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Annual Conference Nov 2009

 

 

Eastern Regional LG Annual Conference - Nov 2009

Delegates from all over the Eastern Region met on 20th November from Local Government branches to attend briefing sessions on Equal Pay, Shared services, medium term finance. This will help them advise members and take a lead in local negotiations when employers move through many changes.
 
Kevin O Grady, who is Chair of the Eastern Region Local Government Committee said:
'This is a rocky time for many of our members as local Authorities plan far reaching changes. Councils will change out of all recognition. They will merge, 'share' service provision, share Chief Executives - as they are doing in Brentwood and Essex County and try many options to cut costs. These will impact on members jobs and it is vital that we get as many members involved as possible.  We need to speak up for the Public Services.'

Million Voices

Delegates signed up to the national campaign a ' Million Voices for Public Services'  Cambridgeshire County are to be congratulated as one of the first to sign up on the website and featured in U Focus magazine.


Jane Sharpe, Branch Secretary of East Herts Council called on members to:

"Back public services and show that people matter more than profits."

Kevin O Grady presented the Annual report and congratulated branches on their success in recruiting new members to the union

'We are currently on track to meet the target we set ourselves of 3% net growth over and above turnover this year. Congratulations to all of you for your efforts to make this happen.'

There are a number of factors behind this success but our work around equal pay and through Regional Pool funded posts and regionally supported projects such as in schools and smaller branches has given us a huge boost.

Kevin thanked all of our branch activists who have worked really hard to organise and support members creating a great reputation for UNISON.

Kevin said:

Our successes for members helps make us the union of choice as we can see from this growth and by the numbers signing up through our new online form

Equal Pay


Delegates to the Regional Local Government conference on 20th November 09, had an update briefing from Regional Organiser, MIchelle Bradley who heads the Region's Equal Pay team.

Case work

Excluding Equal Pay claims, the Region has referred one hundred and twenty five cases to Thompson’s for legal advice and support. The latest success in Bedfordshire saw one of our members win his unfair dismissal claim against Aldwyck Housing. A number of branches have now started to use CASE forms for their own casework, not just for cases referred to region.


East of England Joint Council- UNISON leads the trade union side

We have continued to work within the Regional Joint Council to try to foster good employment practice throughout the Region –particularly through joint sponsorship of an Equality Award and the Workforce Development Award.  Despite a challenge to us last year for the post of Chair and Secretary, UNISON held both seats and even with changes of Head of Local Government , we have retained both again this year. Kevin O'Grady was elected as Chair and Ann Vinden, the Eastern Regional Head of Local Government, was elected as Secretary.
The East of England Trade Union Side.


Service Group Review

Moves to organise the union to be more effective in supporting members in work have led to some key changes delegates heard.
This year’s National Delegate conference decided to set up a new Community and Voluntary (C&V) Service group but advised this would not impact on branches. Our work in this Region through the C&V Forum and the pool funded post in Herts and Cambs will help us decide on the next steps regionally.

Probation members will join our Police Service Group.

Branch Organisation

This year we had use of a new national Framework Assessment which the vast majority of our branch secretaries completed with their Regional Organisers. The branches were asked follow through to using this information to complete our regional MODERN checklist and branch development plans has been patchy. Branches that have made the effort have been rewarded with higher levels of growth in general, and some have even been able to take advantage of regional pool fund awards.


Retirements

This year several members of our Regional Local Government committee have finally put down their mantles and retired: Allan Baxter, who for a long time was one of our SGE reps, and branch secretary of Peterborough LG until a couple of years ago, Thelma Reed, branch secretary of Watford Branch, and Kevin Hussey from Essex County branch. All generously gave of their time both locally and regionally.
Eastern Region LG President for 2009, Jackie Martin said:

'We wish them the very best for long and happy retirements.'

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