Time to join a Union #SummerOfSolidarity

 

I was asked to present to te Independent socialists of Wellingborough meeting on the Theme of Trade Unionism today and in the future. The following is the transcript of what I presented. 

The Trade Union Movement 2022 and beyond

I’ve been a union member since 1983. First in ASTMS and after a period of time out of the Country I have been a member of UNISON since 1993. The entire time I have been a UNISON member I have been working in the voluntary and community sector. UNISON has only been organising in this sector in the last 12 years and some part of the country evidently find this more difficult than others as in my region this sector still has no lay leadership and no influence on decision making in the organisation.

The Community and voluntary sector of the union is biggest growing sector in UNISON. This is mainly as a result of neo-liberal policies put forward to shrink the state and outsource public services to third party organisations many of whom act as if their primary duty is to their shareholders. These are care services, leisure services. These are workers who have been impacted by the 2021 Supreme Court final judgement on a case of great significance for care providers and low-paid care workers. The case in question was Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, was first brought to an Employment Tribunal in 2016. It turned on whether care workers on ‘sleep-in shifts’ were entitled to the national minimum wage for the full duration of their shift, including time spent asleep.  ‘Sleep-in shifts’ are those where workers are required to sleep at a residence overnight with the possibility of waking to provide care. The Supreme Court found that those on sleep-in shifts in social care are not entitled to the national minimum wage while asleep over turning previous tribunal victories.

This case related to an employment that 20 years ago would be undertaken by a local government or health agency but now undertaken by a charity. Does this have an impact on tribunal/supreme court decisions?

The workers in the community sector are often in insecure employment. Perhaps on time limited contracts or hours which go up and down at the drop of a hat. Often the kind of jobs that are done are central to the welfare of the most vulnerable in our community and this ethical angle is often exploited by employers to eek out every last bit of goodwill and flexibility to ensure that the bottom line on the budget reports are as low as they can possibly be.

With better employers looking at what they can do to support their worker through the cost of living crisis, what hope for those in the community sector. 

With the actions of the #SummerOfSolidarity with industrial action from the RMT, ASLEF, the CWU and Criminal Bar Association going on strike, there has been a re-discovering of the both the mundane (who’s going to be on the picket at 6am) to the creative use of social media to engage and update the public.

There is more to come of this with local government, health and the national education union all at various stages of balloting membership for strike action.

Within this there is a dimension-shifting disconnect between all kinds of the political establishment and unions taking industrial action.

Firstly in the Labour Party, the picket of not to picket. Front benchers notable by their absence. Backbenchers link Zara Sultana embracing the #Solidarity.

Even with in the Conservative Party, there are discussions about the inconvenience of Train Drivers taking action on some days and Train Maintenance and support staff taking action on other days. Would not it be more sensible to take action on the same day they say. Conservative industrial relations guru’s the number one supporters of the general strike!

This after all is the source of compassionate conservatism who joined the public outcry when P and O Ferries made more than 1000 workers redundant with no consultation on March. These employees were sacked by a pre-recorded zoom message and initial statements about government legal action disappeared like the morning mist. Individuals were left on their own with a complex and lengthy tribunal process or the company payout which was just slightly more that they would get in tribunal. So dismayed was the government about this, that they are now considering taking action to use agency workers to break strikes.

On the more positive side is the creation of the Enough Is Enough campaign. Crucially significant is the adoption of a broader set of demands

The five demands to tackle the crisis

1. A Real Pay Rise.

2. Slash Energy Bills.

3. End Food Poverty.

4. Decent Homes for All.

5. Tax the Rich.

At a time of spiralling housing, energy and food costs. Workers need wages but they also need a homes, food and utilities

Night before last there was also an announcement by the TUC.

The announcement itself came about with quite a lot of hype and expectation, being released at 10.30pm at night. When the details came out of a petition campaign for £15 an hour by 2030.

While the call for £15 national minimum wage is to be welcomed the aspiration for this by 2030 is poor and as a movement we can and should do better than this

Housing lack of options

Growing up on the east side of Northampton, Billing Aquadrome was something we generally associated with as fun. Over the years the park has changed in a number of different ways with increasing numbers of people choosing to live full time. For some it is being seen by some as a route to having stable housing. But the thing is it just isn’t. I was on the site yesterday, the day before it was shutting down for a month. With residents required to be off site for four weeks of the year, the stability is limited. A couple of years back my daughter took in a pensioner who’s family had said that they had saved for a hotel for the four weeks break. When push came to shove, when the money wasn’t there, the family went to a range of alternatives including sofa’s of friends and tents.  Unwilling to see a pensioner living in a tent over January, my daughter took her in for the four weeks.

Over the four week break, the site seems increasingly prone to flooding. Over the weekend much of the areas around the paths and community facilities on site seemed waterlogged. The burden on home makers and care givers increase in such conditions, particularly when making a move for four weeks. A far cry from the summer fun of the fair.

People talk about the advantages in only having to pay for ground rent rather than Council tax but this in itself goes into the thousands. Coupled to the fact that fuel has to be purchased from the camp management and gas is about twice the cost of that off site. There are other hidden costs such as the requirement for Gas safety certifications which have to purchased from the site management and any improvements to pitches (decking or fencing) having to be again be purchased from site management at inflated costs.

The concern is that people living in these environments are disconnected from the rest of the community. With no access to postal services and a long walk to most other facilities, it’s easy to see why people living on the site have no voice. As just a market opportunity to be exploited, the human cost of which is hidden. It is after all somebody else’s business, somebody else’s choice. Of the people that I know living on this site many have taken the option as a result of broken relationships, and with the leading cause of homelessness being the cessation of private sector tenancies, the option of living in a caravan park is increasingly an option. Much less of a choice than, an option on an every reducing list of options.

Part of the reason for the voicelessness is the disconnect from the rest of the system. This includes electorally with few if any being registered to vote. With Tory Councillors on the borough and County Council having responsibility for the area for the last fourteen years, (with the notable interlude of a Tory councillor who defected to labour in 2011) there is no interest in addressing these issues.

Over the Christmas new year period, the has been quite rightly focus on the number of people sleeping rough on the streets, but homelessness is so much more complex than that. With at least one woman saying to me that the ones on the street are the only genuinely homeless people there seems to be a reticence to deal with the wider aspiration of affordable housing in the town that is available for all.

Tent Village Spin

With the front page of the Chron focussing on the tent village (now cleared) the local spin seems significant. The site now has an infestation of local lib dem Councillors as they look to get their next quote in the paper.

I'm sure there were some homeless people on the site (at least one to my knowledge) but despite the headline most from the picture are kids I know who have problems with their parents and who like the lack of supervision that creates opportunities to drink large amounts of alcohol and hang out with the opposite sex. The picture features two lads from St James (Symington Street)and one from Kings Heath (Swale Drive). The site has been used off and on by these kids for the past few months.

It highlights the real problems that young people have. The need to feel valued and loved and when they need it proper housing advice that gives then options not to be in a tent. Sasha in the photo has been homeless for some weeks now, and it is testimony to the lack of accessibility of the Borough Councils Homelessness advice that she has ended up in a tent.

The kids are all good in their own way, have said please and thank you when they've eat in my house but need the real things in life to achieve anything more than self indulgence when they get the money.

Regeneration in the recession

That time of year again. You know when the kids are all sick and suddenly Liberal Democrats re-discover the areas that the represent. So with a new focus out in Kings Heath (featuring three photos of Councillors in Spencer and focus on Dallington Park and Spencer Brook ... do they really know so little of what exists North of Mill Road) what's interesting is the news that isn't there. Over the last few weeks the talk from West Northants Development Corporation has been about demlotion of some of the housing on Kings Heath. It's fairly horrifying how blasé the discussion is on the destruction of people's homes. What's more horrifying is that the demolition being proposed is not for the worst housing on the estate. Given this fact, it just does make you question to motivation of actions like this.