Section 114 and the Community Sector

 

With section 114 in the news again, I’m looking back to what happened in Northamptonshire County Council and the implications and outcomes for local third sector organisations in Nottingham who are now facing this. Much was written about the car crash of local government that was Northamptonshire County Council. For those in Northamptonshire, the warning signs were clear as for the years before virtually every Tory policy attacking working people were trialled out in the organisation.

In 2015-16 saw the council workforce moved out of NJC terms and conditions in a version of what we would now call fire and re-hire. This was essentially the organisation forcing the people working for it, to bear the financial burden of strategic and managerial failure. There were a variety of large scale expensive projects to re-configure, privatise and outsource huge amount of the service delivery of the Council, with one historic Chief Executive having a vision of the council ending up with just 500 employees.

When the crunch came with the two section 114 notifications being issued in 2018, the majority of the voluntary sector investment was in a single social wellbeing contract which was already cut from  £2.6 million in 2016 to £1.6 million in 2018. When the county emerged out of the dust of local government re-organisation, most of the groups delivering services were found at least some re-source apart from the single Black organisation, Dostiyo Asian Women and Girls organisation. Despite “concerns” of the then Executive Director for Adults, Communities and Wellbeing, there was no resource forthcoming for them to continue the work.

Smaller grants to grassroots organisations disappeared overnight in July 2018 as £1.3 million delivered by Northamptonshire Community Foundation disappeared overnight. Behind every single one of these cuts is the human faces of people losing work and communities losing the services that they so desperately rely on.

The key issues for the local voluntary and charitable sector was not only the insecurity delivering a difficult environment to work in, but the lack of base or core funding means the local groups do not have the leverage of those in other parts of the country who do have this. From the experience in Northamptonshire, it will be services to disabled people and black communities that will be hit hardest. This as at a time when, the cost of living crisis is hammering those communities hardest. This is why it is so important that there is organisation by trade unions in those communities where section 114’s are being issued. The question is whether this is happening effectively enough, with enough focus and with the right insight to be effective.

Not My King - It's personal

 

I’m taking this personally. It’s like this because I care about all the people who are genuinely struggling in our community. The single parent of three children who cant afford the electricity for the equipment to keep her baby breathing, the family that have repeatedly asked me for information about direct aid to assist with gas and electricity payments and the hospital worker asking for a charity food distribution service to accommodate her as she could only get there after her shift.

All of these and many more could have dearly benefited a share of the estimated £100 million spent on the event. An event for an individual was already in the super rich of this country who was already king. Initially Charles Windsor had stated that he personally wished for a scaled back event and what the country got seemed to be a coronation on amphetamines. After all what other event  focussing on the monarchy is associated with rushed through legislative change which saw community safety workers arrested for distributing rape alarms, journalists arrested for filming protesters, and protesters with their placards taken into police custody early doors after weeks of negotiations with the Police.

It's been reported that Charles is profoundly grateful to all who helped with the coronation. This is significantly at odds with his lip read comments reported by Sky news of “We can never be on time. …This is a negative. There’s always something…This is boring,”. Perhaps it would have been less boring if he could have seen the protesters who were screened off from him.

Former Tory Leadership candidate and minister Tom Tugendhat has defended new laws hurriedly signed off days before the coronation. They include a 12-month prison sentence for protesters who block roads and a six-month prison sentence or unlimited fine for anyone who locks on to others, objects or buildings. Police will also be able to stop and search protesters they suspect are setting out to cause “disruption”. There has been no clarity on the guidelines to hosting a “non-disruptive protest” so the goalposts are open to movement.

And after the Coronation there is the call to action for the Big Help out. A rallying shout to all the subjects to volunteer in their communities. It is as always all about the money. The money on the coronation will translate to the absence of pay for teachers, nurses and other public sector workers who’s income after years of austerity simply hasn’t kept up with food or energy costs. To those who work in the community and charity sector the last few years has meant low pay and insecure employment. Again disproportionately affecting black and young workers. The coronation costs will come from somewhere. In the same way that the coronation gems on display were stolen from the African and Asia, the costs of it will be stolen from the mouths of our children.

To all those who seek to represent or promote the monarchy, this is a moment in time when you have chosen which side you are supporting. To those partying the night away at concerts and street parties or rubbing shoulders with the great and the good at yet another faith or interfaith focussed coronation blessings, it is clear that you are colluding against those of us that wish to tackle inequalities and seek to draw attention to and ensure action to address historic inequalities and injustices. Whether this about addressing the proportion of Charles Windsor’s net worth of £1.8 billion was accumulated through the slave trade or the massive transfer of wealth from the Indian Sub-continent or the subjugation of the people of Ireland, you have to choose what you care about most. That’s because it does matter.

I’m in a Trade Union – Why should I get involved with a Black Members Self Organised group?

 

In UNISON, Black is used to indicate people with a shared history. Black with a capital 'B' is used in its broad political and inclusive sense to describe people in Britain that have suffered colonialism and enslavement in the past and continue to experience racism and diminished opportunities in today's society.

Right here and now, the challenges for both those in and out of work are extreme. With many facing the poison cocktail of both low pay and exponentially climbing bills the future looks at the very best insecure with many households simply at a loss to know what to do.

We know that Black members are likely to be in more insecure and lower paid work. We also know that they are more likely to experience poor outcomes in their engagement with public services as a result of structural racism. Just this weekend there has been another report published about the longer waits that Black communities face for cancer diagnosis. These kind of struggles can only be tackled by organising to challenge inequalities. Organising within workplaces has long been an effective strategy to identify and campaign for improvements in our lives with the support and solidarity of others.

I am inviting Black members of West Northants UNISON branch to a meeting of the Black Self Organised Group taking place on Monday 5th September at 6pm the office at 6 Darnell Way Moulton Park NN3 6RW Northampton. Hot and cold drinks and light refreshments will be available.

There will be a warm welcome whether you are or you are not active member currently.

Discussion will include:

Role holders in the Self Organised Group (Chair, Vice Chair etc)

Future meetings

Future events

2023 National Black Members Conference, 20 – 22 January 2023, The Exchange, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 150 Morrison St, Edinburgh EH3 8EE, UK

               Motions

               Delegates/visitors

Workplace issues

If you want to have an informal discussion before the meeting, please feel free to get in touch through the branch or directly

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

Returning to familiar space

 It seems that involuntary removal of my Labour Party membership is an event that takes place once every thirteen years.

I’ve looked back at the last time this has happened when I wrote this. I guess things are pretty much the same but this time I am without the good company of the late Geoff Howes.

For people wanting to know what the crack is, I am accused of being an active member of Labour Left Alliance. This is a group I never have been a paid up member to and a group others have told me have no members. The evidence is one post two years ago which ironically enough  is mildly critical of the Corbyn administration of the Labour Party. You can read the documentation here and here.

The Labour Party National Executive proscribed Labour Left Alliance in March 2022.  It did not notify any members that the organisation has been proscribed but perhaps that’s a little academic when the proscription was retrospective so no member could take action to protect their membership if they found themselves added to a social media group or chat.

I want to thank again those comrades who have got in touch with me to offer solidarity and support. I remain who and am and continue to have the same values regardless of the views of the Labour Party about me.

I also want to encourage people to act together to achieve change with or without the Labour Party by joining the enough is enough campaign.

They have 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.

Find more about it here

Unitary Democracy?

So after the announcement of cancelled elections earlier in March it now seems that there is no democratic component in the establishment of the West Northants and North Northants Unitary Council. Conservative government and Conservative Councils think it's OK for you not to have a voice.

Across the country, a third of poorer families are missing out on free food vouchers - In Northamptonshire nearly half are doing so.

Women who are at least 10 weeks pregnant or who have a child under the age of four can get vouchers worth £3.10 a week to spend on fruit, vegetables milk and other foods at participating stores. Any woman who receives benefits such as income support or jobseeker’s allowance, or who lives in a home where someone does can make a claim for the vouchers.

The vouchers were brought in UK-wide in 2006 by Labour in an effort to improve the diets of poorer families and narrow the nutritional gap between rich and poor. However, the scheme is poorly promoted and so lots of families are missing out.

There is plenty of research to show the benefits of the scheme in not only addressing food poverty but also helping develop good eating habits in young children whose families get the vouchers and improving the health of pregnant women and new mothers.

The scheme is a national one, but families in our county are missing out a lot more than other parts of the country and there are several reasons for this.

With spending on public health in the county in turmoil following the double bankruptcy of the Conservative County council and with audit questions on the use of public health funds in the Council there simply has not been the leadership in the County to address the low take up as a priority. We have a Tory council, busy raising Council tax to the maximum and balancing budgets to address structural deficits but without the time or consideration to see how the lives of the poorest families in our county can be improved at little cost to the council.

In addition to this, little is done to ensure a choice of retailers willing to accept the vouchers. There is an online process of registering as a retailer in order that they can claim back the money. In Tower Hamlets, the local council is promoting local market stalls as retailers accepting vouchers stating that the food is cheaper and fresher than in supermarkets. In this way the Council is not only promoting access to free nutritious food to low income families but is also promoting local businesses and entrepreneurs in the town. 

In some parts of the town (Kingsley front) the only retailers that accept the vouchers are ones that have closed down. With assistance from the Kingsley Park and Links View Residents Association a number of independent retailers in the area have been approached to encourage them to register to the scheme.