UCU members at the University of Manchester are part of the national 60-university strike from Monday-Friday this week and Monday-Wednesday next week. Please give them your support. Details of the UCU national strike fund are here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/fightingfundThe local hardship fund is: Bank: Unity Trust Account: UCU University of Manchester Sort code: 60-83-01 Account Number 50510715 Reference: Hardship Fund Most buildings will have pickets from 7:30-8am until 10:30am. The biggest buildings are AMBS, Arthur Lewis, Uni Pace, Sackville, Sam Alex, Simon and Michael Smith. Additional plans include:
You can follow the local UCU branch for updates on strike plans on Twitter @UM_UCU and send them messages of support, solidarity photos etc. You can also contact them via ucu@manchester.ac.uk.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on November 26th, 2019 in National News
Please find the CRC Transfer Bulletin #1 attached. This bulletin asks that all members currently working for one of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies make sure that their contact details on RMS are up to date in preparation for the ballot on their future terms and conditions.
Please distribute to all members working for a CRC and encourage them to sign in to their MyUNISON account (or register for an account if they have not already done so) to make sure that all their contact details are correct, and that they have provided a valid email address so that they can take part in an electronic ballot.
No paper ballot forms will be issued – the ballot will only be conducted online. Please encourage all members to submit an email address or check that the one we currently have on record is valid.
Make the most of your UNISON membership and don’t miss out on your FREE £5,000 of Accidental Death Cover! The cover is for UK residents aged 18-69. It lasts for one year and then you can renew it again for free*. It’s quick and easy to apply and is yet another reason why it pays to be a UNISON member.
We’ll do the rest. After your application you’ll receive a call from us to take further details, set up your cover and explain other benefits available.
Kind regards,
John Eccles UNISONProtect
For full policy details, please click here. *Terms and Conditions apply. UNISON is an Introducer Appointed Representative of UNISONProtect, which is a trading name of Union Income Benefit Holdings Ltd (UIB) who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to distribute non-investment insurance products, register number 307575. This can be checked on the FCA website www.fca.org.uk. Free Accidental Death Cover is underwritten by Advent Insurance PCC Ltd – UIB Cell.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on October 7th, 2019 in National News
UNISON has agreed to suspend the indefinite industrial action that was due to start on Monday at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, after successful talks at the conciliation service ACAS.
Some 300 UNISON members were preparing to escalate industrial action if the trust didn’t halt plans to transfer them to a wholly owned private company it is setting up.
Regional organiser Natalie Ratcliffe said: “The trust has agreed not to proceed with a 1 October transfer date. The board of directors will meet on 12 September.
“UNISON has been offered the opportunity to present its case, to allow the board to further reflect on the position previously taken. The outcome of this further consideration will be notified to UNISON by the end of September 2019.”
The staff, who work in estates, facilities and clinical departments, went on strike at Bradford teaching hospitals for two weeks earlier in August, having already taken one week’s action in July.
They want to remain as direct NHS employees, and fear that the trust’s plans to move their work to a wholly owned subsidiary company could see workers losing the protections they have as NHS employees.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on August 27th, 2019 in National News
95% of UNISON members voted to accept the pay offer and 95% of Napo members voted to accept the offer.
The pay offer for all six Sodexo CRCs provides for significant pay reform of both the NNC and SCCOG pay Bands.
For NNC Pay Bands:
Bands 2, 3 and 4 will be reduced from 20 pay points to 15 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 7 points from 1 April 2020
Band 5 will be reduced from 14 pay points to 10 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 5 points from 1 April 2020
Band 6 will be reduced from 19 pay points to 15 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 7 points from 1 April 2020
These changes will significantly reduce the time to progress through each pay band and the value of progression will be larger than in the current structure. As a result Sodexo want to introduce a way of linking progression to competence in a role. Napo and UNISON have made a commitment to enter into negotiations on the introduction of a competency based pay progression framework but this will not prevent transition to the pay points above.
The offer provides that all staff will receive an increase of 2% from 1 April 2019 as a result of moving to a new pay point or through an unconsolidated payment or a combination of the two. There is also a commitment from Sodexo to enter into negotiations for a cost of living increase from April 2020.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on August 27th, 2019 in National News
UNISON and Napo Interserve CRC members have voted overwhelmingly in a consultative ballot to reject Interserve CRC Pay offer.
93% of UNISON members voted to reject the pay offer and 92% of Napo members voted to reject the offer.
Napo and UNISON submitted a joint pay claim to Interserve in March 2019. The pay claim sought pay equality with the National Probation Service (NPS) from 1 April 2019 with a minimum increase for all staff of at least 3%. Both unions believe that Interserve CRC staff deserve the same pay increase for their dedication, skill and hard work in a period of major change within the probation service and the Interserve CRCs.
However, after a series of negotiations, the offer we have received fell a long way short of the claim leaving most Interserve CRC staff significantly worse off than their former colleagues working in the NPS.
The offer from Interserve was:
§ Payment of your contractual increment if you are not at the top of your pay band from 1 April, which you should now have received
§ A 1% cost of living increase (inflation is currently 2.8% – July RPI)
§ Deletion of the bottom two pay points for Bands 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
This offer falls well short of the current rate of inflation and does little to reduce the length of the pay bands, which remain far too long despite the deletion of the bottom two pay points.
We hope that the overwhelming rejection of the offer by Interserve CRC members will encourage the employers to reopen pay talks.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on August 14th, 2019 in National News
The pay offer for all six Sodexo CRCs and provides for significant pay reform of both the NNC and SCCOG pay Bands.
For the NNC
Bands 2, 3 and 4 will be reduced from 20 pay points to 15 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 7 points from 1 April 2020
Band 5 will be reduced from 14 pay points to 10 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 5 points from 1 April 2020
Band 6 will be reduced from 19 pay points to 15 pay points from 1 April 2019 and to 7 points from 1 April 2020
These changes will significantly reduce the time to progress through each pay band and the value of progression will be larger than in the current structure. As a result Sodexo want to introduce a way of linking progression to competence in a role. Napo and UNISON have made a commitment to enter into negotiations on the introduction of a competency basedpay progression framework.
The offer provides that all staff will receive an increase of 2% from 1 April 2019 as a result of moving to a new pay point or through an unconsolidated payment or a combination of the two. There is also a commitment from Sodexo to enter into negotiations for a cost of living increase from April 2020.
Both Trade Unions are now recommending acceptance of the offer but if you wish to reject the offer please indicate your willingness to take industrial action to seek to improve the offer.
If you have not already voted, you can vote to accept or reject the offer at
1819-2019 Peterloo MassacreBi-Centenary March for Democracy Join the March – Sunday 18th August 2019RALLY IN ALBERT SQUARE – STARTS @ 1.00pmConfirmed speakers at this time Matt Wrack (General Secretary, Fire Brigades Union) Julie Ward MEP (North West Labour MEP)Ian Hodson (President, Bakers, Food & Allied Workers’ Union) Lynn Collins (Regional Secretary, North West TUC) Owen Winter (Director, Make Votes Matter) Marlene Walker (NHS Worker & Campaigner) Pete Middleman (NW National Education Union) Gina Dowding (North West Green Party MEP) Ian Allinson (President, Manchester Trades Council) Felicity Dowling (National Secretary, Left Unity) Mark Krantz (Peterloo Historian & Political Activist)Paula Barker (Regional Convenor, UNISON North West) Alan Davies (The Word Newspaper & Peterloo March for Democracy Organising Committee) Presiding: Stephen Hall (President, GMATUC) Speakers will be grouped into threes and limited to 7 minutes each. Each group of three will be ‘interspersed’ with entertainment provided by Joe Solo, Claire Mooney, Bard Company and Crispin Flintoff. There will also be entertainment at the end of the speakers.
UNISON NORTH WEST IS URGING MEMBERS TO JOIN THIS MARCH!
UNISON North West Regional Committee has agreed to support this march to commemorate the Peterloo Massacre on its two hundredth anniversary. We have been offered, and have agreed to provide support for, one of ten feeder legs of the march, all of which will make their way to and meet at Albert Square near the site of the massacre in 1819.
WHAT WAS THE PETERLOO MASSACRE
Two hundred years ago, on August 1819, about 60,000 people assembled, including a high proportion of women and children, in St Peters field in Manchester. What followed was a brutal dispersal, by armed cavalry, with fifteen people killed and over five hundred injured. People had marched from all around, many miles, to peacefully demonstrate, amidst widespread hunger and deprivation, for the right to vote. That working people, by securing a voice over their fate, might be heard and might share justly in the wealth they toiled to create in the workshop of the world.
WHY REMEMBER IT?
This is a truly shameful day in the history of the conservative political establishment in Britain. Yet in the history of the labour movement, this event, known as the Peterloo Massacre, has come to symbolise the centuries of unremitting political struggle that moved working people from abject poverty and squalor, and back breaking labour, to the rights we now enjoy today. It inspired the rise of the Chartists and modern trade unionism and helped transform our history. Yet these struggles are never over, they must be fought again and again. After a decade of pay stagnation, growing poverty and austerity, it is more important than ever that we use the rights that others had to fight and die for to improve the lot of all working people.
UNISON NORTH WEST – FEEDER LEG TWO
Each leg will receive a banner marked “1819-2019 Peterloo Massacre Bi-Centenary – March for Democracy” to go at the front of the marchers and 500 copies of a Souvenir Newspaper which we will give away to the marchers and the general public en route and at Albert Square. Bundles of the 10,000 copy limited edition paper are also available from GMATUC on a first come first served basis (contact Alan on 07958 158080).
We are looking for volunteers to steward this leg of the march, and we will provide all all the necessary information to ensure the safety of the marchers from start to finish, including for the duration of the rally in Albert Square.
ASSEMBLY POINT – HORNBY STREET OFF BURY ROAD NEW ROAD, MANCHESTER. .
We have been asked to primarily focus on mobilising on our own members in the North West and wider afield, but other people from the North Manchester, Prestwich and Bury area will be advised to join this assembly point. Anyone else of course, is free to join them.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
Please circulate information about this march. Encourage activists and members to attend with families.
Please email nwmedia@unison.co.uk to let us know that you’re branch is planning to attend, roughly how many attendees you expect, and whether you will bring a branch banner.
ASSEMBLY POINT – HORNBY STREET OFF BURY ROAD NEW ROAD, MANCHESTER
NB) The exact march routes have not yet been finalised with GMP. The above broken red lines, however, indicate something close to what is likely to be agreed.
Posted by Vance Butterworth on August 13th, 2019 in National News
The UNISON North West LGBT+ Group will hold its Annual General Meeting on Saturday 7th September 2019 from 1200 hours to 1500 hours at the UNISON North West Regional Offices, Arena Point, Manchester, M3 1UN.
The meeting is open to any UNISON member who self-defines as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans (LGBT+) and is in a branch based in the North West Region. Travel and appropriate meal expenses will be covered by the committee.
If you know someone who might be interested in joining our committee, or who wants a chat about what might be involved, they are welcome to contact us directly – Adam Hodgson (a_hodgson@hotmail.com) or Ceri Lewis-Shaw (cls1974@outlook.com). They can also message us via Facebook or Twitter.
We are also running an awareness session for delegates and visitors attending this year’s UNISON LGBT+ Conference. This is an opportunity particularly for new delegates to learn more about how conference works, to meet colleagues who will be at conference with them and to get advice and guidance on writing or preparing speeches on any motion at conference. This will be from 1100 hours.
We would be grateful if you could circulate the attached letter to anyone who you may think would be interested in attending our AGM.
With Pride
Ceri Lewis-Shaw and Adam Hodgson Co-Convenors UNISON North West LGBT+ Group
Posted by Vance Butterworth on August 7th, 2019 in National News
