I'm still dipping in to the recently published first findings of the sixth Workplace Employee Relations study (WERS)(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-2011-workplace-employment-relations-study-wers), which provides the best source of large scale quantitative data about our...
Some good news! Unite the Union increased its membership during 2012 and Len McCluskey has announced that Unite will increase organising work this year. Despite a double-dip recession (and moving to...
This 5 minute video "head to head" by Professional Pensions sees UNISON Head of Pensions, Glyn Jenkins, debate the recently announced Government enquiry into "smoothing" with PWC partner Jeremy Way.
Most defined benefit schemes value the present and future cost of pensions by reference to the...
Unite put out a couple of press releases over the past couple of days that are worth a look. The first one was about strike action at Greencore, or more precisely its plant in Hull. Notably they tied this to the company's AGM and its executive pay.
Greencore CEO enjoys ‘millionaire’s lifestyle’ as...
Colleagues,
Today the Tory Party declaimed poverty, need and want (terms redolent of the UK in the 1930) by proclaiming that this country does not need foodbanks as the welfare state provides enough for all.
A mouthpiece of the Tory Party roclaimed today, on the basis that Cameron...The Workplace Employee Relations Study (WERS)(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-2011-workplace-employment-relations-study-wers), about which I blogged earlier today (http://www.jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/unions-in-workplace-it-could-be-wers.html?m=1) confirms the continuing...
: SEARCH Blog Journalism Books Film Radio Toby's School Wednesday 30th January 2013 The Conservatives are in bed with a party that's led by a petulant child Et tu , Clegg Ed Miliband's role in last night's defeat of the boundary review was only to be expected . After all , who is taken in by his talk of fairness and one nation apart from a few simpletons So what if the current constituency boundaries mean that one party has to poll at least seven per cent more of the popular vote to win an overall majority than the other The Labour Party will always put self-interest above . principle But Nick Clegg's decision to vote against it was genuinely shocking . Not because the Lib Dems aren't as venal as their Labour counterparts . If anything , their history of dirty political campaigning is even
This morning Bill Gates spoke to the BBC about his support for global efforts to eradicate polio, a goal he says is within our reach. Watch the interview in full HERE. This morning’s interview was a prelude to his Richard Dimbleby … Continue reading →
I like this post and chart in Red Brick by Steve Hilditch about actual public spending as percentage of GDP under Labour and Conservative Governments (as opposed to the myths).
With the exception of The Labour Government 1974-79, Tory Governments (including this one) have since 1965 spent more...
Conroy Lawrence, Lewisham Hospital UNISON Assistant Branch Secretary (and Hospital electrician) seen in picture top left with UNISON Assistant General Secretary Bronwyn McKenna. Conroy said.
"This has been a historic demonstration with of over 25,000, representing a total cross section of our...
The LAPFF AGM was last week. "Councillor Kieran Quinn, chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, has been appointed as chair of Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) at its annual general meeting this week.
Councillor Quinn takes over from Ian Greenwood, chair of the West Yorkshire Pension...: SEARCH Blog Journalism Books Film Radio Toby's School Monday 28th January 2013 Who's most likely to succeed David Cameron as Conservative leader I think any leadership challenge against David Cameron before the next election would be an unmitigated disaster and if Adam Afriyie really is contemplating such a thing he might as well cross the floor of the House of Commons right now for all the good it will do his own party . Ed Miliband must have had a big smile on his face when he read yesterday's morning papers . The question of who will eventually succeed David Cameron , by contrast , is a perfectly legitimate one and Afriyie shouldn't be punished for showing an interest in the top job . Someone close to the Parliamentary Party told me recently that 95 per cent of sitting Conservative
Today (27 January) is Holocaust Memorial Day. This date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.
On Friday morning I was travelling through Liverpool Street Railway station and the statutes of the "Kindertransport" children next to the main ticket...BIG MARCH EXPECTED IN PROTEST AT LEWISHAM A&E CLOSURE
"UNISON the UK’s largest union, is calling on the public to join a march this Saturday (26 Jan), to show their support for Lewisham Hospital’s A & E Department.
Lewisham’s A & E facility is pencilled in for closure as a...: SEARCH Blog Journalism Books Film Radio Toby's School Friday 25th January 2013 Lid Dem MP David Ward's grotesque caricature of Israel and the Jews is all too common on the liberal Left The Liberal Democrats are considering whether to withdraw the whip from David Ward , MP for Bradford East , after he seemed to compare the murder of six million Jews to the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in the run up to Holocaust Memorial Day . He made the comparison on his website : yesterday Having visited Auschwitz twice once with my family and once with local schools I am saddened that the Jews , who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust , could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new
RESULTS UK is looking for an articulate, efficient, friendly individual, able to work independently and within a small busy team, to support the work of both the Health Advocacy Officer and the EU Health Advocacy Officer. S/he must be very … Continue reading →This should be good. East Ham MP Stephen Timms (Shadow Minister for Employment) and UNISON, Head of Local Government Heather Wakefield debate "An Economy for One Nation" and how progressive can the next Labour Government be?
Yesterday the ‘ Enough Food For Everyone IF’ campaign launched at Somerset House. The Joint Campaign, of which RESULTS is a member, is pushing for G8 leaders to address the issue of there being ‘enough food for everyone, but not … Continue reading →: SEARCH Blog Journalism Books Film Radio Toby's School Thursday 24th January 2013 Latest school league tables prove Michael Gove's education policies are working There's good news for the Government in the school league tables published today . Yes , more English secondary schools are deemed to be failing 195 based on last summer's GCSE results , compared to 107 based on results in 2011. But that's because the Department for Education has raised the floor target . Last year , a school was said to be failing if fewer than 35 per cent of its pupils got five or more GCSEs at grade C or above including Maths and English , whereas this year the threshold has been raised to 40 per cent . Had the same floor applied this year , the number of failing schools would have increased to 251 which: SEARCH Blog Journalism Books Film Radio Toby's School Thursday 24th January 2013 A frightening encounter with a political mob in Kenya I was at a petrol station in Nakuru , a city in Kenya’s Rift Valley , when I experienced my first moment of genuine terror since arriving in Africa . I was standing in a queue , waiting to pay , when a crowd of about 500 locals suddenly invaded the garage forecourt . They were campaigning for one of the candidates in Kenya’s forthcoming election a mob , in other words , and not a very friendly one at that . Some of them were clutching makeshift weapons clubs , sticks and whatnot and I looked on in horror as a breakaway group surrounded my Toyota Land Cruiser and started rocking it from side to side . My wife was sitting in the passenger seat and my fourI think Prime Minster David Cameron is playing with fire since he clearly does not want to leave EU. In fact nearly all his arguments in favour of the EU I would agree with, while I would disagree with nearly all his reasons for leaving.
It is not statesmanship but it is clever politics. I think...
Picture of the Ritzy Cinema, which is opposite Lambeth Town Hall and was today the Annual General Meeting venue for my 2nd favourite UNISON Local Government branch ever, Lambeth!
Sincere congratulations, of course, to my fellow Labour Party comrades, JR and Ruth, who were elected joint branch..."UNISON expresses bitter disappointment that TSA Matthew Kershaw has chosen to ignore the unprecedented response to the recent consultation exercise in respect of his health proposals across Lewisham and the South London Healthcare Trust.
In doing so he disregards a number of compelling...
The United Nations Environment Programme has been drafting a global treaty to rid the world of the threats posed by mercury. As part of these discussions, proposals were made to restrict vaccines that contain the preservative thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative … Continue reading →
Drug-resistant TB develops when the bacteria becomes resistant to previously effective drugs. Compared to drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB), Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR-TB) and Extensively Drug-resistant (XDR-TB) require longer and more toxic causes of treatment. The cost of DR-TB drugs is also … Continue reading →
I've been sent a rather odd and disturbing link to a story here on "Engaged Investor" magazine's website.
In which a pension consultant is quoted as saying he understands that the Government is maybe thinking of getting rid of Member Nominated trustees who sit on Pension scheme Boards???
So who...
Off message but went for a great snow patrol today in Wansted Flats and Wansted Park. Picture above of the leaning tree (right) at the bottom of the Long walk which has seemed in danger of falling into the lake for years. Its branches are just about touching the water.
I'm trying to upload more...
Great pictures from Captain Swing of London Community district nurses struggling through the snow on Friday to visit their patients.
This Tory coalition think that such public servants should have their wages cut and cut while at the same time reducing taxes for millionaires?
Something...
"Kick off Valentine’s Day with our action for low fares.
On 2 January, rail fares soared above inflation for the tenth year running. They have increased almost three times faster than wages and are now 26% higher than they were before the recession. Is it any wonder we pay more than anywhere else...
A compound found in a South African tree, whose twigs are often used as toothbrushes, has been identified as an antibiotic able to treat tuberculosis. Known as diospyrin, the compound works to treat the illness by binding itself to the … Continue reading →I got a twitter message from the editor of Pensions Week David Rowley referring to this video of him interviewing Chair of Islington Pension committee, Richard Greening, about their investment into residential property. They are putting around 2.5% of their £800 million fund into it and hope...
This is one of my branch motions to the UNISON Community conference in March 2013. Which was amended at the last weekends Service Group Executive meeting at York (see last point).
"This conference notes:-
That the Social Housing Pension Fund and the Pension Trust have announced plans to stop...
(Guest Post by my esteemed UNISON colleague, the NEC member for Skidrow-on-Sea)
"I understand that there is a point of view that, since there are an infinite number of numbers it follows that there are an infinite number of realities.
If this is so then there must be a universe in which one day...
Some things do make you simply despair. Today I learnt that the Charity Barnardo's has announced that it will be closing its defined benefit pension scheme for it's staff without consultation.
Of course it is now back tracking rapidly since UNISON has reminded it that it is legally obliged to...
The lesson for today is that corporate thieves such as amazon.con evades taxes, mugs hospitals, schools and the elderly: hile Jessops pays its tax, becomes uncompetitive and goes into administration.
So - don't shop with the amazon, you enrich their bosses, who treat us all with contempt,...
All members are invited to the Branch Annual General Meeting
Tuesday 12 February6.00 – 8.00pm
House of Commons
Committee Room 18
Speaker: Gregg McClymont MP, Shadow Pensions Minister
Social Housing Pensions * Auto enrolment * State Pension proposalsFull details:...
The government today published its white paper on a new "flat rate" state pension for 2017 currently valued at £144 per week. While this is an improvement on the current £107 per week it is expected that in the long term (2060) most pensioners will lose out.
UNISON reminds everyone that £144 is...
I think most folk know that I'm no friend of the Trotsky Revolutionary sect, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), but the latest scandal they are embroiled in is just breath taking.
One of its junior female members made a complaint of rape against a longstanding member of its Central Executive...
Least we forget how much this Tory led government hates and despises the rights of ordinary working people. This post is based on an e-newsletter I read recently from a leading firm of UK Employment lawyers.
6 April
The Government has stated its intention to reduce the 90-day minimum period for...
"It does what it says on the side of the tin". Does Not Treat Rot. Also Available in Moral Cowardice Yellow. Hat tip support Public Service don't let the Con Dems destroy themNEC Community Seats Nomination Request
John Gray & Isobel McVicar
RMS 3083288 & 5260001
8 January 2013
Dear UNISON Branch Secretary
We believe that your branch is entitled to nominate candidates to the two Community
seats for this year's National Executive Council elections. We request...