Lambeth Activists Newsletter - Summer 2010

Download it here.

Inside
- Defend Every Job and Service
- Gaza - Break the Siege!
- The Truth About Temps
- No to Education Cuts
- Staff Conferences
- Letters from Lambeth

Lambeth Activists Celebrate Election Success

Lambeth Activists candidates today secured 100 per cent of the seats they contested at a lively Lambeth UNISON AGM.

With over 200 Lambeth members in attendance, Dan Jeffery and Ruth Cashman won the post of Assistant Branch Secretary with 56 per cent of the vote.

Dan and Ruth will job share the post and pledged to primarily spend their facility time in workplaces recruiting members and activists to resist the cuts to jobs, pay and public services that Labour, Tories and Lib Dems have promised.

Reg Morrison, Rob Gowland, Mary Kotey, Gurmeet Khurana, James Caspell, Jeremy Dewar and Gary Whiting all secured their positions on Lambeth UNISON’s Branch Committee.

Hassina Poyser, Ruth Cashman and Sahida Uddin all secured positions as delegates to National and National Local Government Conferences respectively.

A number of motions were passed, calling for all UNISON officials to be elected, a cross-union campaign to be built to oppose cuts to jobs and services and a concerted recruitment drive in every workplace.

Gurmeet Khurana’s work as International Officer drew special praise from numerous quarters, with Lambeth Branch having raised £1000’s for Palestinian aid organisations this year and twinning initiatives underway with unions in Palestine and Swaziland.

Lambeth Activists built on their first contested Lambeth UNISON AGM last year and have since recruited almost 20 shop stewards and countless members across Lambeth. Activists were also instrumental in producing the first Branch Newsletters in over a decade.

Lambeth Unison is renound as one of the most active, radical branches in UNISON Local Government and has pioneered the introduction of UNISON learning reps, environmental reps and practical support for the Palestinian people in recent years.

NUT bureaucrats pull plug on strike action

A graphic illustration of the trade union bureaucracy’s capacity for betrayal was seen earlier this week when the NUT’s Action Committee pulled the plug on official strike action due to be taken by the St Paul’s Way NUT group. The NUT group had been trying to secure strike action from the Union since the end of the Spring term when the Headteacher (acting on behalf of the school’s Interim Executive Board) had revealed a restructuring plan that contained a vicious attack on jobs and conditions, with over 20 jobs under threat.

These cuts were announced in the context of a generalised assault on both union organisation and comprehensive education. The NUT rep had been sacked at the end of December in a blatant act of victimisation, management bullying was rife and a restricted, increasingly vocational curriculum was being introduced. In addition, the IEB’s objective was to privatise the school by turning it into a Trust.

As soon as the plan was announced the NUT group called upon the Union to issue an immediate ballot for discontinuous strike action. This was a call that was made several times in various resolutions over the summer term. The national union, however, found pretext after pretext
for delaying the ballot. In the face of NUT inaction many members inevitably opted for individual solutions such as severance, early retirement or resigning.

The ballot was finally issued five weeks before the end of term. The result, though, was an impressive 91% yes vote for action on an 83% turnout. Despite this result and the obvious commitment to strike action shown by NUT members, the Union sought to limit action as much
as possible. Eventually it informed the Tower Hamlets Local Authority that there would be two days of strike action this term and two days in the Autumn.

Less than a week after this announcement the Action Committee recommended suspending all strike action! In doing so it claimed that the Local Authority was prepared to make a significant concession: it would delay by a term the issuing of redundancy notices. The Union had not saved members’ jobs but simply delayed the moment when they would be chopped!

It was left to Alex Kenny, left Executive member and also member of the Action Committee, to try to sell this thoroughly rotten deal to the membership at a meeting of the NUT group on Tuesday 7th July. Revealingly, he did not attempt to differentiate his position from that of bureaucrats like Tim Harrison and John Dixon and defended their recommendation to accept the Local Authority’s offer and call off action. He was, however, unable to convince a single person
amongst the 40 NUT members present at the meeting. Everyone who spoke rejected the offer as derisory and demanded that the strike action continue. Various speakers pointed out that if action was not taken this term, then even more NUT members, believing their Union would not
defend them, would leave the school. The result would be a broken NUT group whose ability to resist the creation of a Trust would be severely weakened. A motion reaffirming the NUT group’s commitment to strike action was taken and passed unanimously. The views of the membership could not have been clearer. Despite this, four hours later Alex Kenny informed the school’s NUT rep that the Action Committee, with complete bureaucratic disdain for members’ views, had abandoned strike action.

The situation at St Paul’s Way provides a clear illustration of the need for a radical ransformation of the NUT so that rank and file members, those whose jobs are on the line, decide when and how to fight, not the trade union bureaucrats (or their left apologists like Alex Kenny). It also makes it clear why it is necessary to take unofficial strike action: if the Union is refusing to sanction action, unofficial action is the only alternative to defeat redundancies and threats of privatisation in the form of trusts and academies. This is a lesson that has not been lost on the St Paul’s Way NUT group: at its meeting on Wednesday the group voted to take unofficial action on the 15/7/09 if the Action Committee has not reinstated the strike.

Students occupy London Met to stop job cuts

In a story familiar to all public sector workers, London Metropolitan University are threatening massive redundancies as a result of budget cuts. The university is saying it wanted to get rid of over 550 roles, which would threaten the jobs of 800 staff (a quarter of the workforce).This is a problem which university staff are facing across the country, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. For those who don’t lose their jobs work intensification is another major issue. The student-staff ratio for UK universities was 9/1 thirty years ago, today it is 18/1 (higher than France, Germany and the United States).

London Met students and staff are determined to fight back. As of 17:00 on Monday 11 May 2009, a large group of students began occupation of part of the Commercial Road building to protest at management’s plans for imminent and unprecedented staff redundancies. This follows last week’s industrial action at London Met. On Thursday 7 May UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that that the union argued had no strategy behind it.

UCU members across the UK are currently being balloted for industrial action over planned job cuts at around 100 universities. The union said that the employers’ organisation’s refusal to act as the crisis over jobs deteriorated had forced it to ballot for industrial action. That ballot result is expected on Friday 22 May.Please visit the occupation and show your solidarity. It seems that the university will try to evict them. It is vitally important that we mobilise the maximum possible solidarity.
There will be a demonstration tonight (Tuesday 12 May), outside the building at 5.30pm - arrive from 5pmSee here for location details: www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/commercial-road.cfmFor more information see savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com

Greater London UNISON Young Members' Election Statements

This election will be voted for by all Young Members' of UNISON in the Greater London Region.

James Caspell - Regional Council Election Statement

I am a shop steward in the London Borough of Lambeth and also the Young Members’ and Publicity Officer for my Branch.

I believe that the interests of young members can only be served by a fighting, member-led union in which maximum participation is encouraged in an inclusive environment free of bullying and harassment of young workers.

We need to provide socialist answers to the financial and environmental crises of capitalism, which will affect young people most acutely in terms of unemployment, pay cuts and attacks on our rights won over decades. Only collectively owned, worker-controlled and democratically accountable public services can put people and the planet before the interests of private profit.

Regional Council is essential in ensuring that UNISON follows its own policies within Greater London. Our representatives should facilitate maximum participation of all members, including young workers, providing the confidence we need to fight our employers, fight the government and ultimately fight capitalism!

James Caspell - Europe and International Committee Election Statement

I have a long record as a trade unionist and student activist campaigning for international socialism and against climate change.

I am a shop steward in the London Borough of Lambeth and also the Young Members’ and Publicity Officer for my Branch. I have co-founded the LSE-Palestine Solidarity Initiative which seeks to provide material and practical assistance for those living under Israeli Occupation to apply to British universities. If elected, I would seek to champion the following issues:

• Ending the Israeli occupation in Palestine and campaigning for a secular, single-state solution. Supporting twinning initiatives with our Palestinian comrades.

• Supporting arms divestment and nuclear disarmament campaigns.

• Campaign to secure and extend the rights of migrant workers across the world.

• Putting trade unions at the forefront of the struggle against climate change; workplaces produce 40% of the UK's carbon emissions. Trade unions should also lobby for recognition and support for the millions of environmental refugees that are already a direct consequence of climate change.

Workers of the world unite!

Message of solidarity to the students of SOAS, LSE, Essex and Kings College universities

Dear comrades,

I am writing to send a message of solidarity on behalf of the Branch Committee of the Lambeth Branch of UNISON.

We salute your courage in campaigning tirelessly for the Palestinian right to education. The tide is turning against the legitimacy of the Israeli Apartheid state and the student movement is crucial to that. We support you in your occupations to bring about firm commitments to Palestinian students from your universities.

You may also be heartened to know that this morning our Branch Committee voted to support calls for academic, cultural and economic boycotts of Israel.

In solidarity,

James Caspell
Lambeth UNISON Young Members' Officer

Lambeth Activists - For a fighting, member-led branch

We are a group of activists who believe that UNISON and the trade union movement at large needs to be rebuilt from the grass-roots, encouraging maximum participation and control of unions by members and giving workers the confidence to fight collectively for their own interests in their workplaces.

We are comprised of a group of independent socialists, members of Permanent Revolution, the Alliance for Workers Liberty, Workers Power and Green Left, the ecosocialist platform within the Green Party.

We want an inclusive, active, fighting union that effectively takes on management and the government by involving all workers in action to defend and extend our rights.
Over the last ten years the Lambeth UNISON branch has halved in size and is no longer as effective at protecting our members. We need new blood – passionate activists who are prepared to give their all to fight for members and involve them in the running of the branch.

If you agree with our policies, we ask you to support us!

Candidates for elections at the 2009 AGM:

Chair
Dan Jeffery

Assistant Branch Secretary
Reg Morrison

Membership Officer
Dan Jeffrey

Publicity Officer
James Caspell

National Delegate Conference
Dan Jeffery

Local Government Conference
James Caspell

Regional Council
Dan Jeffery

The following candidates have been elected unopposed:
Assistant Publicity Officer
Gurmeet Khurana

International Officer
Gurmeet Khurana

Young Members Officer
James Caspell

If elected, we will:
« Demand to see Lambeth Council’s accounts and find out why and how Lambeth housing is millions of pounds in debt. No more £1000 per day consultants! Open the books!
« Fight against all redundancies and job losses – including “voluntary” redundancies. Campaign for staff to refuse to cover posts and refuse overtime while staff are being made redundant
« Launch an anti-bullying campaign and end the culture of management bullying and harassment
« Campaign to end scales 1, 2 and 3. Decent wages for all!
« Launch an effective campaign for decent wage increases and an increase in London weighting. We need to force the UNISON leadership to escalate the campaign to include sustained strike action and occupations if we are to win.
« Have no more talking shops and no more “sweetheart deals”– worthless agreements with employers and Councillors made without support of the members.
« Ensure decent working conditions for all staff. Lambeth must abide by health and safety law!
« Build a campaign to defeat plans to further privatise services and cut jobs; fight to bring all council services back in-house. No more auctioning off of council houses!
« Oppose the ALMO – fight for council housing to be brought back under direct council control
« Campaign to set up a Direct Labour Organisation (DLO), implement apprenticeships and training to provide staff and local people with skills and jobs.
« Work with residents to oppose service cuts, privatisation and above inflation increases in rents and charges, and demand substantial investment in public services.
« Demand that councillors support Lambeth’s workers and tenants – or campaign against them in the next local elections. End automatic and uncritical UNISON support for Labour.
« Win the increased severance payments staff have been promised.
« Fight for branches to have the right to set up hardship funds to support members in time of need

How we will build the Branch:
« Organise to recruit and involve temporary workers, shift workers and young people. Campaign for lower union fees. The more members we have, the stronger we will be!
« A steward and notice board in every shop – fighting the bosses in every workplace.
« Ensure convenors and stewards visit workplaces and hold regular workplace meetings.
« An easily accessible web site publicising contact details and actions taken by Branch Officers.
« Regular newsletters in every directorate – let’s communicate our successes.
« Fight against racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination. Assist democratic and accountable self-organised groups to get more members involved.
« Branch officers to be fully accountable – all Convenors and Officers to publish monthly reports of how they spend their time to serve you.
« Make the Branch Office more attractive and welcoming, for the use of all members.
« Branches and Directorates to have the right to elect industrial action committees and control and manage their own industrial disputes.

Our broader policies:
« Demand that national and regional UNISON officials are elected annually. All representatives should get the average worker’s wage. Our General Secretary earns £100,000+ a year!
« Fight for to scrap the anti-union laws such as the ban on secondary strikes
« Work to stop climate change, starting by establishing workplace environment reps
« Fight for mass mobilisation and self-defence by the working class and oppressed groups against the BNP and other far-right organisations.
« Show solidarity with workers across the world! Coordinate our struggles with other local trade unions and with workers in other countries to win better rights for all.

Should your office be closed?

· The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 stipulate that the minimum temperature in an office should be 16 degrees Celsius (61 Fahrenheit).

· Further relevant statute legislation is section 6 of the Offices Shops & Railway Premises Act 1963. The appropriate bits state:

- "(2) Where a substantial proportion of the work done in a room to which the foregoing subsection applies does not involve severe physical effort, a temperature of less than 16 degrees Celsius (61F) shall not be deemed, after the first hour, to be a reasonable temperature while work is going on.

- (3)...there shall be provided for persons who are employed to work in a room to which... this section would apply, conveniently accessible and effective means of enabling them to warm themselves.

- (6)It shall be the duty of the employer of persons for whom means of enabling them to warm themselves are provided in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section to afford them reasonable opportunities for using those means, and if he fails so to do he shall be guilty of an offence."

Are we really fighting in UNISON?

By James Caspell, Lambeth UNISON

Earlier this year, local government workers in UNISON voted for sustained industrial action in support of their claim to "catch up and match up" their salaries with the level of inflation over the last two years, and reject yet another pay cut being imposed by a Labour Government.

Despite this, after just two days of strike action, UNISON’s national bureaucracy decided to suspend all further threats of industrial action, without consultation, before even entering formal negotiations with the employer, therefore undermining the only tactic we had strong enough to win our demands – the collective withdrawal of our labour power.

Since then negotiations have ensued behind closed doors with little obvious progress. Inflation has continually risen, reaching 5.2% last month using the Governments own measure, whilst Labour continues to expect local government workers to accept a 2.75 % pay cut in real terms. The logical step for UNISON would have been be to actually demand more than the original 6% claim, and continue to seek inflation proofing for the two year period, backed up with hard-hitting and sustained industrial action as demanded by the membership, yet instead we have seen total capitulation from our national leadership – and not for the first time.

The national bureaucracy cited low turnout as a reason for suspending the campaign for industrial action and it is true that the union was not as solid as it could have been had the workforce been more confident.

Yet many grassroots activists report that the reason for widespread apathy within trade unions is that members know that whatever they "threaten" with regards to collective action, it will be compromised by weak "leadership" and selling out at the earliest possible opportunity. Such compromises are subsequently sold to the membership as a “victory” when they are nothing of the sort.

It is indeed a vicious circle in terms of rebuilding strong fighting unions, but one which can only be broken by rebuilding the trade union movement from the bottom up.

The real solution is to wrestle power and focus away from the unelected bureaucrats and put it back in the hands of rank-and-file workers. The only way of doing that is to organise and empower workers at a shop level upwards, encompassing the "bread and butter" issues which affect them; fighting local injustice and broadening the scope out to wider issues on the back of real successes, rather than empty promises.

Unions need to spell a vision not simply of "nationalising" organisations and bringing them into “public ownership”, but exemplifying what workers-control and co-operation looks like. This requires not only widespread local activism, but political education and encouraging the energy and enthusiasm of workers to participate, instead of pacifying them and seeking to win demands without workers taking part. It is the task of socialists to organise, educate and agitate the working class, not get elected and try and change the system from within devoid of tangible real mass activism.

Why are we calling for hollow demands of "nationalisation" and "public ownership" without any explanation of what that would entail in a way that would benefit the working class? As a result of the credit crunch, the ideology of capitalism has taken a blow which needs to be exploited by painting a picture of what a socialist alternative looks like. The fact that evictions have increased since the “nationalisation” of Northern Rock exemplifies how vacuous it is to repeat the same tired transitional demands at a point when even the three bourgeois parties accept he need for state intervention in the banking sector.

Similarly "planning" should not be centralised by default, but by exception. The only way plans based on socialism and co-operation will be receptive to the needs of people and their communities is if they are the driving force behind them and have control over them collectively, not a centralised bureaucracy, whether it be under a capitalist or "workers" government. The same applies to trade unions.

However, there are as many political and legislative obstacles within our unions, especially at branch level, as there are imposed by central government. Last year UNISON’s bureaucracy launched a disciplinary investigation into five union officers for printing and publishing a leaflet attacking the leadership for blocking the union conference's right to debate issues such as the funding of the Labour Party, the election of fulltime officials and control over strike action. A third of all motions were ruled out of order last year and nearly half of all motions have been ruled out for this year's conference, seemingly for political reasons. Who needs bosses with union bureaucrats like these?

There is a need to reclaim the union, but this cannot be done through regional and national elections alone. UNISON United Left are perhaps admirable in seeking to achieve electoral gains from above, but any effort to win the union at the top will remain vacuous whilst the membership remains almost entirely disengaged at a grassroots level.

Institutionally, the bureaucracy is a cancer of the workers movement rife with material and political privilege for those at the top, and must eventually be swept aside. Through the process of building a rank-and-file union movement is the need to encourage, even demand, that members take ownership over the decision making process and participate in the running of their union in their shops and branches.

There is a lot of room for manoeuvre in the strength of collective action to initiate socialist ideas within the trade union movement, but it requires a fundamental change of approach. Activists need to rid themselves of the default mindset of "what can we do for our members" to encouraging and facilitating workers to take action for themselves and demonstrate what can be achieved through collective action. Representation and workers participation and control are not mutually exclusive, but the former is entirely meaningless, from a socialist perspective, without the latter.

Ultimately for trade unions to be at the forefront of a socialist transformation of society, it will be necessary to break the law. However, in the interim, activists can work to energise workers at a local level and demonstrate that collective action can achieve outcomes from which everyone benefits. For trade unions to pose a socialist, revolutionary alternative, it is essential for activists to organise, educate and agitate alongside and amongst workers, not in place of them.