1000 UNISON and Unite members.

The Council are calling for 6 weeks to be set aside for the hearing at the Southampton Employment Tribunal.  The next stage of the pre-trial hearing is scheduled for 22 February.  This meeting will set the date for the hearing.  The Council, we are informed, intends to “robustly defend its position at the Tribunal”.

Andy Straker, UNISON Regional Officer, responded to the Council’s move.  “It is outrageous that the Council intends to use the wages of those it unlawfully dismissed to pay any compensation payments.  It should be the Councillors that made the decision to unlawfully sack Council employees who should meet the cost, not the victims of their unlawful behaviour.”

Click "Newsletters" in the left hand index to see the January Newsletter posted to all members on Friday 20 January

19 January

UNISON responds to Labour Policy on Public Sector Pay

Labour's views on public sector pay
are a 'slap in the face'

UNISON condemns the Labour Party's suggestion that public service workers should accept more pay freezes and pay cuts as "a slap in the face".

Labour's misguided statement comes at a time when it is predicted that 700,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector by 2017, two thirds of whose workers are women.

"I've been a Labour party member for many years and this has come as a slap in the face" said Wendy Nichols, joint vice-chair of UNISON's Labour Link.

Ms Nichols, a Labour councillor in Selby and a member of the Labour party since 1984, added: "I remember canvassing for Labour at the age of nine with my parents. And this has really shocked me."

She was joined in her anger by Margaret Wilkinson, also joint vice-chair and a longtime member of the Labour Party, who commented: "Many hundreds of thousands of low-paid women working as carers, classroom assistants and in other local government jobs have already suffered two years of pay freeze - and none of us got the £250 that Osborne promised to help the lower paid.

"Now we have our own Labour leaders saying they would support even further pay freezes. Not only are UNISON members shocked by this, but so are Labour party members.

"The two Eds need to be out there arguing for fairness, not following in the tracks of the Tories. We will make sure the party leaders get the message loud and clear."

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said that in the past year, Labour has struggled to get its message across and show that there is an alternative to the coalition's savage cuts in public services.

"Our members need hope and a reason to vote Labour. These have been snatched away," he said.

"We were told by Ed Miliband to be patient, to prepare for the long haul, that their economic plans needed to be careful, cautious.

"We hoped that as the economy worsened, Labour's voice would get louder, more strident, more forceful, and that Ed Miliband would step up and speak out against the tearing apart of communities and families as they face insecurity and uncertainty.

"But at a time when our members needed him most, he panicked and ditched overnight a policy that challenged the coalition. Instead, he has decided to embrace a Tory pay policy that hits millions of public service workers, particularly low-paid women."

Accusing the Opposition leader of "breathtaking naivety", Mr Prentis added: "His comments will have unintended consequences. At a time when hard working families are struggling to make ends meet, the very party which they want to stand by them, has chosen instead to play cheap politics with their lives."

UNISON's relationship with Labour is governed by our democratically elected national affiliated political committee. They will meet to determine the best way to ensure that the Labour Party leadership properly reflects the views of UNISON members, the wider Labour Party membership and those who support Labour.

18 January

UNISON and Unite confirm industrial action over pay cuts to continue

Over 40 workplace representatives from UNISON and Unite met over the lunch-time of 16 January to review the on-going dispute over the imposition of pay cuts.  Representing workplaces from the Council, the meeting received reports from UNISON Branch Secretary, Mike Tucker, and Unite Branch Secretary, Mark Wood, on the current dispute, including reports on the action short of strike, the unions legal action and the local elections in May.

The meeting re-affirmed that the dispute with the Conservative controlled Southampton City Council continues.  Specifically the meeting agreed:

-                      That the action short of strike should continue.  Details of what this action consists of will be sent to UNISON and Unite members shortly.

-                      That a joint lobby should be held of the Council meeting being held on 15 February between 1.00 p.m. and 2.00 p.m.  The theme of the lobby to be, “One year on, Council workers still say no to pay cuts”

-                      That a demonstration and industrial action to be held on Tuesday 10 April, the day the Sea City Museum is due to open.  The demonstration and industrial action to be held on that day to link the £5 million the Conservatives have borrowed to build it with the £5 million being taken out of Council workers pay.

UNISON and Unite are to consult members on the form the industrial action will take.  It is proposed that all UNISON and Unite members directly employed by the Council would be called on to take industrial action on 10 April.

A photographer has successfully sued Southampton Conservatives for using one his pictures in a newsletter.

 The picture, taken by Guy Smallman while he was covering the UNISON and Unite strikes earlier this year, appeared in City News, a paper produced by Southampton and Itchen Conservative Association.

Guy Smallman said: “The paper is was basically a crude propaganda sheet slagging off the strikers and the local Labour Party but I was horrified to see that one of my photos appeared as a thumbnail on the front page without permission or a byline. Although printed not much bigger than a postage stamp I took the matter to the NUJ out of principle.

“Of all the people for them try and rob I was a poor choice. I have been an NUJ rep for 11 years and joined my first trade union in Southampton aged 17 when I worked in a factory down on the docks. I support the Southampton strikers 100%, so have my work stolen for a crude attack on them was a double insult. It is also clear that they lifted the image in question from the website of Socialist Worker. I hope they will think twice about stealing other peoples work in future and they feel as stupid as they look.”

As a result of the NUJ’s intervention, Guy received £200 compensation from the Conservative Association. Unfortunately for them, NUJ members have traced the owner of another stolen photo used in the same paper but printed much larger. More legal action is expected.