Ian's UNITE Site

Consultation on the future of UNITE branches

2010-09-04T10:00:00.003+01:00

On 23rd July 2010 the Joint General Secretaries wrote out to Regional Secretaries and Executive Council members to consult about the future of branches. At the July EC meeting, a few days later, concerns were raised that this had not been adequately circulated, and the Executive was assured that this would be addressed. To date, the letter does not appear to have reached branches, the most obvious bodies to consult.

For what it's worth, the letter is here:

To: All Regional Secretaries
Cc: All EC members

Dear Colleague

Purpose and Organisation of Unite Branches

The Rules related to Branches are contained in Rule 17 of Unite’s Rule Book which commences with the following two sub-sections:-

17.1 Wherever possible, Branches shall be based on the workplace, although provision shall also be made for local Branches and National Industrial Branches as appropriate and as approved by the Executive Council.

17.2 Branch membership shall be allocated on the basis of workplace if there is a workplace Branch at the member’s workplace; or the nearest local Branch if there is not a workplace or National Industrial Branch.

While we do not want to be any more prescriptive than was intended by the Rule, there is a clearly preferred route of establishing good workplace Branches. There is still plenty of scope for Branches to be organised according to local need and requirements and for their organisation to be based on a “common sense” approach.

In addition to the maintenance of minutes/decisions taken by the Branch, and the responsibility for the probity of financial accounts, Branches should be particularly proactive in the following areas.

· Developing a single Unite entity wherever practicable.

· Ensuring that where more than one Unite Branch exists in a workplace, that the activities of the Union are co-ordinated and not in conflict.

· Supporting 100% membership in the workplace(s) where the Branch is based and developing an ‘Organising Plan’.

· Developing membership ‘Recruitment and Retention Plans’ around the Branch.

· Distributing Unite literature and campaign material amongst Branch members.

· Ensuring Membership data is up to date and accurate.

· Ensuring access to and utilisation of, the Union’s IT structures and links to the centre.

While this consultation exercise is not about Branch administration, it nevertheless seeks to establish what is viable and acceptable spend from within Branch administration.

Please would you let us have your recommendations, after discussion with your Regional Committee, on how best you think we can take this forward in your Region, with a view to completing all the appropriate consultations and achieving the consolidation of Branches wherever possible and in line with Rule. Responses should be sent to Christian Matheson and Irene Dykes.

We look forward to receiving your response to the above as speedily as possible.

Yours sincerely

Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson
Joint General Secretaries

22 July 2010

I've gathered input from my National Industrial Sector Committee, reps in my company, my branch and beyond, and submitted the response below.

It would appear that branches have not been notified about the consultation about the future of branches, which is ludicrous. Branches are a key part of the UNITE structure and sidelining them in this way is unacceptable.

Principles:
1. Maximise participation by members by making branches relevant and accessible
2. Encourage participation from a diverse membership, including those with caring responsibilities
3. Bring the union’s resources as close as possible to the members
4. Branches should communicate with their members effectively
5. Democratic accountability to the members
6. Support workplace organising
7. Encourage participation in the union beyond the workplace, both in the wider UNITE structures and in the local community / labour movement
8. Accommodate the wide variety of working patterns that exist today (e.g. mobile workers, home-based workers, agency/subcontracting/non-standard employment, varying workplace size, multi-site employers, multinationals)
9. Sensible use of union resources
10. Retain as many of the current activists as possible through any change, and seek to involve new ones

The current situation
UNITE has inherited a wide range of branch structures from its predecessor unions:
1. considerable duplication (multiple branches serving the same workplace or geography) does not assist coordination of union activity
2. funding is inconsistent (ex-Amicus branches get 3% and cannot accumulate money from one year to the next, ex-TGWU branches get 10% and can save)
3. many branches do not function properly (e.g. lack of activity, inquorate meetings)
4. there are branches based on a workplace, employer, industry, occupation or geography which do function well
5. members in a single workplace are often scattered amongst many branches
6. the link between branch and workplace(s) is often weak
7. the link between branch and the wider UNITE structure is often weak
8. The profile of branches is typically low

Proposals
1. There can be no single solution that is appropriate throughout a union as large and diverse as UNITE, but there should be more consistency
2. As a guideline of when a separate branch should be set up, a branch needs a reasonable pool of activists (perhaps double the quorum?) to function well. This is more important than the number of members
3. All branches should receive 10% of members’ subs
4. There should be a sensible cap on the funds a branch can accumulate (e.g. 5 years’ subs or £10,000, whichever is the greater) to discourage branches feeling they need to “spend up” each year, allow flexibility of spending from one year to the next, but avoid large sums of union money being tied up in inactive branches
5. Branches should be free to spend money as their members see fit in line with union policy
6. Branches should submit audited annual accounts. If a branch fails to do so, or spends no money, the Region should investigate whether the branch is functioning.
7. There should be no honorarium, salary or other payment to branch officers. Branches should reimburse reasonable genuine authorised expenses
8. The definition of “workplace” should be flexible. The priority is industrial logic – bargaining with the employer.
9. Where a workplace is not large enough or members do not want a workplace branch, the sector should review whether it should be grouped with other workplaces in the same sector in a reasonable geographical area to form an industrial branch.
10. Where members are not allocated to a workplace or industrial branch, they should be allocated to a geographical branch, which should be local enough to facilitate attendance.
11. Members not in workplace or industrial branches should be able to choose whether to join a branch which meets near their home or their workplace.
12. In determining geographical branches, consideration should be given to the UNITE Area structure, to ensure there are local branches reasonably spread throughout.
13. All branches should be affiliated to their local TUC and encouraged to get involved in local campaigns, promote union policies and campaigns in local media etc.
14. Branch officers should have ready access to membership information in electronic form and be encouraged to maintain it. They should be able to access this through a secure online facility.
15. The union office should facilitate a mailing to branch members when reasonably requested.
16. Branches should be encouraged to have a wider range of branch officers (e.g. branch equality officer, membership secretary, press officer, branch organiser) to encourage greater activity and involvement, rather than concentrating all the work in a few hands.
17. Every branch should be allocated an officer.
18. Branches should receive copies of Area, Regional, EC (and where appropriate, RISC) minutes
19. Minutes should be taken, signed and retained.
20. Existing branches should be invited to submit a short outline of their purpose and plans.
21. Branches should not be closed or merged against the wishes of their members.
22. Organising should be part of the standard agenda of all branch meetings
23. The dates, times and places of all branch meetings should be published on the union web site
24. The union should issue membership cards at least every two years, and the card should include the branch and sector details.
25. Retired and unemployed members should be able to remain in their previous workplace branch.
26. Members should readily be able to see how to contact their branch officers, including through the union web site.
27. Each Region should produce an electronic guide to the branches in the region, listing what branches there are, what they cover, where & when they meet and who the main officers are.
28. Representatives should be encouraged to attend branch meetings and give reports on their work and negotiations. Branches may wish to maintain attendance records.
29. There should be regularly scheduled branch meetings (normally monthly), with a facility for emergency meetings when required.
30. There should be limited facility for branches to delegate certain decisions to an elected branch committee.
31. Branch officers should be lay members.
32. Branches should have their own cheque book. Cheques should be signed by at least two people, which must not include the payee.
33. One of the risks with workplace branches is that they can become insular and cut off from the wider union and movement. To counter this it is important that the EC decision to hold regular Area Activist Meetings open to all accountable representatives (in addition to the Area Activist Committees) is actually implemented. This can provide coordination and exchange of views with a geographical focus that cuts across workplaces and sectors. Area Activist Committees should be allocated a budget so that they can meaningfully undertake campaigning and other appropriate activities.
34. The union should provide written guides for branch officers explaining what the role of (at least) chair, secretary and treasurer is and how to carry it out. Training courses should also be available for branch officers. For example, how would a new branch treasurer know how to complete the accounts etc?
35. Communication from head office and the regional centres to branches needs to be significantly improved. The standard branch agenda includes items referred by the EC, but there never are any. Why not have a monthly bulletin to branches, which could include JGS report from EC meetings, information about current campaigns, union events etc? For many branches this could be electronic.

Members at the BBC vote to strike in defence of their pensions

2010-09-01T23:50:00.002+01:00

Congratulations to UNITE members and their colleagues in the NUJ and BECTU for an impressive result in the strike ballot over plans for savage cuts to their pension provision. It is reported in The Guardian and elsewhere that members of the three unions returned a majority of over 90% for strike action.

The BBC have already said they will be making revised proposals, and the media reports that the unions are not announcing strike dates until they have considered them.

The impressive strike vote represents the best chance to successfully defend pension provision.

There seems little doubt that BBC senior management were trying to impress the Con-Dem government with their "toughness". Instead they have impressed the workforce and the public with their greed and hypocrisy. The top 15 BBC managers paid themselves £4.76m and the deputy director general will get a pension of £400,000 a year.

Nobody should be fooled by the attempts to sow division between public and private sector workers. If pensions in the public sector are cut, it will make it harder still to defend and improve provision in the private sector.

"Corporate welfare" questioned over HP jobs subsidy

2010-08-27T07:28:00.003+01:00

PC Pro is reporting concerns about whether the 700 "new" jobs HP is creating in Scotland are really new at all, or whether the company is merely making redundancies and then pocketing public subsidies to hire new staff.

This is not a new issue. Back in 2005, the Amicus Policy Conference passed "Composite 1" on Manufacturing, which (amongst other things) decided to:

Campaign for Government powers to stop companies coming to the UK, obtaining national and local grants and then closing the company down when these are exhausted. Legislation is needed to force companies to stay in a region for up to ten years to allow for community stability and security.

At a time when there is so much government and media effort to stigmatise and scapegoat ordinary people who have been thrown out of work and are reliant on benefits, and young people who have left education to face a barren job market, it is worth remembering how much corporations pocket in grants and tax breaks (what Michael Moore calls "Corporate Welfare" in the US) and the many billions of tax avoided by the very rich.

Report from UNITE EC meeting, 26-28 July 2010

2010-07-29T09:42:00.003+01:00

Ian Allinson’s report on UNITE Executive Council 26-28^th July 2010

N.B. This is not an official Unite Report; it is based on my notes of the Executive Council (EC) meeting. I believe it to be a fair account of some of the key points and decisions taken (where I give my views about them I make this clear), and I will willingly correct any errors upon receipt of official notification from Unite.

This report is far from exhaustive – many more issues were debated and decisions taken over the three days.

Ian Allinson
UNITE EC member, Electrical Engineering, Electronics & IT
www.iansunitesite.org.uk

The biggest items of debate at this EC were the Labour Party leadership and responding to the attacks on public services and the welfare state.

Previous minutes

The EC approved minutes from the meetings on 11-13 May 2010, 30 May 2010, 2 June 2010, 3 June 2010, 4 June 2010, 18 June 2010. These should be published on the UNITE web site shortly: http://www.unitetheunion.org/resources/union_elections_meetings_and/executive_council_meetings.aspx

Industrial, Organising, Equality

There was an excellent debate on the colossal attacks on public services and the welfare state, with a clear view that this was an issue for every member, not just those working in the public sector. The scale of the attacks requires a similar response. UNITE is seeking to coordinate action with other unions and build a coalition with other groups against the cuts. Plans include:

ETUC demonstration in Brussels on 29^th September, the day of action
Protest at the Tory Party conference on 3^rd October
A UNITE lobby/rally of 3,500 on 19^th October in London, as part of the TUC “week of action” to coincide with the spending review on 20^th October
Calling Area Activists Meetings (not just Area Activist Committees) to plan the campaign in each area
A briefing document being circulated to activists and Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs)
Campaign stalls in town centres
TUC demonstration with a wider coalition in the spring

Despite no recommendation being made by UNITE, and dire threats from Willie Walsh, members at BA had rejected the latest offer. The small vote to accept proved that the company line, echoed by the media, that most people support the management and oppose the strike is a lie. A further industrial action ballot will now be organised. It will be important to find ways to involve staff beyond the cabin crew themselves to increase pressure for a settlement. Further financial support for the members was agreed, and legal cases are being pursued.
UNITE, UNISON and GMB had won a large number of equal pay claims against Birmingham City Council, with a typical award being around £30,000. Unfortunately around 900 claimants used Stefan Cross, a no-win-no-fee solicitor, who typically take 25-40% of damages recovered. The council is appealing some parts of the cases. The result is helping us make progress with other employers.
The results of legal action over Blacklisting in construction have so far been disappointing, largely because the legislation is not retrospective. Other avenues are still being explored. Some individuals had secured access to the “un-redacted” files, which named Amicus officers colluding with the employer to blacklist members. UNITE will help members get access to all such files and take rapid and strong action against any officers who are guilty and still work for the union.
New industrial action & balloting guidelines have been issued to officers in the light of recent court cases, and it was agreed that these should also be circulated to EC members.
The motion on pensions from the IT & Comms sector which was agreed at the January 2010 EC meeting will be discussed again at the next F&GP meeting and a report brought back.
The section of the Joint General Secretaries’ report relating to IT & Comms read:

IT and Communications

Industrial issues

BBC

The BBC has put forward proposals to cap pay increases at 1% for pensionable pay purposes from 1 April 2011. Negotiations with Unite, Bectu and NUJ are taking place.

The company has also tabled its final offer on pay to the joint unions covering BECTU, NUJ and Unite.

The offer to staff now stands at a flat rate increase of £475 for staff paid up to £37,726 a year. Staff paid above the BBC-defined cap face a pay freeze. In a slight change from an earlier offer, the BBC is proposing to increase rates of pay at the floor and ceiling of BBC grades and staff allowances by 1 per cent.

The unions maintain that the BBC can afford to pay more to its staff across the board given the 2 per cent rise in its licence fee income. The proposal on the table would increase the pay bill by 1 per cent.

Together with Bectu and NUJ, we are consulting with members on the pay and pensions proposals with a view to balloting on industrial action if the BBC is unwilling to change its proposals.

HP has announced a further 934 redundancies to take effect throughout the UK by the end of October 2010, with more expected in the 12 months after that.

Fujitsu

Two meetings have been held with the company under the auspices of ACAS since the dispute ended earlier this year. Progress in taking forward the outstanding issues of the ACAS brokered agreement has been glacial, in most senses of the word. The company appears to be taking recriminatory action against a number of Unite representatives, contrary to the settlement agreement and is proposing to cut back on facility time of the Unite senior representative.

Discussions continue to finalise suitable wording to ensure that the terms of the Defined Contribution pension scheme replacing the Defined Benefit pension scheme are contractual and can only be changed by agreement.

A pay offer has been made and accepted by members covered by the Manchester bargaining group, the principal elements of which include a “cost of living” increase of 1% or £225 (whichever is the greater) effective from 1 August 2010, approximately 1% to be allocated on the basis of matrices that guarantee larger increases for higher performers and the lower paid, and 0.25% to be allocated at managers’ discretion, in accordance with guidelines. The company will review the salaries of anyone who would still be paid less than £13,500.

Organising

Toshiba

We have organised 34 field service engineers out of 53 in the proposed bargaining unit. Following our initial request for a voluntary agreement which was refused by the company, the statutory recognition process had been commenced.

Two meetings involving senior reps and full time officials have been used as part of a campaign to improve our union organisation in this company.

Computer Services Organising Project

Following the organising workshop for reps in CSC, Fujitsu HP, IBM and Steria in autumn 2009, further workshops are being arranged with the aim of a follow up conference as part of an organising campaign with the assistance of the Organising Department to take the campaign forward. We are also working with the Organising Department to co-ordinate activities in companies in the sector which form part of the 100% Organising Campaign at regional level.

Campaigns

Future of cheques

In December 2009, the Board of the Payments Council announced a target end date of 31 October 2018 for cheque clearings in Great Britain and Northern Ireland and said there should be "no scenario" for using cheques by 2018. A final review will come in 2016. This is of key importance to our members in HP and iPSL, a Unisys joint venture company, who are involved in cheque processing and clearing for all the major UK clearing banks.

Following our submission to the House of Lords Treasury Committee in support of our members livelihoods, we are working across the IT & Communications, Finance and GPM Sectors on this campaign in order to safeguard the interests of members affected and people and organisations who rely on being able to use cheques as a means of payment. Other sectors such as Logistics may also be affected.

ICT Life Skills

The Digital Britain report produced by the last Labour Government identified 12.5 million people who are non-users of the Internet and potentially excluded from job opportunities and full participation in today’s digital economy and society. We have worked with e-skills UK on this previously and together with the Unite Lifelong Learning team are working with relevant organisations to see how Unite can use its existing lay member networks and communication channels to mentor and support people to raise their confidence to take their first steps to learn and engage with IT.

There was nothing from the Electrical Engineering & Electronics sector in the Joint General Secretaries’ report.
Under “disputes, ballots and repudiations” I notice that 264 members Philips Lighting have voted for and been called to take a continuous overtime ban, and that there is a reballot at Tufnol Composites in Birmingham over a pay claim.
UNITE is pursuing a legal case over pensions on behalf of members who lost their jobs at Visteon.
In March-June 2010, UNITE won over £11m for members in 4215 personal injury cases, plus around £1.5m from Employment Tribunal cases.
Standing Orders for the various committees will be reviewed to ensure that the Strategy For Growth (i.e. organising, including the 100% campaign) is high on every agenda.
The Organising Department presented a paper demonstrating the positive contribution that the National Organising Strategy is making to membership and net union income (though this is clearly not the primary measure of success). A lot of the discussion centred on the need to build sustainable workplace union organisation – around 25% of those who join UNITE as a whole leave within a year, reflecting the fact that many of them are not integrated into effective workplace organisation. With the exception of some campaigns which have gone wrong, growth through organising campaigns is sustained beyond the end of the campaign.
UNITE has won a ballot for union recognition in part of Capita with a 62% turnout and a 96% yes vote.
The Equality Act 2010 will come into force on 1^st October (replacing previous legislation), though the government is threatening to delay or not implement the parts of the Act which are phased. The TUC has produced a useful guide (http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-18199-f0.pdf).
UNITE is working on the issue of “forced ranking” – the practice of allocating fixed proportions of appraisal scores regardless of performance. The practice had been found to be discriminatory in the USA, but the issue had arisen as part of the Finance sector organising campaign. It seems likely that the practice could be discriminatory in the UK as well. This has been an issue in a number of IT companies.
A range of dates in the Equality diary were highlighted, including 30^th October (Equal Pay Day – gender pay gap means this date is the equivalent of women not being paid until the end of the year) and 15-19^th November (Anti-Bullying Week).
Motions pressing for more effective monitoring of member diversity were remitted for consideration by the Equality department.
Additional funding for Pride 2010 was agreed.
New UNITE guides on “Company Accounts and how to use them” and “How to prepare and manage a pay claim” are on the union web site (http://www.unitetheunion.org/resources/publications/unite_guides.aspx)
A case over “Fair Share Schemes” had been lost, and these arrangements are not currently active.

Political

The UNITE National Political Committee recommended that the EC decide to make a supporting nomination for Ed Milliband as leader of the Labour Party. The EC endorsed this recommendation, with 10 votes (including me) against.
Several remits (motions) had been submitted protesting at the TUC inviting David Cameron to address TUC Congress. Cameron has said he cannot attend and the invitation to Vince Cable has been withdrawn.
UNITE is running a pilot project in 10 constituencies where big workplaces are targeted to encourage people to get involved in the Labour Party with the aim of ensuring candidates are selected who are more sympathetic to UNITE policies.
A remit promoting UNITE’s councillors network was agreed and passed to the Political Committee.
It was pointed out that despite the conference decision, UNITE was not yet listed as a signatory to the People’s Charter. It was agreed this must be actioned and the Charter publicised through the union.

Internal

The EC approved a report from the Returning Officer in relation to the election for UNITE General Secretary. The key points arising from this are:

Regular (not special) meetings of UNITE committees may invite all the candidates, but may not endorse a candidate.
A “workplace” is not defined in rule. For the purposes of workplace nominations, these must be based on a meeting of members represented by a workplace representative.
There was a proposal to hold open “hustings” in each region. Three of the four candidates were willing to participate, but the fourth was not. The proposal was put to a vote and defeated, with 11 (including me) voting in favour.

The MOD and Government Departments sector will be consulted about a proposal to include the Communication Managers’ Association (CMA) in that sector.
The Joint General Secretaries will send a strongly worded letter to Regional Secretaries to ensure that all committees such as Regional Industrial Sector Committees (RISCs) and Area Activist Committees are convened as required by rule, and that they taken place in the time-window allocated.
Branches, Regional Committees and National Industrial Sector Committees are invited to send in their views on the future of UNITE branches. Concerns were raised that the request for views had not been adequately circulated, and this will be addressed.
The ongoing discrepancy in branch funding (ex-Amicus 3%, ex-TGWU 10%) was raised yet again, but despite the EC statement agreed by the Policy Conference, no progress is being made. The Joint General Secretaries did commit to resolve the problem where ex-Amicus branches are left with no money if cheques are cashed late after the end of the year.
The decisions of the UNITE Policy Conference have been published on the union web site (http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/015-UPC-decisions-taken.pdf). The next EC meeting will consider motions that were remitted and also what action to take as a result of the motions passed.
The Rulebook as revised by the special Rules Conference is online (http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/054-Unite%20Rule%20book%20-%20effective%20from%201%20May%2009%20amended%204%20Ju%E2%80%A6.pdf).
Arrangements were agreed for UNITE regional and national Young Members’ Committees. The first National Young Members’ Committee is now planned for 14^th October, allowing more time for the regional meetings to take place up to the end of September 2010. Extra seats were added to the national committee, to reflect the distribution of young members between regions and to make room for proportionality.
A common set of waiting/qualification periods for new joiners to qualify for various benefits was discussed, but needed more work before being agreed. The idea is to protect the union against people joining with issues and immediately demanding the union deploy large resources, only for them to leave afterwards. However, it was recognised that discretion will need to be exercised to provide help before the qualification periods, for example where this assists with organising and campaigning. In summary, the time limits under discussion (not yet agreed) are:

Dispute / victimisation benefit – 13 weeks full subs
Advice – immediate
Officer representation – 13 weeks full subs
Legal services – immediate (including retirees) for personal injury, 26 weeks full subs for other legal services. Note that members off work and pursuing a personal injury claim must continue their contributions (at the Special Discounted Rate if appropriate).
Incapacity/maternity/paternity/adoption/fixed sums, Funeral, Convalescence – 26 weeks full subs
Driver Care – no change

Expenses arrangements for UNITE education courses were finally agreed.
The EC agreed in principle common arrangements for Retired Members (including permanent disability), but the detail still requires more work. In summary:

Existing retired members maintain their subs rates, benefits etc
New retired members must have paid full subs or part time subs for at least 5 years and be permanently retired from work and not claiming Job Seekers Allowance etc
New retired members have all standard benefits and Funeral Care, but not other ancillary benefits
Funeral benefit is calculated on the member’s service on full subs up to becoming a retired member. For ex-Amicus members this accrues from 1/9/2009.
The Retired Members’ subs rate is £12.96 per year, but free for those with over 20 years membership.

There was a lengthy debate about the working of the legal system for ex-Amicus people, which many EC members were dissatisfied with. It was clarified that nothing in the process prevents full time officers keeping reps informed of the advice received, and that the officer is supposed to send letters to the member setting out the advice. A remit (motion) calling for an urgent review of legal practices with a view to implementing a standardised system across the union by the end of the year, with preference being given to the former TGWU system, was agreed (32 – 19) against the opposition of the Joint General Secretaries. I voted for this.
A pilot project marketing UNITE’s Personal Injury legal support to members had been very successful, with a large increase in members using the service. This benefits the members, as they keep all the compensation won, rather than a no-win-no-fee solicitor taking a big chunk. It also financially benefits the union. The project will be rolled out across the country.
The Education Department is running an increasing number of sector-specific courses, which can be arranged quickly through the National Officer.
As part of the membership cleanup, about 290,000 members who are more than 6 months in arrears with their subs are being excluded from membership during July. All have been sent several letters, which resulted in about 5000 rejoining. Branch secretaries will be notified which of their members have been excluded so that they can try to re-recruit them.
Paying membership continues to decline, standing at 1,251,978 by the end of Q2 (June 2010), which is a reduction of 30,765 since the end of 2009. The equivalent figures for the EEE sector are 15,897 (down from 17,749) and for the ITC sector, 12,660 (down from 13,561).
Following the first UNITE Policy Conference and special Rules Conference, the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) had produced a report with a variety of recommendations for the future. This will be discussed at the next EC meeting, once people have had time to consider them.
Checking of allocation of members to sectors has, as expected resulted in an additional seat for Construction on the next EC. The re-allocation was not yet reflected in the membership report.
Negotiations continue with the representatives of officers and staff over future pension provision.
Of the 265 VR applications received, 149 would be gone by the end of 2010, 29 were not yet decided and 87 had been declined. The cost of those leaving was £11.3m, corresponding to their annual salary bill of £7.4m.
The annual financial report for 2009 was accepted. The AR21 has now been filed with the Certification Officer (http://www.certoffice.org/links/pdf/795T_20092.PDF).
The EC had previously been unable to agree guidance on discipline of members. A new and much improved proposal was brought forward and agreed. I voted against as defeating it was the only way the EC would have the opportunity to vote on a few relatively minor but important amendments.
There were lots of complaints about the new phone system, both in terms of implementation problems, and the cost of ringing 0845 numbers from mobile phones. The Joint General Secretaries promised to resolve these.

International

The long-running USW strike at Vale Inco has been settled, with all members expected to be back in work by the end of July. Not all aims were achieved, but they did secure their final salary pensions.
UNITE workplaces, branches and committees are encouraged to look into organising and supporting showings of Oliver Stone’s “South of the Border” film which aims to counter some of the US propaganda about what is happening in Venezuela.
UNITE is supporting the next convoy of aid to Palestine from the UK and is looking for volunteers to join this.
There was a moving report from a delegation which had visited the Bangladeshi ship-breakers (mostly children) who work in the most appalling and dangerous conditions for poverty wages. Workers Uniting (the international grouping of UNITE and USW) is working to help them organise.
Los Mineros, a Mexican union, has affiliated to the USW as a precursor to merger with the USW and joining Workers Uniting. Los Mineros copper miners in Cananea have been on strike for three years.
Merger to create a new European Industrial Federation (EMF/EMCEF/ETUF-TCL) is progressing.

Other Resolutions (remits or motions) included:

A motion from the ITC NISC on developing the IT skills of UNITE members was agreed:

Digital inclusion and developing affordable IT skills

12.5m people in the UK including a significant number of Unite members are currently Internet non-users, particularly although not exclusively concentrated amongst older people, low income households and families, unemployed people, those with no formal qualifications and people with disabilities.

Such workers are seriously disadvantaged by lack of access to affordable introductory ICT user skills training, which is a major cause of exclusion from job opportunities and full participation in today’s digital economy and society as for example 92% of all job vacancies now require IT user skills. In addition, Unite has amongst its membership a considerable number of people who do not use computers in their work; whose use of computers and/or other IT equipment is limited by the requirements of their job, whose work is highly automated and repetitive; and is often restricted to inputting data in prescribed ways.

The IT and Communications National Industrial Sector Committee calls on the Unite EC to support the following with the aim of reducing the number of members who are unable to use the Internet and to develop IT user skills as an essential element of skills for life and employment.:

1. investigate the lack of IT user and Internet skills amongst Unite members

2. arrange for the Unite Lifelong Learning team to work with all relevant Sectors and Regions to develop initiatives and projects to encourage and support the development of IT user and Internet skills for all members.

3. work with Race Online 2012 established by the last Labour government and continued by the present coalition government in support of targeting the 4m socially excluded adults who have never been online, particularly amongst Unite members

4. use all available Unite structures and communications including Union Learning Representatives in support of the above

5. promote best practice and wider use of IT in support of Unite organising and general campaigns

A motion from the ITC NISC protesting at a General Secretary candidate claiming that UNITE engaged in “adventurism and phoney militancy” was noted, and candidates were advised to be careful and conscious of their comments:

The IT and Communications National Industrial Sector Committee condemns the statement in the letter to members from the General Secretary candidate ‘Les Bayliss’ attacking “An end to adventurism and phoney militancy that alienates our members and the general public”.

This NISC knows of no occasion where Unite the Union has backed industrial action or industrial action ballots unless the members concerned have requested it.

Backing the members who wish to take industrial action or to ballot for industrial action is not adventurism or phoney militancy – it is democracy and represents the members having control over the union.

We are also concerned that this statement came out during the BA cabin crew dispute and could be interpreted as an attack on our Cabin Crew members. Yet the union in BA has already offered savings to BA in millions of pounds. Again this cannot be described as adventurism.

We agree to forward this motion to the Unite Executive Council.

A motion from the ITC NISC calling for publicity of the threat posed in the CBI report “Making Britain the Place to Work” was agreed.

This IT & Communications National Industrial Sector Committee calls upon the Unite Executive Council to publicise the threat posed in the CBI Report Making Britain the Place to Work to Information Technology and Communications workers in particular concerning the CBI’s demands to the Government over amending the TUPE laws. The employers’ demands will lead to job loss, insecurity and a reduction in the terms and conditions of employment of our members and potential members.

This also represents a significant opportunity to point out to the many workers in the industry that are not currently union members that TUPE if weakened will mean only union organisation can defend and protect existing terms and conditions of employment.

A motion from the ITC NISC calling for a campaign about on-call and standby time and the Working Time Regulations was agreed.

This IT & Communications National Industrial Sector Committee calls upon the Unite Executive Council to give consideration to a national campaign calling for on-call/standby time to be included in the WT Regulations. To publicise members rights in these areas and to highlight the risks to health of being permanently on call.

A motion on administration of hardship / dispute fund requests was agreed, but it was made clear this was not intended to delay or hinder requests for support.
A motion calling for a single UNITE representative credential was agreed.
Motions on two important aspects of employment law “third party pressure” and “some other substantial reason” for dismissal, were remitted for further consideration and a report back to the next EC.
A motion calling for the cancellation of Haiti’s foreign debt was agreed.
A motion calling for a policy on communication within UNITE to include those without email was agreed, but on the understanding that we want to enable as many branches and reps to use electronic communication as possible.
In response to a motion calling for regular meetings of the Executive Officers (JGS etc) with Regional Secretaries, it was agreed to improve communication (including of EC decisions) but felt that a regular face-to-face meeting would be too cumbersome and expensive in time and money.
A proposal to continue the 2% levy on branches for the BA strike, to build up a dispute fund, will be fed into the discussions on branches.
A motion on defending pensions, in particular during TUPE transfers, was agreed.
A motion supporting the Morning Star newspaper was agreed.
A motion highlighting the positive Demir and Baykara cases at the European Court of Human Rights, which can be exploited to challenge some of our unacceptably poor employment legislation was agreed.
A motion supporting Refugee and Migrant Justice was agreed.
A motion calling for senior branch officers to have access to branch membership information in a useful electronic format was agreed.
In response to a motion on ensuring all professional driver members have access to the Driver Care benefit, a report was promised to the next EC and it was indicated that everyone supported it in principle.
A motion for a campaign to oppose the change from RPI to CPI in pension indexation was agreed.
A motion on child slavery in the cocoa industry was agreed.
A motion on processing of membership forms was remitted for further consideration.
A motion calling for a daily “green tax” on HGVs based overseas was agreed.

Pensions onslaught continues - but so does resistance

2010-07-20T21:32:00.004+01:00

The onslaught on pensions in the IT & Comms sector continues, with the announcement that the BBC wants to slash pension provision. Their particular wheeze is to break the link to final salary by capping the increase in pay which can be pensionable - this is particularly nasty for younger members and in periods of high inflation.

It's good to see a strong union response, with the five BBC unions (UNITE, NUJ, BECTU, Equity and the Musicians Union) planning to coordinate strike ballots unless the proposals are withdrawn. The recent UNITE IT & Communications National Sector Committee meeting discussed the situation and agreed to send our members at the BBC a message of support.

The government is busy attacking pensions in both public and private sector. The Minister of State for Pensions, Steve Webb MP, announced the intention to change from using the Retail Price Index (RPI) to using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the measure of inflation for regulating occupational pensions.

This nasty announcement would affect millions of people - current pensioners, people who were previously in final salary pension schemes and those still contributing. Professional Pensions reports one consultancy estimating that 12 million people would have their pensions reduced.

A Pensions Age report quotes TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber:

"Over someone's whole retirement this will add up to a significant loss. CPI is less than RPI in most years because it excludes housing and council tax costs. But even if all other things are equal CPI is on average half a per cent less than RPI because it is calculated in a different way. If pensions in payment today had been linked to CPI instead of RPI for the last twenty years they would now be 14 per cent lower."

For those whose DB schemes close, and who prematurely become "deferred" pensioners, the impact could be a lot worse.

Everyone should be bombarding their MPs with complaints about this raid on our pensions. We should all be supporting any members in the public or private sector who fight to defend a final salary pension scheme. We should all be joining the Right To Work demonstration against the cuts at the Tory Party conference on 3rd October.

Updated UNITE Rulebook

2010-07-20T17:22:00.003+01:00

The UNITE rulebook, as updated by the special Rules Conference on 4th June 2010, is now available for download from the "structure" section of the union web site.

Don't be fooled by the incorrect front-page, this is the updated version, with changes in Rule 14 to allow the election of the new UNITE Executive Council.

This bit of the web site is also useful in that includes the "EC Guidance" issued over the interpretation and implementation of various rules, including Standing Orders for various lay committees.

Decisions of UNITE Policy Conference 2010

2010-07-20T17:20:00.001+01:00

A full report of the decisions of the UNITE 2010 Policy Conference has now been posted on the union web site.

Will the Guardian and Observer offshore work to India?

2010-07-18T11:44:00.004+01:00

UNITE members working in IT at Guardian News & Media are worried that the company plans to outsource their work and move it offshore, resulting in redundancies.

They've set up a "Unite against offshoring at the Guardian and Observer" group on Facebook - please join.

Do management really think this fits with their brand? Is it what their customers want? Let's ensure the members at GNM know they have broad support, and the management know how Guardian & Observer readers feel.

Joint General Secretaries' report from the May and JuneUNITE EC meetings

2010-07-11T10:59:00.001+01:00

The official summary (not minutes) from the May and June 2010 Executive Council meetings is now out, and I will send it to UNITE members on request.

Why and How to nominate for UNITE General Secretary

2010-07-07T22:04:00.003+01:00

Why nominate?

1. Candidates need at least 50 nominations to appear on the ballot paper
2. Nominations are a good way of involving members in a discussion about the future direction of the union and increasing the turnout in the election
3. Details of nominations will be printed with the ballot paper and on the union web site, so the more nominations the more credible a candidate will seem to voters
4. Members in a workplace or branch are likely to be influenced when voting by a nomination from their own branch or workplace

So the more nominations the better!

Who can nominate, when and how?

Every workplace and every branch (including GPM chapels) can make one nomination. There are strict rules about nominations, so make sure you follow them carefully. Here’s how:

1) Get your nomination paperwork

Branch secretaries should have received nomination papers by post. Workplace Reps need to request nomination papers from their Regional Secretary. If you don’t know your Regional Secretary, you should be able to find their details here: http://www.unitetheunion.com/regions.aspx.

Only Workplace Reps registered on the union database will be able to obtain nomination forms.

If you don’t receive your nomination paper, please contact Simon Hearn, Returning Officer, Electoral Reform Services, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW. Alternatively you can contact him by email (returningofficer@electoralreform.co.uk). If you still have problems, please let Jerry know too (jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk)

2) Call your nomination meeting

Your nomination meeting must be held during July or August 2010 and must be open to all members in the branch, chapel or workplace.

If your branch meeting details are held on the central register on the union web site (http://www.unitetheunion.com/pdf/004-Branch%20meeting%20details%20held%20by%20the%20Union%27s%20administration-v2.pdf) and you do it at the normal time and place then the rules say you don’t need to specially notify members of the nomination meeting. However, it is good practice to make sure members know that the meeting will be discussing this, so everyone has the opportunity to come along and have their say.

For all other nominating meetings (workplace meetings, branch meetings not on the register, changed branch meetings), then you must give at least seven days notice to members using the notice in appendix 1 of the guidelines.

3) In your nomination meeting

Make sure you take a note of the number of members in attendance, as you will need this for the nomination form. The quorum (minimum number of attendees) for a branch meeting is 5.

As no union resources can be used to support candidates’ campaigns, it’s a good idea to organise a collection amongst the members at the nomination meeting. For more details, see the “campaigning” section below.

4) Filling in the nomination form

You need to include the following information on a branch or chapel nomination form:

The nominee’s name: Mr J R Hicks

The nominee’s membership number: 31247909

The date of the branch or chapel meeting at which the nomination was made

The Branch Chair/chapel officer’s name and signature

The Branch Chair/chapel officer’s membership number

The Branch Secretary name and signature

The Branch Secretary membership number

The numbers of members in attendance

You need to include the following information on a workplace nomination form:

The nominee’s name: Mr J R Hicks

The nominee’s membership number: 31247909

The date of the workplace meeting at which the nomination was made

The workplace Rep’s name and signature

The workplace Rep’s membership number

The name and signature of the person who chaired the workplace meeting

The membership number of the person who chaired the workplace meeting

The number of members in attendance

In order that your nominee can contact you after nomination, it is important to complete the “Data Protection Authority Permission” section of the form.

5) Send off your nomination

Double-check that the nomination form is properly filled in. If you issued a special notice of the nominating meeting (see 2 above), then you must attach that to your nomination form.

Keep a photocopy of all the nomination paperwork, in case of complaints later.

An pre-paid addressed envelope should be provided with your nomination form. Use it.

Your nomination must be received by the Returning Officer by 12:00 on 6th September 2010.

The Returning Officer will acknowledge all nominations, so if you haven’t heard from him after a reasonable time, get in touch to check what’s happened: Simon Hearn, Returning Officer, Electoral Reform Services, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW. Alternatively you can contact him by email (returningofficer@electoralreform.co.uk). If you still have problems, please let Jerry know too (jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk).

Campaigning

Jerry posts information on his web site: http://jerryhicks.wordpress.com/. Contact Jerry on 07817 827 912 or jerryhick4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk for leaflets, stickers etc.

Union resources (including membership records) cannot be used for campaigning. The distribution of campaign material in the workplace or on notice-boards is allowed. If union bodies produce their own materials in support of a candidate, they must not use the union’s logo or corporate identity.

Apart from one communication that will be centrally issued, nobody should directly mail, e-mail, telephone, text, or use any other forms of communication to contact members at home in connection with the election, unless the members have themselves signed up to receive such communications from a candidate’s campaign.

Donations are only allowed from individuals. Send donations, payable to “JerryHicks4GS” to Jerry Hicks, 10 York Road, Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5QE.

More information

The full rules and guidelines for the election are on the UNITE web site:http://www.unitetheunion.com/PDF/001-ballot-Guidelines.pdf

UNITE General Secretary election

2010-06-27T10:04:00.005+01:00

This week (from 1 July) UNITE branches and workplaces can start to meet to decide who to nominate for the election for UNITE General Secretary.

This is clearly a very important election for members, because the General Secretary has a very significant influence over what sort of union we will have. The result is also important well beyond our ranks, because UNITE is such a significant organisation in Britain and Ireland - we are already seeing the media seeking to influence the process by carrying articles of widely varying accuracy.

The winner of the election will take office as "General Secretary Designate" when Derek Simpson retires in December 2010. They will then work alongside Tony Woodley, the remaining Joint General Secretary, until he retires in December 2011, at which point they become the sole UNITE General Secretary.

While opinion may be divided about the future direction of UNITE and who should lead it, most activists feel that a single General Secretary can't come soon enough.

The Executive Council (EC) held a special meeting on 18th June to agree the arrangements for the election. This was called at short notice and I was on holiday so unable to attend. However, the output of the meeting is captured in the revised timetable, rules and guidelines for the ballot which are published on the union's web site, which now has a dedicated section for the GS election. It is well worth every activist reading this material, so that they are clear what they need to do (and what they must not do). The arrangements are different to anything in either the former Amicus or TGWU.

Every branch and workplace is entitled to make a nomination, and I would encourage all to do so. This is a good way of engaging members in the election process and increasing turnout. As the nominating bodies will be published on the web site and printed with the ballot paper, nominations will also have a wider influence on the result.

The field of known candidates has now narrowed to four, with the withdrawal of Paul Reuter and Simon Dubbins. The four are:

Jerry Hicks (jerryhicks.wordpress.com), a former convenor from Rolls Royce Bristol who was victimised for leading successful unofficial action in defence of a member, and who came second in the last Amicus JGS election
Len McCluskey (www.unite4len.com), an Assistant General Secretary, backed by the United Left and by Tony Woodley
Gail Cartmail (www.gailcartmail.com), an Assistant General Secretary
Les Bayliss (www.les4gs.org), an Assistant General Secretary, backed by the right-wing "Workers Uniting" group and by Derek Simpson

I am encouraging nominations for Jerry Hicks. To do this you need his name (Mr J R Hicks) and membership number (31247909).

Branches should receive nomination forms by post. Reps will need to request a form from their Regional Secretary, but note that it is one nomination per workplace, not per rep (as it was in Amicus).

Jerry's campaign inevitably lacks the polish and professionalism available to the Assistant General Secretaries who are standing, but the very fact that he doesn't hold high office means his campaign can raise important issues in ways that the others won't. It's quite clear that the courts are making more and more absurd judgements to tighten up the anti-union laws and thwart the democratic decisions of our members. The CBI is even lobbying the Con-Dem government for new and worse legislation. Groups of members are increasingly finding themselves in the position where they can only defend their legitimate interests by taking action in defiance of the anti-union laws. Historically, this has been the main way that such unjust laws have been overturned, rather than by just lobbying government. Jerry has been there and (literally) has the t-shirt. Of course that's not to say that every group of members either needs to or wants to defy the anti-union laws - but how the union raises the confidence of members and supports them is an increasingly important question.

We face the biggest economic crisis in most of our lifetimes, and governments and employers clearly intend to try to make working people pay for a crisis triggered by the greed and irresponsibility of the rich and powerful. Given that most members would feel that the union hasn't been effective enough in protecting and advancing their interests in the recent past, it is clear that significant change is required to match up to the period ahead. Jerry, coming from outside the union "establishment", is best placed to do this.

Jerry's commitment to the grass-roots is reflected in his support for officials being elected by the members, rather than appointed from above, and to take a worker's wage rather than the inflated GS package.

So what of the other candidates?

Len McCluskey is a decent left official, with the support of many good activists. There is much to agree with in his material (including the excellent web site), though the content tends to be rather vague, bland and general, probably as a result of the position he already holds and of trying not to put anyone off.

I can't work out from her material what Gail Cartmail actually stands for, though she is clearly aiming to pick up votes by not being in either of the main UNITE factions and as the only female candidate. Her campaign seems more about herself than what she would do for the union and its members.

Les Bayliss seems determined to lose the election by irritating many activists with a steady stream of unwanted "spam" email, as he has somehow obtained their email addresses. The content is also deeply worrying. Les has made comments which have been widely interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on our BA Cabin Crew members, just when they need all our support against a bullying and vindictive employer. He seems to want to resurrect the worst aspects of Amicus - the stifling top-down centralised control, the contempt for some parts of our membership, the half-hearted support for members who decide they need to resist their employer and the prioritisation of support for New Labour over support for members.

Whatever your own views - get involved and get members involved. Whoever wins the election, UNITE will be stronger if more members are actively involved and taking an interest.

UNITE Special Rules Conference decision

2010-06-04T11:00:00.004+01:00

The UNITE Special Rules Conference has been debating the rule amendment from the Executive Council to allow the election of the next UNITE Executive Council. The proposal read:

Rule 14.3
Delete introductory paragraph and clauses 14.3.1 and 14.3.2 and replace with

14.3.1 Election to the Executive Council shall be on the basis of electoral constituencies determined by the Executive Council. These constituencies shall ensure the fair and equitable representation of the working membership and shall include representatives to be elected from the Regions as constituted in the union on the basis of each region with fewer than 150,000 members on the date at which the membership figures are struck having two representatives, each region with 150,000 members but fewer than 200,000 members having three, and each region with 200,000 members or more having four; and shall include representatives from teh national industrial sectors, on the basis of each sector with fewer than 50,000 members at the date at which the members at the date at which the membership figure is struck having one representative, each sector with 50,000 but fewer than 100,000 members having two and each sector with 100,000 members or more having three. The allocation of constituencies based on this formula will be automatically applied to all Executive Council elections henceforward unless the formula is varied by the Rules Conference.

The conference agreed the proposal, with 124 in favour, 92 against, and 2 abstaining.

The rest of rule 14.3 stands as it is, including clauses relating to national seats for women members and BAEM members, and to the designation of seats to ensure minimum proportionality for women and BAEM members.

Based on the membership figures in March, the Executive Council would expect that this would result in an executive of 64 people including at least 17 women and at least 4 BAEM members. It would mean one seat for "IT & Communications" and one seat for "Electrical Engineering & Electronics". The intention is to have one national seat for women and one national seat for BAEM in addition to designated seats within some of the larger constituencies. I gave more detail of the breakdown in my report of the March 2010 Executive Council meeting.

UNITE wants a real contest for Labour leader

2010-06-03T10:46:00.003+01:00

The UNITE Policy Conference has just overturned the Executive Council to pass an Emergency Motion on the Labour Party Leadership, which reads:

Sadly our Party, the Party of working people is now in opposition after losing the General Election in May. One of the big issues used by both the Tory Party and the Media that support them is that our then Party leader had not been elected as either the leader of our country or even as leader of our Party.

We must never again allow the Labour Party to be in the position of being portrayed as undemocratic or secretive. We must ensure that there is an open and transparent debate encompassing all the political views from within the party. To do this we must ensure that all declared candidates for the Labour Party leadership receive sufficient nominations to be on the ballot paper so that the next leader can be chosen by all those who are entitled to have a say in the future of the Labour Party and not just by 255 people in Westminster.

Conference call on the EC to request that members of Unite's Parliamentary Group use their nominations in a way that ensures all candidates receive sufficient nominations. To be able to stand in the leadership election and thus allow the members and affiliates a say in the democratic election of the next Party leader.

This was a lively debate, with delegates keen to avoid a restricted contest between what one speaker called "the Milliballs" which didn't allow for a real debate or the lessons of the defeat of New Labour to be learned.

At a fringe meeting last night, John McDonnell MP, the left candidate, said that unions such as UNITE asking MPs to use their nominations to ensure a real contest was his only realistic chance of getting on the ballot paper, given the composition of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

UNITE Policy Conference

2010-06-01T22:53:00.003+01:00

There's lots of information about the conference appearing on the UNITE web site, and I won't attempt to rival or duplicate that, but rather provide a few updates from a sectoral slant.

The delegations from both the Electrical Engineering and Electronics (EEE) and IT & Communications (ITC) sectors were small, making me worry that some of our Regional Industrial Sector Committees (RISCs) are not working effectively.

Conference agreed motion 11 from the Coventry Area Activists Committee dealt with the need for investment and R&D, highlighting the decision of Ericsson to close its Ansty site with the loss of 700 jobs.

Motion 35 from the EEE National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) promoted the idea of a European Minimum Wage policy, building on the national minimum wages in many countries, and helping prevent the "race to the bottom" where countries try to undercut each other. The motion was agreed (despite nobody standing up to propose it).

The text of all the motions is on the web site, but there is a sentence missing from the end of motion 35.

Composite 8 comprised motion 42 from the ITC NISC and motions 43 from the East Midlands ITC RISC, both of which proposed affiliation to the Right To Work campaign. Since the motions were submitted, the Executive Council had decided that it didn't want Policy Conference to decide on any affiliations at all (which seems wrong to me personally) and would oppose any motion that included affiliation. The movers decided that rather than removing the bits about affiliation, which was really the point of the motions, they would remit it for the EC to consider.

Conference agreed motion 59 from London & Eastern ITC RISC, which called for a positive right to strike, noting the difference between European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgements supporting the right to strike and contrasting them with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings which put free trade ahead of human rights.

Many members in EEE may be affected by the decision to try to find a way to revive the "drive for 35" campaign for a shorter working week through the Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions. The campaign in the 1980s had successfully reduced the working week for large numbers of workers in engineering and beyond. The levy which formed a vital part of the campaign had left a fund of many millions of pounds, which is now almost impossible to access. Conference agreed an Executive Council (EC) statement that (subject to legalities) should allow the fund to be used and the campaign revived. Conference was given a commitment that the EC will be kept regularly updated on progress.

Another highlight was a packed fringe meeting with BA Cabin Crew, standing up against their bullying boss Willie Walsh in a campaign that is vital for working people in every industry.

UNITE response to Israeli attack on aid convoy

2010-06-01T22:24:00.006+01:00

Support for the Palestinian cause has been growing in recent years.

Firstly, as millions of people protested against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they learned more about the damage that US and UK foreign policy has been causing the Middle East, and the central part that Israel has played as the USA's belligerent proxy in the region.

Secondly, we saw the barbaric attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, which few could defend as "proportionate" to any grievance that Israel could point to.
This week, the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla to Gaza has awoken many more people to the terrible injustices facing Palestinians. Exactly what level of violence would have been a "proportionate" a response to people bringing desperately needed humanitarian aid?

Last night a lot of the delegates to the UNITE and UCU conferences, which were taking place in Manchester, joined a huge and angry protest outside the BBC, which has become a focal point because of its biased coverage of Middle Eastern affairs. One protester managed to hoist a Palestinian flag on a flagpole high on the building:

This morning, UNITE conference agreed an Emergency Motion:

Conference condemns the hostile unprovoked attack in international waters by the Israeli forces on the humanitarian convoy which was on its way to aid and relieve the suffering of the people of Gaza.

We urge this Conference to do everything in its power to lobby the UK Government, Labour Party, TUC, European Parliament and all other relevant organisations to outright condemn the actions of Israel and lobby for immediate sanctions.

We ask this Conference to send a letter of support to the Palestinian trade union movement (PGFTU) to let them know that we stand shoulder to shoulder, side by side in their struggle to free themselves from oppression.

While only a few years ago raising the plight of the Palestinians was controversial, there now seems to be an overwhelming consensus that we need a mass solidarity movement on the scale of Anti-Apartheid to stop the UK and US governments propping up this racist and violent state.

At the Palestine Solidarity Campaign fringe meeting today, I heard three UNITE Executive Council members talk about their experiences having visited Palestine earlier in the year. What brings the issues home most often isn't the numbers dead or other horrific statistics, but the every-day harassment and oppression that Palestinians have to put up with. The delegates described in a very matter-of-fact way some of the examples they had seen with their own eyes. It was both moving and an unanswerable case for action.

Motions are a start, but a mass movement needs many individuals and groups to take practical steps. What can you do in your workplace or community? Can you join the national demonstration on Saturday?

Meat industry organising successes

2010-05-29T10:53:00.001+01:00

A very sympathetic report in the Guardian about the meat industry, one of the best success stories of UNITE's organising strategy.

Union wage premium rises to 15.3%

2010-05-29T10:29:00.003+01:00

It's worth taking a look at the latest official statistics on union membership. These are produced annually, based on the fourth quarter Labour Force Survey, so the latest report is based on the survey in the last quarter of 2009.

The report includes the 2009 figures for the UK "union wage premium", which is defined as the percentage difference in average hourly earnings of union members with non-members.

Across the UK as a whole, the union wage premium stood at 15.3%, with union members earning an average of £13.60 per hour, compared to £11.80 for non-members, a difference of £1.80 per hour. In just over six hours, this is enough to pay UNITE subs for a whole month!

In the public sector, where 56.6% of employees are union members, union members on average earned 19% more per hour than non-members.

In the private sector, where 15.1% of employees are union members, union members on average earned 5.1% more than non-members.

The fact that the premium exists is a good indicator of the value of union membership. The fact that the premium is so much higher where the proportion of employers who are in the union is higher is a good indicator of the value of strong union organisation.

It is also good to see that the union wage premium rose sharply in both public and private sectors last year, after a fall in 2008 as the recession bit.

UNITE General Secretary election timetable

2010-05-27T07:17:00.001+01:00

UNITE GENERAL SECRETARY ELECTION TIMETABLE

1 June - Despatch of Nomination Forms by Independent Scrutineer (ERS)
July/August – Nominations
5 September – Last date for Receipt of nominations by Independent Scrutineer
15 September – Last date for Acceptance and Return of Election Address to Returning Officer
Week commencing 1 October (sic) – Voting papers espatched by Independent Scrutineer
29 October at Noon – Last date for Voting Paper to be returned to the Independent Scrutineer
30 – 31 October – Count
1 November – Result
1 December - Declaration

British Airways strike

2010-05-27T07:00:00.004+01:00

We need to do more than applaud the determination of UNITE members at what is becoming known as "Brutish Airways" to stand up to their bullying management.

The media, courts, political establishment and many other employers have rallied around Willie Walsh's attempt to break union organisation at BA. They hope that a defeat for UNITE can make it easier to push through cuts and their wider agenda of making working people pay for an economic crisis that was triggered by the greed and irresponsibility of the rich and powerful.

There's a useful article about the strike on the United Left web site.

Donations to the campaign fund can be sent to:
BASSA 2000 Strike Fund c/o 29 Sunmead Road, Lower Sudbury-on Thames, Middlesex TW16 6PF

Motions for UNITE Policy Conference

2010-05-27T06:56:00.002+01:00

The motions for next week's first UNITE Policy Conference are now available on the union web site. Note that these are the original motions, many of which will be combined into "Composite" motions to speed up the business of conference. Conference will also consider the Executive Council (EC) report and any EC statements.

Why no right to strike?

2010-05-01T00:39:00.003+01:00

Workers' rights are noticeably absent from the debate about the General Election, with all three main parties competing over their plans to cut public spending.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats talk of plans to further restrict the right to strike, but while Labour doesn't go this far, it has in practice presided over a significant tightening of the anti-union laws.

There's an interesting article about the impact of the recent court judgments against UNITE and RMT on the Solidarity magazine web site.

Joint General Secretaries' report from the March UNITE EC meeting

2010-05-01T00:36:00.002+01:00

The report from the March UNITE Executive Council meeting is out and I will forward it to UNITE members on request.

Schedule for UNITE constitutional committees

2010-04-28T22:45:00.002+01:00

In order to ensure that meetings don't clash, there are "windows" within which different sorts of meetings are supposed to take place:

REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL SECTOR COMMITTEES; AREA ACTIVISTS COMMITTEES; REGIONAL EQUALITIES COMMITTEES

REGIONAL

COMMITTEES

NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL SECTOR COMMITTEES and

NATIONAL EQUALITIES COMMITTEES

Between

1^st Quarter

December 2009 – early January 2010

Jan 25 - 29

Jan 4 to 19

2^nd Quarter

Late February – end March 2010

April 12 – 16

April 19 – 30

3^rd Quarter

June 2010

19 – 23 July

5 – 15 July

4^th Quarter

September 2010

25 – 29 October

11 – 22 October

Report of UNITE Executive Council meeting, 29-31 March 2010

2010-04-25T22:37:00.001+01:00

Ian Allinson’s report on UNITE Executive Council 29-31^st March 2010

N.B. This is not an official Unite Report; it is based on my notes of the EC meeting. I believe it to be a fair account of some of the key points and decisions taken (where I give my views about them I make this clear), and I will willingly correct any errors upon receipt of official notification from Unite.

This report is far from exhaustive – many more issues were debated and decisions taken over the three days.

Ian Allinson
UNITE EC member, Electrical Engineering, Electronics & IT
www.iansunitesite.org.uk

Industrial

The EC met during the British Airways Cabin Crew strike. There was recognition that this was one of the most important disputes for many years. In the context of the recession, employers are trying to make working people pay for a crisis we did not create. Willie Walsh, the BA boss, has gone out of his way to seek confrontation with UNITE, trying to break the union. Many employers, the media and politicians have rallied round Walsh to attack our members. The outcome will affect the confidence of employers and workers alike, across the economy as a whole. We all have a stake in it.

EC members were keen to provide support and solidarity to the members at BA, and many of us wanted to visit Heathrow to speak to the strikers directly to find out what they wanted us to do. In the end, a few hundred strikers came to London by bus, which was undoubtedly the high-point of the meeting. It was inspiring to see such an enthusiastic, determined and diverse group of members – it must have been the noisiest event at Congress House for some years!

I missed part of the EC debate about the BA dispute, thanks to an important phone conference about the pensions situation at Fujitsu, where I work. It would probably be unhelpful to the strikers to document some of the comments made, so I am not including them in this report.

There was a lot of anger about the public statements made by ministers, attacking our members without understanding the issues, and there was discussion about the politicisation of this industrial dispute. Derek Simpson argued that the dispute was crucial, but that the General Election was even more crucial, because if the Tories got in these kind of attacks would be commonplace.

Taking advantage of the way the work of cabin crew is organised, BA is docking pay for strikers for their whole period of their “route”, not just the days they are on strike, so the financial burden on the strikers is even more than usual. They are also deducting pay from people off sick. It had already been agreed to provide Dispute Benefit for all the days for which pay was docked. UNITE is asking members for information about the deductions and investigating whether legal action can be taken to recover the money.

Recognising the strategic importance of the dispute for the union, the EC agreed to the unique approach of a compulsory levy on all UNITE branches of 2% of subs for the next quarter, in support of the members at BA. This is expected to raise around £700,000. It was agreed that branches would also be invited to contribute more. [NOTE: the levy was widely mis-reported as a levy on union members, not on union branches. It has since been clarified how this will be taken, given the differing funding regimes for ex-Amicus and ex-TGWU branches. Ex-TGWU branches will effectively receive 8% of subs instead of 10% of subs. Ex-Amicus branches will still receive 3%, with the levy being taken out of the central funds used to help branches that need extra money.]

In addition to the financial help, an EC member from Civil Air Transport reported that they were getting help from the Legal Department and the International Department.

I asked why there were not proposals table as promised in response to the Pensions and TUPE remits (motions or resolutions) from the ITC sector agreed at the January EC meeting (http://www.iansunitesite.org.uk/2010/04/unite-executive-council-january-2010.html). The EC was told that discussions were ongoing with the relevant departments and that an update would be provided to the next EC meeting. Ideas being discussed on pensions included including more pensions material into officer training, using the web more, getting more support from the Research Department, and setting up a working party involving people from Campaigns, Education and occasionally the Political Department. It is the Legal Department looking at the pensions remit.
There was an update on the Strategy for Growth and a discussion on the targets for 2010.

The “Computer Services” campaign is still identified as an “assisted” one. In addition, it is possible that some workplaces in the IT & Comms sector could be regional targets for resourced organising campaigns.

There was a detailed report of the (very) substantial pay rises achieved for agency workers in the meat industry to bring them into line with direct employees. There was also a copy of a framework agreement that UNITE is using in the meat industry to help agency workers. This looks as though it could be useful if adapted for other sectors.

Jimmy Kelly, having taken over the 100% campaign (strengthening organisation in workplaces with existing recognition agreements) following the death of Mike Brider, is aiming to visit all regions by the end of April. A web site for the campaign should be in place soon. Jimmy stressed that the campaign will only work with support from lay members, and urged every committee of the union to demand reports on the campaign.

It was agreed that the Joint General Secretaries would again write to Hugh Scullion, the UNITE member who leads the Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions (CSEU), to reiterate the invitation to attend the UNITE EC to discuss the controversial “Memorandum Of Understanding” about terms and conditions.

It was agreed that Doug Collins, who is involved in the CSEU’s “drive for 35” fund, would report to the next EC meeting. A resolution was agreed committing the union to “using the fund for its original intention, the reduction in working hours, which will in turn create much needed jobs at a time of rising unemployment”. This is a very important clarification of UNITE’s position, as there had previously been interminable discussions about using the fund for other purposes.

Many of the Employment Tribunal applications over blacklisting have failed because members need details of all the jobs they applied for, which few will have over the decades the blacklist has been operating. It was agreed to get a legal opinion on the possibility of pursuing cases through other routes, such as under the Data Protection Act.
The Joint General Secretaries’ report included sections on the “IT and Communications” and “Electrical Engineering and Electronics” sectors:

IT and Communications

Fujitsu

Following 10 separate days of strike action in December, January and February, Unite suspended the strike action on jobs, pay and pensions planned for 8 and 10 February in return for the company deferring compulsory redundancies to 26 February and agreeing to talks at ACAS on the day before the Fujitsu UK Chief Executive was due to meet with MPs

A number of Parliamentary activities were initiated, including a lobby of MPs and a meeting with members of the Unite Parliamentary Group, a meeting between the Fujitsu CEO and Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis, and a further meeting between the Fujitsu CEO and members of the Unite Parliamentary Group.

Following a number of meetings under the auspices of ACAS, ACAS tabled a set of proposals which the Unite Combine Committee agreed to recommend to our membership as a basis for settling the dispute over jobs, pay and pensions.

Although the ACAS proposals agreeable to the company did not go as far as we were seeking, since the dispute began, in addition to the ACAS proposals, the following has resulted:

· Jobs – the number of possible forced redundancies has been reduced from 1200 to less than 30 with an extension of employment until 26 March at least

· Pensions - extension of consultation period from October until at least 5 March 2010, 5% offered as compensation for change to defined contribution (DC) scheme, extra year continuation of final salary pension scheme until March 2011 at the earliest, and confirmation that the DC scheme is contractual for both new and existing members

· Pay - commitment to discuss open pay and benefit scales as part of transparency talks with Unite and recognition of Unite’s aspiration for minimum earnings of £13.500, introduction of a minimum basic salary of £12,000 applicable from 1 March 2010 and a review of this on an annual basis starting on 1 April 2010

Members voted by 4 to 1 in a 72% turnout to accept the ACAS brokered proposals and end the dispute.

The company has announced a further 344 jobs to be cut in the period February – April 2010 as part of its continual series of attacks on the global workforce in general and the UK and rest of Europe in particular. It is worth noting – and hardly coincidental - that HP has recently lost a large contract to Fujitsu Services for the supply of desktop IT services to DWP, and is also towards the bottom of a customer satisfaction index.

Ericsson

Consultation meetings with the company on the proposed closure of the Ansty/Coventry site are continuing at local level. At the time of writing this report we have put alternative proposals to the company to keep the site open and an offer of enhanced compensation terms from the company in respect of site closure is being considered by our membership.

BBC

A joint pay claim with BECTU and NUJ has been submitted to the BBC and negotiations are awaited.

Electrical Engineering and Electronics

Strategy for Growth

Following site reports on membership density across their companies, the EE&E National Industrial Sector Committee discussed 100 percent recruitment. The following companies reported gaps in their membership:

Ratheon Systems – predominately in staff areas amongst software engineers.

Cummins Technologies – reported a 100 percent on the shop floor but approximately 50 percent in staff areas.

Areva Cable Jointing – reported that following an intensive recruitment and organising campaign the membership at the Warrington site increased from a handful to nearly 100 percent of the cable jointers and basic pay had increased by 18 percent.

Areva TD Stafford – it was reported that there was a high level of membership in the manufacturing areas but these were a minority of employees across T&D. Currently the membership was estimated at approximately 35 percent with low level membership mainly in technical and staff areas.

It was agreed to target Areva T&D Stafford and the National Officer reported that he would be meeting the shop stewards progress this.

Areva/Alstom/Schneider

Following the French Government announcing the sale of Areva TD to Alstom and Schneider, meetings have taken place to ensure security of employment. To date, assurances have been given that there would be no structural changes to the Areva sites across Europe.

Following meetings in Brussels with representatives from all three companies, a similar security of employment agreement is being sort with Alstom and Schneider.

In the UK, we are also raised additional items with the company relating to job security and pensions.

Epsilon

Following a successful recruitment campaign achieving over 50 percent of the membership at Epsilon, an application to the CAC was submitted. Discussions took place with the company on a voluntary recognition agreement and after several delays an agreement was reached on 1^st February 2010.

We have now elected representatives drawn form across the country to sit on the national negotiating committee, health and safety committee and the information and consultation committee.

Epsilon employs fixed wire electricians and Portable Appliance Test Engineers.

Prysmian Energy Cables

Unite is supporting the launch of the Approved Cables Initiative which is aiming to improved standards and regulate the medium and high voltage cable industry. Currently, the UK market can be subjected to inferior and, in some circumstances, dangerous imports which are not subjected to the high standards produced by UK manufacturers.

I gave an update on the situation at Fujitsu, with further progress on jobs and pensions.

I raised the case of some members in the ITC sector who had been TUPE transferred from one company to another, which had not been financially viable. UNITE had had the case looked at by a QC already, but the members were not satisfied with the current situation. The head of legal agreed to ensure the individuals were contacted promptly to clarify the situation.

Internal

The “Administrative, Professional, Managerial and Supervisory” sector (APMS) has not been functioning well, and the EC agreed to disband it and reallocate the existing membership. The original document included a recommendation that the CMA membership be placed in the IT & Communications sector. I pointed out that there had been no discussion about this with the sector, and that the last time this had been suggested, there had been a strong view from the Electrical Engineering, Electronics & IT sector (as it was at the time) that this was a bad idea. Reps had felt that there was no industrial logic or connection, and that such a move was likely to undermine the organising efforts in the sector – one of the few that is currently growing. It was agreed that there would be consultation over the reallocation and that the matter would come back to the next EC meeting.
Derek Simpson confirmed that Regions should be organising regular open Area Activists meetings, not just the Area Activists Committees that they had elected.
The decision of the EC that its minutes should be put on the union web site had not been implemented. We were assured that it would be. [NOTE: They are now available at http://www.unitetheunion.com/resources/union_elections_meetings_and/executive_council_meetings.aspx].
Yet again the subcommittee which is meant to be dealing with cost reduction and the integration of the union had not met.
There was a heated discussion about the lack of proposals on harmonising branch funding, where ex-Amicus and ex-TGWU branches still get dramatically different amounts of money (3% and 10% respectively). The Joint General Secretaries expressed the view that it would be contentious to reduce the ex-TGWU funding and expensive to increase the ex-Amicus funding, so this was unlikely to be resolved before a single UNITE General Secretary and new UNITE Executive Council had been elected later this year. Others expressed the view that this should be linked to implementing the rulebook requirement for workplace branches wherever possible. The current unacceptable unequal funding situation continues, despite many remits being received. It was referred to the subcommittee dealing with integration.
The EC decided on arrangements for election of delegates to the Rules Conference:

1. The election of delegates to the Special Rules Conference scheduled for 4th June 2010 shall usually be from and by the National Industrial Sector Committees

2. Where a Regional Industrial Sector is entitled to one or more delegates in its own right, the NISC shall facilitate such a number to be allocated to that region on the NISC.

3. Where the balance is equal to or less than the remaining Regional Industrial Sectors without delegates, such Regional Industrial Sectors (not including those in para 2) shall be grouped and the requisite number of delegates elected – in such cases it would be usual to have no more than one per Region.

4. Some Regional Industrial Sectors have already informally elected their delegates, where such arrangements have been implemented, the NISC shall allow those informal arrangement to stand (the number of such delegates will be part of the Sectors overall allocation).

5. The National Officials and Regional Secretaries must urgently advise the Conference Office/Executive Support Unit of which RISC’s, if any, have adopted the informal approach. Such notification will include name, membership number contact details, gender and ethnicity of any Delegates elected by the informal method.

6. The outcome of these electoral arrangements must ensure the correct gender and ethnicity outcome and must respect the EC’s statement of intent.

7. These elections are valid for the rules conference only; fresh elections will be held for the statutory Rules Conference in 2011.

The following had been elected by Regional Committees to the Standing Orders Committee:

· Martin Reuby and Simon Rosenthal East Midlands

· Frances Hourihane and Martin Stroud Ireland

· Lisa Mannion and Pete Gillard London & Eastern

· Dave Allan and Sheree Williamson North East & Yorkshire

· Stewart Conroy and Dave Rochester North West

· Ray Stewart and Lisa Crawford Scotland

· To be advised South East

· Joe Conway (one to be advised) South West

· M Moore and J Burgham Wales

· Barry Harshorn and Lynne Baird West Midlands

SOC will meet in the second half of April for an initial discussion on motions and possible composites. Bodies which submitted motions will be asked by email (and letter) to withdraw their motions in favour of composites.

The closing date for motions to Policy Conference from branches and committees is 1^st April 2010, but where they cannot meet by then, motions will be allowed to be submitted immediately afterwards. As all delegates are elected from RISCs, but motions can come from any branch or committee, Regional Secretaries will need to identify a delegate to take ownership of each motion for compositing and speaking purposes.
The EC will decide its position on Policy Conference motions at the May EC meeting. It does not intend to put forward its own motions, but may put forward statements on certain issues.
Despite objections from a number of us, there will be no amendments allowed at this year’s Policy Conference or Special Rules Conference, because it was now too late to be practicable. Amendments will be allowed for future conferences.
The EC agreed to organise official Fringe Meetings at the Policy Conference on the Miami 5 and on employment rights for Moroccan workers in Gibraltar. Unofficial fringe meetings that are consistent with UNITE policy can be advertised to delegates in the conference documentation.
There was a long debate about the composition of the next UNITE Executive Council. The EC is responsible for putting a proposal to the Rules Conference, after which elections can go ahead. A decision was taken on a formula, which will now need to be written up as a rule amendment. The bones of the decision are:

Electorate:

· Sectors – Paying Members in the Sector (see Rule 16 (17))

· National Women and Black Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAEM) - Women and Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority members respectively (see Rule 16 (18 and 19))

· Regions – Paying Members in the region (see Rule 16 (16))

Seats:

· One national Women’s seat

· One national BAEM seat

· Approximately 38 sector seats

· Approximately 24 regional seats

Sector seats are allocated by a formula:

· Over 100,000 3 seats

· Over 50,000 – 99,999 2 seats

· Up to 50,000 1 seats

Regional seats are allocated by a formula:

· 200,000 and over 4 seats

· 150,000 – 200,000 3 seats

· Under 150,000 2 seats

Seats within the regions and sectors will be reserved for women and BAEM members in order to ensure the overall proportionality required by rule.

On the figures we had at the meeting (which we know are not right), this would produce an EC as follows:

Regions	Seats (women) (BAEM)
East Midlands	2 (1)
Ireland	2 (1)
London & Eastern	4 (1) (1)
North East, Yorkshire & Humber	3 (1)
North West	3 (1)
Scotland	2 (1)
South East	2(1)
South West	2 (1)
Wales	2 (1)
West Midlands	2(1)
*Total Regions*	*24 (10) (1)*
Sectors
Aerospace & Shipbuilding	2
APMS	1
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals Process & Textiles	2
Civil Air Transport	2(1)
Community, CYWU & Not for Profit	1
Construction	1
Docks, Rail Ferries & Waterways	1
Education	1
Electrical Engineering & Electronics	1
Energy & Utilities	1
Finance & Legal	3(2)
Food Drink & Tobacco	2
Graphical Paper & Media	2
Health	2(1)
IT & Communications	1
Local Authorities	2(1)
Metals (including Foundry)	1
MOD & Government Departments	1
Motor Components	1
Passenger Services	2(0)(1)
Road Transport Commercial Logistics & Retail Distribution	2
Rural & Agricultural	1
Servicing & General Industries	3
Vehicle Building & Automotive	2
*Total Sectors*	*38 (5)(1)*
Equalities
Women	1(1)
BAEM	1(0)(1)
*Total Equalities*	2
Total of new EC	64 (16) (3)

Apart from the concerns about the accuracy of the membership figures and allocation of members to the right sectors, the main concerns raised were:

· The low number of proposed BAEM seats was due to the incompleteness of UNITE’s records, and would under-represent our true membership. It was agreed to look at this in time for the elections. The impact of the poor records on eligibility to vote for the national BAEM seat was also raised as a concern.

· The lack of seats for EC members accountable to the LGBT, Disabled and Youth structures. The majority believed that this could not be addressed at this time, but that proposals should be brought to the full rules conference in 2011 to resolve this.

· The reduction in the number of national women’s seats.

· The inability of branches and committees to propose amendments, which would turn the special rules conference into a “take it or leave it”.

Overall, I thought the proposal was a good attempt to balance a number of conflicting requirements, but that it could be improved, particularly in the area of Equalities. However, I had to vote against it as the chair ruled that there would only be a vote on the proposal that branches and committees be able to propose amendments if the original proposal fell and I felt strongly that it was wrong for members to have no input, leaving a situation where the outgoing EC was effectively deciding the arrangements for the next EC elections, in which many sitting EC members are likely to be standing. The proposal was approved by 44 votes to 18.

Provisional bookings for 2011 conferences have been made:

· Rules Conference 13-15 June 2011, Liverpool

· Sector Conferences 24-27 October 2011, Brighton

The saga of lay members expenses continued. There were complaints about some officers believing that the EC had decided not to reimburse members for part of their costs (driving to a station) which could be substantial for some in rural areas. EC members complained that nothing had been put in place for childcare reimbursement, and it was agreed to remind officers that the arrangements from the former unions remained in place for the time being. A draft expenses policy for education courses was discussed, it was agreed that this needed more work and should be referred to the F&BP. Expenses for international travel have yet to be debated.
The decision of the previous EC to write to members in arrears to inform them that they were being excluded from membership and to invite them to rejoin had not yet been implemented. The importance of having accurate membership information (and of senior officers implementing EC decisions) was emphasised by EC members.

There was a discussion about membership retention, and it was agreed that Dominic Hook would report to the next EC.

Many issues which were meant to be on the table for the EC were not, because the administration had not prepared the necessary reports and proposals, or had omitted to put them on the F&GP agenda. These included the status of retired members as well as member contributions & benefits.
Several EC members reported a widespread feeling that we were moving too slowly on integration, and that while issues that were a priority to the senior officers had been resolved, issues that were a priority for lay members had not.
A few key points from the Finance report, which included preliminary financial results for 2009:

· The union as a whole returned an overall surplus of £3.9m, and the figure before non-recurring items was £8.7m. Both the former Amicus and TGWU sections were in surplus.

· The table below shows actual paying membership for the last few years, with cautious projections for the next few years which are the basis of the financial plan:

	Dec 06	Dec 07	Dec 08	Dec 09	Dec 10	Dec 11	Dec 12
Paying Membership
T&G Section	679,000	662,000	644,000	592,000	550,000	525,000	525,000
Amicus Section	875,691	782,948	738,450	690,124	662,000	635,000	610,000
Unite	1,554,691	1,444,948	1,384,450	1,282,124	1,212,000	1,160,000	1,135,000

· Contribution income at £144.5m in 2009 was down £2.5m on 2008, reflecting a fall in paying membership only partially offset by the subs increase from 1^st September 2009. It is expected to rise slightly for 2010 before falling back in 2011.

· The pension schemes from both the former Amicus and TGWU are both in deficit, each approximately £75-80m. The EC agreed a 15-year recovery plan for the Amicus scheme which will require substantial payments over a number of years (£7.8m per year, on average). It was agreed that urgent negotiations must take place with the officers and staff about future pension provision in order to control costs. There was criticism about the fact that EC members had not been provided with any information about the situation in advance of the meeting, but were told that if we didn’t agree to plan at that meeting then the Pensions Regulator would step in. Decisions about a recovery plan for the TGWU pensions will be needed soon.

· UNITE’s spending on organising last year was only about 3.1% of subscription income, significantly lower than that required by rule 14.10. Nonetheless, £4.5m is still a substantial amount of money.

· There are significant threats to UNITE’s finances as a result of possible changes to funding for legal cases (the Jackson review) and cuts to the Union Learning Fund (ULF) if the Tories are elected. Derek Simpson confirmed that ULF projects are already accounted for separately.

There was an update on the roles and responsibilities of the Assistant General Secretaries:

Jimmy Kelly: Irish Regional Secretary. 100% campaign.
Tony Burke: International. TUC.
Jennie Bremner: Education
Dianna Holland: Equality
Gail Cartmail: Public Services
Paul Talbot: Legal (on a temporary basis)

There are many other UNITE departments that don’t report to an AGS. In addition, there are two more AGSes – Len McCluskey and Les Bayliss.

EC members raised the need for a single, simple procedure for reps and officers to access legal support. This was seen as too slow and complicated for the ex-Amicus section. A helpline for ex-Amicus officers had been introduced.
EC members raised the lack of a procedure for disciplining lay members. A draft had been repeatedly put forward by the previous head of legal, and rejected by the EC, but she had not produced a revised version as requested. Derek Simpson said that in the absence of the procedure, no disciplinary action was valid and he had told Regional Secretaries that they could not proceed.
It was agreed that the EC’s Education Subcommittee should select the panel for appointing the Regional Education Organisers. A panel of Mark Lyon, Sharon Hutchinson, Agnes Tolmie and Mickey Stewart was agreed to appoint a replacement officer in the Isle of Man. It was agreed that a proper system for appointments was required, rather than the ad-hoc decisions the EC had been taking. It was agreed to organise equality training for those EC members who hadn’t previously undertaken it, so that they were able to participate in appointment panels.
The outline timetable for establishing the Young Members structures is:

· May 2010: EC to agree composition of Regional Young Members Committees and National Young Members Committee

· By 30 June 2010: Nominations to Regional Young Members Committees received

· First part of July 2010: The first Regional Young Members Forums, immediately followed by the first meetings of the Regional Young Members Committees

· 16 July 2010: First National Young Members Committee

It is hoped that the Job Evaluation process for UNITE employees will be complete in Quarter 3.
The arrangements for the election of the UNITE General Secretary Designate, which needs to start around May-June 2010, will be brought to the next EC meeting.
It was agreed that the EC should receive a report listing EC members who did not attend meetings, in line with rule 14.5.

Political

Charlie Whelan thanked people for their messages of support after the media attack on him, which was really an attack on UNITE and the Labour Party. He felt that the Tories were desperate. Charlie read quotes from the Tory “Cash Gordon” report (http://issuu.com/conservatives/docs/cashgordon) which he said illustrated how effective UNITE’s political department was being.
Charlie reported that the figures about the political allegiance of UNITE members from the Tories were wildly inaccurate and that from UNITE’s own calls our members were approximately:

· 38% definitely Labour supporters

· 30% undecided (of which 2/3 had previously been Labour supporters)

· 8% Tory

UNITE is putting considerable resources into maximising the Labour vote, particularly in key target constituencies.
The EC discussed the threat from the BNP and the importance of mobilising members against them.

International

The Finance & General Purposes (F&GP) committee had not discussed our re-affiliation to Hands Off Venezuala. This affiliation had been agreed by Amicus Policy Conference. The EC was told that the International Department has sent a report to go to the next F&GP meeting.
It was agreed to investigate the details of a possible affiliation to Solidar, which lobbies the EU. [http://www.solidar.org].
EC members who had taken part in the delegation to Palestine gave an impressive and very moving report of their experiences, comparing the discrimination and oppression with apartheid South Africa.
UNITE had played an important part in the cancellation of a nazi conference in the USA that Nick Griffin was due to speak at. The USW had put pressure on the venue, which leading to the cancellation.
International solidarity with the BA cabin crew was spreading.
The workers at Vale Inco had rejected an offer by 83%, despite the strike having gone on for many months. [See http://www.workersuniting.org/our_issues/support_usw_striking_miners_at.aspx]
It was reported that the giant German union Verdi want to discuss the possibility of joining Workers Uniting, the “global union” currently comprising UNITE and the USW.

UNITE Executive Council minutes

2010-04-25T16:19:00.003+01:00

I'm delighted to see that the union web site has now been updated and members can access minutes of EC meetings online. The March minutes are not yet up there, as they won't be approved until the next meeting on 11th May.