Battling for Bolton Issue 4

the magazine of Bolton UNISON Winter 2014 Issue 4 Free

Celebrate Teaching Assistants! `The End of Local Government As We Know It’ Cuts, Cuts, Cuts Zero Hour Horror Your Guide to Management Speak Bedroom Tax Blues European Elections Frack Off! Mental Health Bed Axe

Council Workers’ Pay Claim We’re Worth It!

Plus...News, Views, Branch Reports and UNISON around Bolton...

Dear UNISON Member Welcome to the latest issue of your local UNISON magazine, Battling for Bolton.

We continue to face cuts on an unprecedented scale. At the time of writing we have been told that Bolton Council plans further cuts in the region of £25 million for 2015/16.

Comments made by Chancellor George Osborne show that there is a clear political agenda to make permanent cuts in public services and that this has nothing to do with tackling the deficit.

We have to use all avenues to resist the agenda of cuts and privatisation.

Our branch has been at the forefront of lobbying politicians to get our message across. It’s worth remembering that our local councillors still have choices to

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make - however limited.

In 2014 we will be campaigning on pay, as local authority workers have effectively suffered an 18% cut in living standards since 2010. UNISON is not asking for the 14% pay rise that top bosses and bankers receive. We are calling for an increase of at least £1 per hour. That means that the 800 lowest paid Bolton Council workers would receive a Living Wage of £7.65 an hour.

Please look out for further details.

COMPETITION TIME…

Win The Spirit of 45 DVDs and Alun Parry CDs… To give away this issue, Bolton UNISON has three DVDs of the ace welfare state celebration film, The Spirit of 45, plus twenty CDs featuring socialist folk singer Alun Parry. All you have to do for a chance of winning one of these prizes is to answer this question…

We need to continue to recruit and organise to build the union’s strength.

Whenever our members are strong and united we have the power to influence Can you name the Bolton director of the new film Mandela: Long and change things.

Walk To Freedom?

Bernadette Gallagher Answers, including your name and address or contact details to CONTACT either admin@unisonbolton.org or BOLTON drop them off or send to the Bolton UNISON office: Ground Floor, UNISON Howell Croft House, Howell Croft North, Bolton BL1 1QY Ground Floor, Howell Croft House, Howell Croft North, Bolton BL1 1QY Phone: 01204 338901 admin@unisonbolton.org www.unisonbolton.org Contact us if you’ve moved house, changed job, got a new name or to join Britain’s biggest and fastest growing trade union (see membership form at the back of the mag)

The winner of the 12 month gym membership from the Stress Awareness Week is: Laura Owens, Social Worker at Castle Hill.

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Contents We’re Worth It!

Wage rise demanded

`The End of Local Government As We Know It’ What can we do about the cuts?

Celebrate Teaching Assistants!

Zero Hour Horror Your Guide to Management Speak Reconfiguration, anyone?

Jesus Was A Socialist!

The very angry, very Reverend Tony Cowell

Bedroom Tax Blues

The sad poverty saga that ends in court

European Elections

In or Out? But your vote must count!

Frack Off!

Bolton goes anti-fracking at Barton Moss

Third Sector Struggles Mental Health Bed Axe UNISON AGM

Officers’ reports and accounts

CUTS CUTS CUTS

£63million over next three years “This is the end of local government as we know it” Councillor Linda Thomas Deputy Leader Bolton Council at the Cabinet meeting 11th November 2013

Extracts from the Cabinet Report 11th November 2013 * “It is inevitable that budget reductions on this scale will result in further significant reduction in the number of jobs within the organisation” * “The scale of change is completely unprecedented” * “There will be radical change over the next 4 years” * “£63 million over next 3 years…37% of the controllable budget” * “16.5% in 20 1516”

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What does this mean for workers?

Possible areas the council may look at are… * Compulsory redundancies: this has been avoided to date but looks more likely * Further privatisation: The Council has commissioned `expert technical advice’ at a cost of up to £50k to advise on alternative delivery models. None of the models can in themselves save money. Therefore cuts will have to be made to staff or terms and conditions either before or after transfer. Do not think TUPE will protect you * Cuts to Terms and Conditions: The Council could force all staff to take unpaid `leave’ of between three to five days every year; cease incremental progression; stop the 7% payments for shift working; cease double time for bank holiday or reduce the sick pay scheme.

Who is responsible for the cuts?

Tory chancellor George Osborne stated on 6th January that there will be a further £25 billion cuts in the public sector.

This is not to tackle the deficit but to shrink the role of the state. However the Council does have choices, albeit limited. It could decide to make the cuts ‘in year’ and not one year earlier and balance the books using reserves.

CUTS CUT Bolton UNISON steward, Matt Kilsby, explains what is going on at Bolton Council, as ‘experts’ costing £50,000 are brought in to slash services and jobs…

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he Council cabinet has approved the broad strategy for making £63m cuts from 2015-18. The cuts will be approximately £25m in 2015-16, but they’ll be looking to implement them a year early. That means that these `private sector experts’ will be working-up options over the summer for implementation to start in the autumn.

This is so they can make the savings before February 2015. So when they set the budget and make the decision over which cuts to make in February 2015, all the implementation will already have been done!

local government. However unlikely this seems, with the Council making the cuts in the way that it is doing, it will be no use to our members in May 2015 as they’ll already be down the road.

Of course, this is despite the fact that there is likely to be a new (Labour majority) government in May 2015, which may give a bit more money back to

At the moment we do not know where the axe is going to fall, in terms of services and Terms and Conditions. What we are sure of is that we are going to see,

So alongside our demand for the Council to set a lawful and balanced `no cuts’ budget in 2015, at the very least we want them to defer making these cuts until after May 2015 elections. They could still do this and set a legal budget in February 2016. It’s simple really: they do not have to make the 2015-16 cuts now.

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TS CUTS from autumn if the Council doesn’t change tack, compulsory redundancies, privatisation and outsourcing (of any service that is or isn’t nailed down) and attacks on universal Terms and Conditions The savings required are now so great that one or any combination of the above will come to pass.

We cannot say for sure exactly what the proposals will be because we are not being consulted on, or even informed of, the findings and recommendations that these private sector experts come up with. We have tried (and got nowhere) to get the council to employ APSE (Association of Public Sector Excellence) to do this consultancy work, but the problem with them is that their primary aim is to keep services in-house and public. That doesn’t fit in with the Council and Chief Officers’ grand vision of commissioning and privatisation.

According to the Council, we do not have the in-house expertise to come up

with options and proposals as to how the next round of cuts are going to be made, hence the need for a private sector expert. This expertise is going to cost £50,000 for phase 1 and could end-up costing a hell of a lot more if they choose to employ the same people to do phase 2, which is the implementation.

Members should also know that at the same time they’re employing these `experts’, they’re letting in-house senior managers go on VER: the Assistant Chief Executive and the Assistant Director for Customer Services. They could do the work that is required and provide that in-house expertise. But instead they’ll be going on massive packages and then the Council will pay another load of money out to cover for the people they’ve just let go. A colossal waste of public money.

We’ll be holding plenty of meetings throughout March, April and beyond and members need to get along to all those meetings to hear about what’s going on and we can do about it.

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Bolton UNISON and GMB Call on Bolton Council to… * Set a lawful and balanced `no cuts budget’ for 2015 using available Council reserves and prudential borrowing permitted by regulation, in order to provide space and time to launch a united campaign of Labour (and other) councils, trade unionists, community groups, civil society organisations, service users and campaigners to force the government, whatever the party make-up, to agree a new settlement for local government, with equitable needs-based distribution, that is focussed on stimulating local economic growth, halting cuts and meeting social need. * Re-affirm no compulsory redundancies position. * Immediately engage with the trades unions on any proposals and not when the proposals are well developed. * Make urgent representations to the town’s Labour MPs, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls to get a commitment that a Labour government elected in May 2015 will abandon Tory spending plans and cancel all current cuts to local government funding planned for 2015 and beyond. * Reverse the decision to employ a consultant at a cost of £50,000. At a time when our members are at the sharp end of the cuts, the appointment of a consultant on this basis is wholly unacceptable.

Bolton Chief Officer: “This is the end of local government” -

* To set up a joint vacancy management panel to include elected members to review all vacancies and the use of costly agency workers A senior officer with Bolton Council who and volunteers. does not wish to be named has said that the current scale of cuts to local councils * An end to compromise agreements for chief “will mean the end of local government officers and senior managers without objective as we know it”. The officer concerned justification. felt that the combined effect of over £160 million in council cuts will have a * Ensure decisions are made with the full “devastating effect” on the town. transparency and involvement of all elected members rather than a small few, preferably “I cannot believe that councillors and local with a return to the Council Committee system. people are not kicking up more of a fuss” the officer added “Our staff are working * Ensure that every redundancy is accompanied flat out to provide the best level of service with an extensive list of work that is to cease that they can in a really difficult climate, and diminish. Our members will not carry out the recent pay freezes and 1% pay the work of their colleagues whose posts have increase have been an absolute insult to been made redundant. them”.

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Can Councils Fight The Cuts?

At the UNISON 2013 Local Government Conference, delegates from Bolton backed a motion stating that the “sustained attack on public services” is “ideologically driven by the Tory led government”.

The motion, which was backed by the conference, called on UNISON to support any councillors or councils that are prepared to make a stand against cutbacks and noted the emergence of a group called Councillors Against the Cuts which argues against implementing the coalition cuts and calls on councillors to work alongside workers and communities in the fight against austerity.

The conference called on the union’s National Executive to initiate debate on how councils can resist cuts to jobs, services and conditions. A significant development recently was that the union’s national Labour Link officer has agreed to meet with representatives of Councillors Against the Cuts.

Look out for further information: http://councillorsagainstcuts.org/

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…Because W

Over the last three years inflation has cut 18% off local government workers’ pay packets, to the point where public sector workers are on the front line of the cost of living crisis….

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here’s no doubt that there’s now a pay crisis amongst public sector workers, as wages remain almost frozen while prices and the cost of living soars.

UNISON’s national response is the Worth It campaign that aims to tackle the pay crisis, agitate for the Living Wage and challenge zero hours contracts.

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, says “In the current climate, politicians - and particularly this Government - have often lost sight of the value of our public service workforce” adding that the union will “fight for a country where our public servants are properly rewarded, not callously reviled.”

“We cannot continue to accept below inflation pay rises”

Over the last three years - during which time many public service workers have been on a virtual pay freeze - inflation has cut 18% off of the value of local government workers’ pay packets, while a new report produced for UNISON by The

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We’re Worth It! New Economics Foundation identifies the biggest fall in living standards since the Victorian era.

We would all get better value for money if people were lifted out of poverty pay rather than receiving benefits.

Coalition policies have resulted in working people losing huge amounts of money since 2010. And there’s no relief any time soon. The ‘short sharp shock’ the Government said we needed in 2010 is going to last until 2016 - and we are in the front line while the rich are still enjoying a cash bonanza. Billionaire companies and millionaire bosses are using off-shoring and tax loopholes to avoid paying their way. At the same time, wages are being squeezed and we’re being asked to do more work for less pay.

“We cannot continue to accept below inflation pay rises” says Bolton branch secretary Bernie Gallagher.

UNISON believes We’re Worth It! The campaign for a public sector pay rise has begun…

Local Government Workers Pay Lunchtime Joint Trade Union Rally Because We’re Worth It! Tuesday 4th February 12:30-2pm Bolton Town Hall steps.

Government funding cuts mean that budgets are under pressure at a time when people who are losing their jobs and benefits need public services the most. Employers are responding to these funding cuts by reducing wages, and terms and conditions of employment.

“If public service workers are losing money and spending less, then the local economy suffers as people have less cash to spend in local shops and businesses” explains Dave Prentis “This is not helping the economic recovery.”

Meanwhile, we are all paying for poverty pay because, as taxpayers, we continue to subsidise employers who pay low wages and whose staff have to rely on in-work benefits. Bad employment behaviour, including zero hours contracts, wage cuts and pay freezes, cost us all.

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“It’s either stand up now and fight or just roll over and die.”

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You’ve Gotta Have Faith!

Tony Cowell combines two roles which, he says, are incredibly linked when it comes to what’s right and what’s wrong. Tony is both a Bolton UNISON convenor for Environmental Services and a Reverend at St Michael’s Church in Great Lever.

Tony the Convenor Sat in the UNISON office, Tony Cowell tells a never ending, honest list of the direct affects of everything that’s happening in the Environmental Services department. From constant reviews and loss of posts, to fortnightly bin collections, agency workers and outsourcing, there’s a biblical storm of problems.

“We’re not in a good place” he says “In the 35 years I’ve worked here I’ve never known it so drastic.”

Tony’s list goes on…

“The streets are looking dirtier, we’ve lost two sweeping machines, I think there’s now only three for the whole of Bolton” he explains “We’ve lost Animal World and Butterfly Park in Moss Bank Park; they’re shipping the last lot of animals out, it’s all finished.

“At the moment within the Albert Halls we’ve got a feasibility study to see which services they are going to keep or outsource” he adds “These are all fancy words for cuts. With another £63m cuts all you can do is to outsource services, and terms and conditions will be affected.”

However, Tony argues that the cuts must be resisted and that staff should bust the myth that the cuts are inevitable.

“We have to fight” he explains “My personal view is that we have to lobby and we have to strike but it’s getting that across to members who are thinking `Is it worth it?’ We’ve already lost around 1300 jobs, but that work is still being done, absorbed by other people.”

Tony talks about the loss of neighbourhood care team staff and six neighbourhood rangers, the strains on workers left doing the fortnightly bin collections, the use of agency staff on zero hours contracts and the increased number of disciplinary issues aimed at his workers.

“I took over this role in August and since then I’m finding myself on a fortnightly basis in investigations and disciplinaries” he adds “What used to be a slap on the hand is now a big investigation, now a disciplinary. I think that they’re trying to get shut of people in other ways…”

It feels like a department under siege but Tony as the trade union representative is urging staff to stand together.

“If people don’t stand together over the next 12 to 18 months then we’ll be finished” he argues “It’s either stand up now and fight or just roll over and die.

That’s the way that it feels.”

And if workers are up for the fight, Tony knows that Jesus would approve…

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Holy Immora Tony the Reverend If, as a trade unionist, Tony is angry about what’s going off in the workplace, he remains just as passionate speaking as a Reverend at St Michael’s Church in Great Lever.

“Personally I think that Christianity and politics have to go hand in hand” he says “If Jesus was here today he’d be a socialist, there’s no two ways about that from my understanding of my readings.

“From a moral point of view I think the cuts are appalling” he adds, questioning the conscience of councillors who vote through the slashed budgets without fully understanding the impact on people.

“And, morally, I think it’s wrong to put people out of their homes and charge Bedroom Tax. My opinion is that, what Thatcher did to the miners this Government is now doing to local government. And the weakest people are being hammered. Everything that we as Christians as socialists fight for, this lot are fighting against.”

Tony has direct experience of ConDem Government blight. His disabled brother now has to pay £12.77 a week Bedroom Tax out of his disability allowance and council credits following the death of his mother who lived in their two bedroom sheltered bungalow.

“They’ve offered to move him but they’d have to pay for adaptations” he explains “But he’s already living somewhere with adaptations so why move him somewhere else and adapt it? It just doesn’t make sense at all.”

At work, in his pastoral role, Tony tries to help the workforce make some kind of sense of the cuts madness that’s hitting their quality of life.

“I find that people want some guidance but it might not always be union guidance, it’s about listening to what their concerns are” he says “There’s a lot of the guys I come across in environmental services on the poverty line, or living in poverty; they’ve got issues at home caused by the cuts and they just want someone there to listen to them.

“I’m finding that my pastoral care skills are being far more used within the role of a convenor at the moment than when I was emptying bins” he adds “Now I’m dealing with many different departments and different problems, all stress related in work - their hours are being cut or they’re not getting their hours in, or they’re being disciplined. It’s all stress accumulating all the time.”

Whether looking for political or spiritual answers to the current woes, Tony Cowell offers faith.

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ality!

“If Jesus was here today he’d be a socialist”

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Manageme If you are struggling to get your head around some of things that are said in meetings and important documents, don’t worry help is at hand. UNISON has put together this easy translation guide for anyone worried about the future of local services but struggling to understand what they are being told by senior managers.

Accountability

it’s your fault not mine

Additionality

remember that person you used to work with? You’ll be doing their job too!

Agile Working

not having a desk

Business Case

if it suits us

Career change opportunity

we are cutting your job

Commissioning Strategy

Privatisation & Cost Cutting Strategy

Consuming your own smoke it’s your fault not mine

Critical Conversations

the ones we don’t want to have

Demand Reduction

Cuts to jobs and services

Dependency Culture

an 89 year old expecting they might have a bus service.

Direction of Travel

we want it to go this way; destination – hell!

Empowerment

I told you to do it so it’s not my fault

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ent Speak Personnel realignment

we are cutting your job

Reconfiguration

cut

Redesign

cut

Rightsizing

we are cutting your job

Risk Enablement

you sign it

Stakeholders

this is a nice term to make you feel special, looks like we’re listening.

Synergies

job cuts

Vision

I have no idea how to make this work but the text book says I have to have a vision

Pay the best to attract the best

Expectations Management

teaching people to expect the worst/ telling people they expect too much

Make it more efficient cut

Managing Down

it’s on its way to you! Dumping work on some poor sod who is paid a lot less

Modernisation

a gradual return to the pay and conditions of the Victorian age

More For Less

work harder for longer with less pay and less pension at the end of it.

Partners

the private companies who want to take over your service

People are our most valuable asset only at executive level

only at executive level

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Bedroom Tax Trials Dee Newman is to appear at Bolton County Court on 12th February over unpaid Bedroom Tax, and the campaign group Bolton Against Bedroom Tax is highlighting her case to show the hurt and horror of a combination of cutbacks and callous Government policy.

The Damp House…

Curley, and moved in with her.

In November 2010 Dee moved into a Bolton at Home (BaH) property in Breightmet. Around eighteen months after moving in she noticed damp patches all over the house and informed her landlord. At first BaH attributed the damp to the asphalt floor until it was pointed out that the damp was all over the house. It was then suggested that she leave her windows and her wardrobe doors open `to air the place out’.

Dee was determined to hang on to her house in the hope that her health would improve enough for her to regain access to her children. As the months passed she battled back to health, recovering sufficiently for the courts to allow her unsupervised access. This meant they were able to stay overnight at the family home, although still under Maggs’ guardianship. But the excessive dampness in the house meant this wasn’t a feasible proposition…. “The place is a serious health risk. I couldn’t allow the children to stay there” Dee said.

Finally BaH changed the heating thermostat, but to no avail. A damp inspection of the property revealed excessively high levels of moisture inside the house. By this time the damp had turned the mattresses and carpets mouldy and penetrated everywhere in the house, even a plastic box containing family photos. Children’s toys were also ruined.

Mental Health Problems…

Dee has a history of mental health problems, including a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In March of 2011 she suffered a relapse of her illness and relinquished custody of her two children.

The youngsters were placed under the guardianship of her mother, Maggs

The Bedroom Tax Because the children weren’t staying in the damp house, Dee became liable for Bedroom Tax which she has declined to pay for two reasons. One, the rooms are uninhabitable; two, if they were habitable her children would be sleeping in them and there would be no `under occupancy’. In any case, money is so short that she already has to go without food for days at a time.

“I’ve no money for clothes, let alone Bedroom Tax” Dee said “I’ve one pair of shoes and two pairs of trousers to wear. I have to wash and wear them

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s and Tribulations

alternatively. I couldn’t pay the extra tax even if I wanted to. Without mum’s support I don’t know what I’d do.”

The Chance of a Move…

In June this year Dee was offered a move to a two-bedroomed house, which she accepted. She waited while repair and refurbishment work was carried out on it.

Then in September the offer was rescinded due to arrears that had accrued since the imposition of the Bedroom Tax. So the children remain at Magg’s and don’t understand why they can’t go to mum’s. And Dee’s health deteriorates.

“I get no time alone with the children, especially in the cold weather” she said “I can’t afford to take them out to McDonalds or

places like that.”

Apart from Maggs, Dee is having to deal with this increasingly difficult situation alone. She no longer has access to the support worker who helped her through the difficult years of her recovery because of cuts to health funding, which is exactly the kind of support and advice she badly needs.

Dee Newman appears at Bolton County Court on 12th February. There will be a protest outside the court. For further details see the Bolton Against Bedroom Tax facebook group or follow the blog at http://cathyscominghome.blogspot.co.uk/ *Ian Duncan Smith said on a visit to Bolton that people struggling with the Bedroom Tax should ‘pay up or get out’

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Community An Sector Stitche Alan Johnson is a steward at MENCAP working with adults who have learning difficulties. Here he talks of care getting lost in `the new marketplace’, complete with zero hour contracts and profit making companies.

The private sector contract vultures are

well and truly circling Bolton, looking to prey on community care work in the never ending drive for new profit sources. It leaves UNISON MENCAP steward, Alan Johnson, absolutely horrified, as the caring organisation he has worked for over the last ten years is having to compete in what’s being called `the new marketplace’.

“It used to be about the best support we could give, money was never mentioned, now increasingly over the last few years it’s all about filling beds and finance” he explains “The last team meeting I went to was not about the team or respite care it was about money and that really concerns me.

“I’m not saying that MENCAP don’t provide a good service, they do, but they’re now motivated by the competition and being able to `compete in the marketplace’” he adds “Now, there’s a market place around the corner from the union office which is a proper market but vulnerable people should not be put up in any market and that saddens me.”

MENCAP is up against private sector companies that try to undercut existing providers. Alan, who has increased union density from 10% to 80% in his workplace, believes the private companies do this by cutting corners and working conditions along the way.

“I know the training is not adequate, the pay is low and there are zero hour contracts” he says “They’re talking about introducing zero hours contracts for new starters, which means no employment rights, no sick pay, no holiday pay – they are taking away employment rights in one fell swoop. At MENCAP we’re trying to get the Living Wage. These companies pay only the minimum wage.”

Bolton Trades Council and Bolton UNISON have campaigned for Bolton Council to only contract companies that pay the Living Wage and that don’t use zero hours contracts…

“It’s like banging your head on a wall” Alan decides “They say that they don’t use zero hours contracts when we know

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nd Voluntary ed

that they have. The research they do on these companies is not satisfactory.

They hide behind `We’ll look into this’ but nothing ever gets done.”

Bolton Council has given out a large amount of community care contracts to the Lifeways Group, owned by a Canadian pension fund and listed in a report by the Independent last year for using loopholes to avoid paying £1million in tax.

With private companies swooping on the marketplace, Alan believes it’s forcing third sector organisations like MENCAP to act more and more like the businesses they are competing with. And that the whole process is once again driven by the cuts.

“I’ve got my views on what Labour councillors should do when faced with cuts - they should fight them” says Alan who is a member of Bolton’s Green Party “But if they implement the cuts without a fight, of course they’ve got to make cutbacks – and like all councils they say they won’t affect the vulnerable. Well they are.”

Cuts aren’t just confined directly to Bolton Council services. In the third sector austerity is being felt too, and it’s the service users who suffer.

“Parents and carers want the best care” says Alan “But it won’t be the best care because, basically, we’re treating people like cattle…”

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Zero Hours

Zero hours contracts have become a national scandal but workers are beginning to fight back – and win!

No-one knows just how many workers

in the UK are on zero hours contracts but the estimates range from a million to five million. Whatever it is, the scale of employers’ use of the casual contracts, which allow them to hire staff with no guarantee of work or hours, is massive.

A Freedom of Information request to Bolton NHS Foundation Trust revealed that the use of zero hours contracts had mushroomed from 1,448 in 2007 to 2,264 in 2012 (latest figures) and included midwives, drivers, nurses…even the chaplain.

“To get the contracts they will undercut council pay, terms and conditions” Bury Council recently admitted that 3,473 of its employees were on zero hours contracts. Here in Bolton, the Council argues that it doesn’t use them directly but some companies to which it sub-contracts work are awash with the practice.

“Serco take apprentices on so that they can pay them less and at end of that apprenticeship they won’t give them full employment just zero hours contracts” says Kieran Grogan, UNISON Community Organiser and a steward for Bolton at Home.

“Staff working at the Albert Halls are on zero hours but the employer tries to say

they’re not, and will use agencies rather than zero hours because it looks better” he adds “Those who work for `casual’, `bank’ or `agency’ are all on zero hours but the only ones that get highlighted are when employees are tied to an employer where they’ll have a zero hours contract but it will be written into their contracts that they’re not to seek employment anywhere else.”

Kieran doesn’t see a major difference in that workers taken on under such terms are all “at the mercy of employers”, and he sees a future rise in the contracts as Bolton seeks to outsource more and more work to either third sector, voluntary or private agencies.

“To get the contracts they will undercut council pay, terms and conditions” he says, adding “It’s those that are supposed to be providing care that don’t look after their staff.”

Indeed, a quick job search in Bolton and surrounding areas revealed forty jobs on offer with zero hours contracts attached, including day care workers, support workers and nursery nurses.

“Many of these jobs are in the public services and replace permanent jobs” explains UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis “Staff are being forced onto them against their will or face losing their jobs. They are not suitable for patient safety in critical areas such as social care.“

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s Zero Life

Zero hour contracts may be widespread and growing, but where trade unions have fought back against them they have had major success. The Hovis workers in Wigan – under the top slogan `Zero Hours, Zero Crumpets’ – went on strike after the introduction of agency staff on zero hours contracts in the wake of redundancies and cuts to pay and hours. Bolton UNISON members went to support the picket lines at Hovis. Subsequently the workers won a fantastic vickory.

The Post Office workers threatened strike action last November over pay, conditions and outsourcing and its members are currently voting on a deal that secures a 9% pay increase over

three years and legal protection against outsourcing, casualisation, and zerohours contracts.

“The agreement breaks new ground in the UK by incorporating extensive legally binding protections for employees alongside a commitment to improve industrial stability” says Communication Workers Union Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward “The legal protections for Royal Mail employees come hard on the heels of the privatisation of the company and are unprecedented in delivering the strongest protections for employees.”

The fight against zero hours contracts, and other forms of casualisation, can be won.

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54 Beds To Be

Defend Mental H

There are proposals by Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Trust to axe 29 adult beds and 25 elderly beds in Bolton, Salford and Trafford, which has seen a campaign launched to stop the closures.

Here, Karen Reissmann, of the UNISON Bolton, Salford and Trafford Mental Health branch and UNISON National Executive, writes that the Trust’s logic makes no sense – the same policy almost bankrupted Manchester.

G reater Manchester West Mental

Health NHS Trust (GMW), which covers Bolton, Salford and Trafford, is, like all the health trusts in England, under massive financial pressure. It has put out proposals to close one of the three adult mental health wards at Bolton and another at Salford with a total loss of 29 adult beds, and to centralise all elderly mental health beds for Bolton, Salford and Trafford at Woodlands in Little Hulton with the loss of 25 older age beds.

So, even though the elderly population is increasing there are going to be massive cuts to in-patient services. If you have someone who is elderly, who goes into any sort of health crisis, the chances of them getting a bed is significantly reduced and the likelihood is that you’ll have no choice but home care.

They say they’ll offer you three to four visits a day but if you’ve got dementia or

are very confused, someone coming for half an hour three or four times a day isn’t sufficient to deal with the level of crisis and to work out what’s wrong. So we have real concerns that relatives will be left dealing with unmanageable situations.

The beds we’ve got for the elderly are already full - at 98% occupancy when they’re supposed to be 85% occupancy so there will be people in need who won’t get beds, and I think that’s a tragedy for those patients.

For adult care it would mean closing wards which also have 98% occupancy, which means we will be moving to a situation like Manchester where there’s a constant crisis of beds. Manchester went through the same process of closing beds and saying they were replacing them with community care - but instead what happened was that there are now 38 patients on average every day in beds

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e Axed!

Health Services!

out of the area, either in private or NHS beds, which has virtually bankrupted Manchester. The same will happen in Bolton, Salford and Trafford if they close the wards here.

The other problem is that if they move the elderly units out into Little Hulton, the adult units become non-viable as there are only two wards left, so the risk is that they would then have to centralise them too. The Trust is admitting to discussing centralising of the adult beds, and the possibility is that there will be no adult beds in Bolton at all.

So, we’re losing 25 adult beds, 29 elderly beds, they’re centralising the elderly beds which threatens the adult beds and there are real concerns. Across England, 1500 mental health beds have closed within the last two years, and there was a Royal College of Psychiatry report just before Christmas that said there are not enough

beds, that the closures have been far too extreme and there is a crisis of mental health beds in England. This is not a time to be closing more.

We’ve launched a campaign of unions, carers, service users and members of the public who have come together to try and fight to save the beds and fight to save those units.

There is a consultation on the proposals until 30th March and Bolton UNISON currently has a motion to support the campaign to Defend Mental Health Services. There’s a lobby of the GMW Trust Board on 24th February at 9:15am and a demonstration in Eccles on 29th March.

Further details and a petition against the cuts at www. saveourhealthservicesbolton.org.uk/

SEPTEMBER 29TH 201 TORY PARTY CONFER

On 29 September well over 50,000 protesters descended on Manchester to tell the Tories that they and their policies are not welcome in the city. Earlier in the day, Bolton UNISON took part in the 400-strong feeder march from Salford.

Three coach loads of protesters came

from Bolton, largely thanks to an inspiring anti-Bedroom Tax campaign that has united trade unionists and housing association tenants.

“It is great to see so many like-minded people here to defend our NHS and to show our disgust at the unprecedented Tory attacks on our public services” said Joan Pritchard-Jones, a UNISON steward and care worker in Bolton.

In the run-up to the conference people from Manchester and neighbouring towns and cities were disgusted to hear reports that delegates to the Tory conference were to enjoy free transport around the city. Meanwhile, a huge area of public space around the conference venue and

the swanky Midland Hotel where most delegates are staying had been fenced off, staffed by a massive police presence.

All this in a city where a shocking number of people are living in poverty and feeling the sharp end of the cuts.

Reportedly the biggest demonstration in Manchester since Peterloo in 1819, there was a defiant and angry mood against the Tories’ plans for the NHS, privatisation, the Bedroom Tax and massive spending cuts that are causing misery to millions.

It took more than two hours for all the protesters to reach the start of the march.

At its biggest the demo stretched for a mile through Manchester.

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13 – MARCH ON THE RENCE

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Teaching Assis Shine at St Jam

Last summer, when Education Secretary Michael Gove considered scrapping teaching assistants, there was a huge outcry from both schools and unions. We visited St James C of E High School to see the value of `the unsung heroes of education’…

It’s lunchtime at St James and half a

dozen teaching assistants (TAs) are sat around desks in the Learning Support classroom describing their work with pupils who have all kinds of issues, from visual and hearing impairments, to autism, to behavioural and language difficulties.

These are the people who work directly with our children if they need support to keep up with school work, so they can have the same opportunity to succeed as every other pupil.

“Everybody’s role as a TA is slightly different but we do lots of intervention” explains Andrea Lee “I do medical stuff,

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stants mes

Donna does peer reading, Faith does social skills.”

The work, these days, is highly skilled and professional and the pupils and TAs in the Leaning Support unit have played their part in getting St James’ rated as `outstanding’ by Ofsted.

“We haven’t had a child leave this school in the last three or four without five GCSE passes, and all the special needs pupils also come out with at least five GCSEs” says Ian Singleton head of Learning Support “There’s a big combination of factors

but obviously the input of the TAs is instrumental in the classroom” he explains “There’s children in Year 11 currently who wouldn’t get a grade if it wasn’t for the input of the TAs working with the teacher to make sure that they’re hitting the grades and level they should be hitting. A lot of work goes into it.”

There was a huge outcry last summer, when Education Secretary Michael Gove considered scrapping teaching assistants, following a report by the think tank Reform which claimed that the impact of TAs was `negligible’. There was a massive backlash against the claim, from head teachers, teachers and trade

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unions, with UNISON itself launching a campaign to `Celebrate Teaching Assistants’.

“TAs are under attack by the Government” says Jackie Winstanley, head caretaker at St James and UNISON convenor for schools “The idea of inclusion was that you put special needs children in a classroom with ordinary ability children and teach them.

The teacher on their own can’t do that because they can’t afford to give one-toone attention. That’s one of our biggest problems in classrooms, that the teacher has to think of thirty children, not one, but it’s the one child who really needs special attention.”

Mention Mr Gove to these teaching assistants and their response to his insulting back-of-a-fag packet ideas is one of anger containment…

“All I can suggest is that he comes and

does the job for a month so he can see what we actually do, that we’re not here for pin money or to fill in the day, it is a career” says Andrea.

“If you go into a classroom you can see that TAs are needed because there’s no way that a teacher could do their job without us” adds Faith Stansfield “We make sure that the children who need the help get it because otherwise they would be sitting there doing nothing, so we are needed.”

Indeed, the TAs explain that teachers themselves will occasionally come and ask for advice on the pupils they work with, and that their role goes beyond the classroom with after school club mentoring, study clubs and one to ones.

“We’ve got the paperwork as evidence to show that we’ve made a difference” adds Donna Welch, while others point out that, as well as getting GCSEs, all the children

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who left last year are now either in full time education or employment.

Far from being the `mums army’ of yesteryear that still invades Gove’s head, TAs are now skilled specialist professionals who are responsible for supporting society’s most vulnerable children.

“You have to adapt to every individual child and every individual situation to support in the best way you can” says Fatima Ghanchi, while Beth Hudson explains that even if Gove’s logic is used TAs would still be a major part of the equation…

“I think that if the attainment levels are being pushed up it’s even more vital that we’re here to help” she says “Surely the role of the TA is more necessary, as opposed to getting rid of us and then expecting them to attain that independently.”

Following the backlash against Gove’s ideas, for the time being it has now gone very quiet in Government circles around the TA issue. Indeed, it turns out that the Reform think tank suggestions were based on research by the Institute of Education which didn’t suggest phasing out TAs at all, just that they needed to be deployed in schools more carefully.

Hopefully the ridiculous policy idea is now pushing up the daisies in Whitehall’s long grass. Meanwhile in the real world, here at St James High School, and in schools all over Bolton and beyond, the TAs are hard at work in one of the most challenging jobs in education, professionally supporting children who really need help to reach their potential.

Like the UNISON campaign states, TAs should be celebrated. Big style.

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Challenged

The University of Bolton and its Vice Chancellor have been busy flaunting lycra clad women and promoting high speed cars at motor shows, while almost 15% of the workforce has been axed…

T

he University of Bolton’s Vice Chancellor, George Holmes, like the high speed cars he’s currently pushing, has got form. Before taking over at Bolton, Holmes was leading the disastrous £90million Doncaster Education City project where he was embroiled in scandal.

While the Doncaster FE college ran up a huge deficit followed by massive job cuts, it was revealed that Holmes was given a pay hike from £90,000 to £130,000; thousands of pounds were being splashed on entertaining and luxury

flights and almost £1million was trousered by consultants. Holmes was also given a £45,000 BMW X5 with a personalised number plate - although he did claim to have contributed less than half the cost of the car.

George Holmes seems to have a bit of a penchant for smart cars. Under the Vice Chancellor’s guidance, the University has set up CAPE (Centre for Advanced Performance Engineering) via a partnership with RLR Msport. Some staff have been appalled at the tacky activities CAPE has been involved with, including

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University scantily clad women performing at the launch of Keating Supercars’ `the Bolt’ last year, and, in January, more lycra-clad women draping the University’s stand at the four day Autosport International show.

The stand - visited by Holmes, and with tv presenter Gordon Burns on hand to interview celebs who played on a racing car simulator - is estimated to have cost the University in excess of £11,000, or enough to pay more than enough for a student’s college fees. All the glitz and `glamour’ comes in the wake of huge staff cuts…

“Our members feel that a balance needs to be better established between investing in this sort of thing and letting staff go” says University of Bolton UCU secretary Damien Markey “Our Members find the University’s use of scantily clad young ladies to promote a degree course distasteful, and wonder what image this is sending out to prospective students.

When we challenged the Vice Chancellor about this we were told that we need to `grow up’. Higher education at Bolton has always been about promoting access to all and we are concerned about the message this sends about the University’s attitude to women in Engineering.”

It does seem a very Jeremy Clarkson sort of way to run a university. Last summer UNISON discovered that George Holmes was awarded a `retention bonus’ of £42,700, increasing his pay by 25 per cent to almost £230,000 during a period of redundancies and cuts, while he led the only higher education institute in the

country not to award a nationally agreed 1 per cent pay rise.

According to the latest Human Resources Report to the Board of Governors, during the year Aug 2012 to July 2013 a total of 152 staff `exited’ the University, a 14.8% reduction in the workforce, including 92 voluntary and seven compulsory redundancies… …Yet, the Report adds, “over Summer 2013 HR were involved in a substantial recruitment campaign resulting in the appointment of 19.5 FTE academic staff which continues to promote the ‘platinum’ agenda”, and “10 Graduate interns, who are University of Bolton’s current graduates, have been appointed to the University’s Graduate Intern programme.”

Axing staff, then recruiting? Cutting staff wages, then grabbing a fat bonus?

Pushing supercars and sex objects, while stressed staff fear for their jobs? Some might argue that the Vice Chancellor needs a lesson in morality. And, perhaps, he also needs educating into the nuances of the 21st Century, where draping girls over car bonnets is seen as tasteless, sexist and very, very tacky.

UNISON understands that George Holmes is currently boasting about ordering a new posh Bentley car. The VC seems to be really enjoying himself.

Meanwhile the University of Bolton languishes in 121st place out of 125 in CUG (Complete University Guide) league table for 2014, dropping another five places since last year…

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Fracked Not too far from the Bolton borders is Barton Moss in Salford, currently in the front line against fracking in this country. Protesters, or `protectors’, have set up the Barton Moss Community Protection site, which aims to disrupt and delay exploratory drilling for coal bed methane and potentially shale gas.

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racking involves injecting water and chemicals into shale rock thousands of feet below the surface to break the rock and free, what companies hope, will be huge quantities of shale gas. This potential on-shore energy bonanza has been encouraged by the Government, while local councils such as Salford have been sitting on the fence, waiting for actual fracking planning permission applications to come in. But the whole process is incredibly controversial….

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Fracking…

1) Earthquakes – near the site being `fracked’ by Cuadrilla, in Lancashire last year, there were two small

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d Up…

7

earthquakes which deformed the drill well casing and could have led to all sorts of problems.

2) Fracking has been around for decades – the process has been used in the UK for years but that was the old, relatively gentle method of gas extraction. The only use of the modern fracking methods in the UK was at the Cuadrilla site where earthquakes and drilling well problems developed.

3) Fracking has polluted water – in the USA methane, frack fluid, produced water and hydrocarbons have found their way into water supplies through faults in the surrounding strata, and through corroded, cracked or deformed well casings.

4) Two thirds of the country is covered by licenses for drilling, exploration and extraction of gas - The North West will be right at the centre of the industry if it goes ahead.

5) There will be no cheap shale gas for consumers – Lord Browne, the International Energy Agency, and IGas, which is drilling in Salford, state that the retail price of gas won’t be any cheaper.

In the campaign to stop the drilling there have been regular slow walks in front of delivery lorries trying to get down the public road that leads to the IGas site at Barton. There’s also been some imaginative delaying tactics, like leaving

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a wind turbine blade blocking the gates to the site and `locking on’ to a bus, a car and concrete drums. One girl dressed as Where’s Wally? even superglued herself to the entrance gates.

Frack Free Greater Manchester has constantly called for more local people to attend the daily protests and many Bolton people have been down to the Barton Moss Community Protection Camp to show support.

For further details see: http:// frackfreegtrmanchester.org.uk/ Or follow the Barton Moss Camp on Twitter @BartonMoss

Bolton Trades Union Council Backs Campaign Against Fracking Bolton TUC has voted unanimously to support the campaign against shale gas extraction in the North West. Martin McMulkin, Secretary said, “Prime Minister, David Cameron has made big claims that fracking could alleviate fuel poverty yet companies such as Cuadrilla and IGas have expressed real doubts that this will be the case. There are fundamental concerns about the potential long term damage to the environment. It is ridiculous that the Government is offering to bribe councils as an incentive to accept fracking, it is all about big business and profits. We will be urging Bolton Council to make a stand against fracking”.

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The Great Eur With the European elections looming in May the whole issue of the EU will come under the spotlight yet again. Here, UNISON steward Matt Kilsby puts the case against while the Labour Movement for Europe argues in favour of the EU… THE CASE IN FAVOUR OF THE EU…

get your pension increases.

What has the European Union ever done for us? Supporters of the EU within the Labour Movement argue that it’s delivered huge benefits for the UK as a country and for all of us as workers and consumers.

The EU has made our lives better in numerous ways, and most of these improvements were opposed by the Tories!

We’d lose all these benefits if we left the EU as some Tory politicians want us to.

The EU makes life safer, with food and drinking water standards, and food labelling standards. We have the healthiest rivers for centuries and cleaner beaches too. EU rules on toy safety protect our children from harm

The EU has helped to protect us at work, from danger and exploitation. Part time workers have the same rights as fulltime workers for the first time. Temporary workers have a better deal on pay and paid holidays, while the Working Time Directive stops workers being forced to work excessive hours.

Other benefits are longer maternity leave and paid paternity leave, tougher rules to protect workers from dangerous machinery or chemicals and common rules across Europe to stop multinationals moving jobs to other countries to cut corners.

Over half of all our trade is with the EU and 3.5million jobs depend on it. If we weren’t members of the EU, we would lose our easy access to that market of over 500 million people. British products would cost more in Europe – we’d lose sales and jobs, and we’d have to pay more for European goods too.

Also, after you’ve finished working, you can retire to another EU country and still

And, of course, thanks to the EU, you don’t have to queue for hours to have your passport checked when you go on holiday; you can get free healthcare if you are taken ill in an EU country and it was the EU that forced through action to cut costs of mobile calls and texts sent when on holiday.

Labour Movement for Europe For further details see the website http://labourmovement.eu/ THE CASE AGAINST THE EU… The Labour Movement for Europe produces some quite nice arguments as to why the European Union is good for us workers – although quite why rivers couldn’t be cleaned by a national government is not clear – but it fails to address the fundamental problems at the heart of the EU: its lack of democracy, its adherence to neoliberalism and vicious austerity measures, and its suppression of workers’ rights.

We only need to look to Greece, Spain and Portugal to see the real role of the EU in implementing strict austerity. Greek people are on average almost 40 per cent poorer

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rope Debate…

than before the EU. EU-led cuts, mass privatisation and tax rises have created massive unemployment and eroded domestic consumption which accounts for about three-quarters of GDP. In Britain the Coalition Government and the EU will happily implement equally harsh austerity measures.

Because of the nature of the European Union, corporate capitalism can operate unhindered by any use by workers of national democratic structures (i.e. our national Parliament). And we can’t reform the EU’s democratic structures because there isn’t the democracy to allow us to do so!

Even the progressive policies of the TUC and the UK labour movement would be blocked by EU rules if a future Labour Government, say, tried to introduce them.

The majority of British people back renationalisation of our utility companies and the railways, but the EU will not allow this to happen. Even Ed Miliband’s weak policy on freezing energy prices are incompatible with the EU market.

And as the NHS becomes increasingly fragmented and privatised we are wasting our time if we think the EU will protect the 1945 Labour Government’s greatest achievement. This is because the EU services directive and EU/US trade deal gives multinational corporations the right to tender for all health services.

Even anti-austerity, pro-economic stimulus policies are out of the question because various European treaties have banned state intervention and large-scale public investment.

Ultimately the EU has one business model: privatisation, deregulation and driving down wages. That is why we need an alternative of socialist policies to defend working class interests against corporate capitalism, not just in the UK but across the whole of Europe.

Matt Kilsby For further details see the Labour Euro Safeguards Campaign http://www.lesc. org.uk/

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Sack Nick Griffin Thursday May 22nd European Elections

Bolton UNISON is supporting the campaign against the BNP and the right wing ideology of scapegoating minorities.

O

n Thursday 22nd May, European and Local Elections will be held on the same day. Most people in the North West do not hold extreme racist or bigoted views yet in 2009 Nick Griffin leader of the British National Party (BNP) was elected to the European Parliament with just 8% of the vote, and only a few thousand more than the Green Party in the North West.

This has given him a salary of £76,000 a year plus office and support costs of £200,000. Over a five year period this amounts to £1,380,000. On top of this, Griffin and the BNP receive additional money as a result of their involvement in a far right grouping within the European Parliament. This huge amount of money has helped to prop up the BNP in recent years. It has paid for their full time party staff, their offices and even for their literature. More importantly it has allowed the BNP to spew even more racist literature across the North West.

Although support for the BNP has dropped in recent years, under the proportional election system, most people will be shocked that Griffin could still be re-elected in 2014 with as little as 7% of the vote. Given limited interest in the European Parliament and in particular European Elections this is a real possibility. The vast majority of people reject the BNP and their politics of hate – however this means very little if people do not use their vote on 22nd May. For further information see http://www.facebook.com/SackNickGriffin http://www.twitter.com/SackNickGriffin http://www.HOPEnothate.org.uk/ Are You Registered to Vote?

Do you want a postal vote?

See www.aboutmyvote.co.uk

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Hope Not Hate

Bolton UNISON is also supporting the HOPE not hate campaign, and here we talk to a spokesperson who explains what it’s all about…

What is the backing like for HOPE Not Hate?

HOPE not hate is supported by a wide range of people and organisations, from trade unions to community groups, celebrity supporters to individual members of the public. Everybody reading this can be a supporter of HOPE not hate and join the battle against the BNP and far-right.

Politically, we are supported by parties across the spectrum; the Greens, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

We also have the support of all faiths and churches in the UK. The North West campaign to unseat BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP from his EU seat alone is supported by Church of England Bishops of Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire and Bolton, as well as priests, imams and rabbis from across the region.

How are you campaigning leading up to the Euro elections and what is your message?

In order to drown the BNP vote, we are making sure that those who steadfastly oppose the BNP and their message of hate go to the polling station on May 22nd. We are organising trade union members, students, members of faith congregations and community groups, encouraging them to register and vote on May 22nd.

Our message is one of multiculturalism, tolerance, unity and respect. The BNP want to tear our communities apart. They want neighbours to be at each other’s throats, people of different faith and race against each other, and they want to bring violence to our streets. HOPE not hate offers a positive and united vision for our community.. We know that there are problems in the North West (and country as a whole), but the BNP and far-right don’t have the answers.

What do you hope to achieve at the Euros?

The BNP has been on a downwards spiral since their pinnacle in 2009. At the last election, except in one targeted seat the BNP candidate in every race finished either dead last or as good as. They have one councillor left in the North West, as well as the leader Nick Griffin himself, using our taxes as a North West MEP to spread his poison and hate. Both of these are up for election on May 22nd.

It is my ambition to make the North West fascist-free for the first time since they disgracefully rode into Burnley on the back of the terrible 2001 race-riots, and with it, to potentially hammer the final nails into the BNP coffin for good.

You can make a pledge to help Sack Nick Griffin and make the NorthWest BNP-free for the first time in a generation by signing up online at http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/ sack-nick-griffin.

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Panto Fun In Bolton Bolton UNISON’s panto day at the Albert Halls was another great success this year as Stu Francis, Ben-Ryan Davies and Charlie Cairoli wowed the crowds in Jack and the Beanstalk.

Joan’s grandchildren and friends with Stu Francis

“Thanks Unison this was the best panto ever, we had a really good time” said UNISON’s Joan Pritchard Jones who attended the event with her grandchildren.

Joan Pritchard Jones with Stu Francis.

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BOLTON BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT All members are invited to attend and vote at the

AGM Wednesday 5th March 2014 12.30 -1.30pm Lancaster Suite, Bolton Town Hall Free Buffet at 12.00 prior to the meeting AGENDA 1. Welcome and Introduction by Chairperson 2. Apologies  3. Minutes of AGM 6th March 2013 4. Financial Reports 5. Confirmation / Election of Branch Officers, Stewards and Delegations 6. Motions 7. Annual Reports 8. Close of Meeting Bolton Branch 06450 Ground Floor, Howell Croft House, Howell Croft North, Bolton BL1 1QY Tel: 01204 338901 Email: admin@unisonbolton.org Website: www.unisonbolton.org Membership total: 6402 Full 5544 Retired 814 Unemployed/Student 44 Stewards 114 Employers 105

Including Bolton Council, Bolton at Home, Bolton Community and Sixth Form Colleges; Bolton University, Mencap, Serco and Fujitsu Branch Employed Staff – Emma Smith and Sarah Trendall Regional Organiser: John Lewis Political Affiliations: Labour Link The Branch is affiliated to: Bolton North East Labour Party, Bolton West Labour Party, Bolton South East Labour Party

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Branch Secretary’s Annual Report 2013-14 2013 has been yet another tough year for all those working in public services. However we should take some comfort from the fact that membership remains static at just over 6,000 and is increasing nationally.

Bolton UNISON is a multi employer branch with 149 separate employers.

We have 114 stewards and are represented on national and regional bodies of the union up to and including the National Executive Council.

We were very pleased to welcome the University of Bolton into the branch this year and despite a hostile employer we have successfully recruited and trained two stewards with a third awaiting training.

I am pleased to report that even in the face of the most vicious and unprecedented attacks the branch continues to campaign for change.

The most high profile campaign has been against the Bedroom Tax. We have been fortunate to have had local tenants leading the fight to repeal the legislation and would like to commend them on their excellent work. Despite the slow start the Labour Party has now come out and agreed to scrap the Tax if it gets into power.

A far more difficult campaign is to outlaw zero hours contracts. This is particularly significant given the intention of Bolton Council to look

to outsource more services. As part of the campaign against austerity in November the branch, together with Bolton Trades’ Council, launched the local campaign against zero hours contracts. The campaign focussed on private sector employers such as Sports Direct, McDonalds, Next and Subway but the intention is now to highlight public sector bodies such as Bolton Council commissioning work from the private and voluntary sector.

As a branch we need to ensure that, whilst flexibility can suit some workers, on the whole it undermines employment, financial and family stability and raises grave doubts about employers’ commitment to the welfare of their employees. It is worth noting that both the Bakers Union (BFAWU) at Hovis in Wigan and CWU (Communication Workers) have both

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secured agreements not to use zero hours contracts following either industrial action or threat of industrial action.

Other than the trades unions no one is offering an alternative to austerity.

On a positive note we have reached an agreement with Bolton Council on an Anti Blacklisting Policy. This follows a joint campaign with Unite and GMB.

The branch prides itself in fully participating in all relevant structures of the union and sends delegates to Regional Council, Regional Forum and National Conferences.

It is a requirement of all delegates to ensure that they report back to the branch. We are also hold key positions within Bolton Trades Council, the umbrella organisation for the trade union movement in Bolton.

I do not intend to cover in any great detail pay and the cuts in this report as they are dealt with elsewhere.

Suffice it to say, however, that we cannot continue to accept either below inflation pay rises or cuts on a scale that will see the end of local government regardless of the political makeup of the next government.

The branch continues to fund a secondment to organise and represent members in the community, voluntary and private sector. This work will inevitably increase and the North West Region of UNISON has made this issue a priority for next year. We also fund a secondment to help support organising work in schools.

Bolton at Home is our largest employer within the branch after Bolton Council. Cuts to Councils and Voluntary Agencies, coupled with renewed attacks on Social Housing through the Bedroom Tax and Benefit `reforms’, have brought increasing challenges for our Members but union density remains high, UNISON has an active, involved Stewards Committee there and industrial relations are generally good.

Branch Committee meetings are well attended and representative of the branch membership and sectors.

Given the branch is now a multi employer branch we have had to adapt our structures to ensure that all members receive an equitable service and access to resources.

Therefore we now have sector meetings for Local Government, Higher and Further Education and Community and Voluntary stewards.

All the indications are that the year ahead will be equally tough if not worse. I am confident however, that as a branch we are well placed to deal with the challenges. People are clearly angry and frustrated. Other than the trades unions no one is offering an alternative to austerity.

We need to ensure that in 2014 we turn frustration into hope and anger into action. Ultimately we need to turn the tide against austerity.

Bernadette Gallagher

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Bolton UNISON Accounts Please see below the latest Bolton UNISON accounts, which are currently subject to audit. If any members would like to see the full set of accounts please ask at the UNISON office...

subject to audit

Treasurer’s Report The Branch has continued to be an active, campaigning Branch with a strong presence locally and nationally, spending £13,000 on publicity and campaigning.

The Branch has invested heavily in secondments to recruit, represent and support members in the Community and Voluntary Sector and Schools, including Academies, promoting equal access to UNISON services across the Branch.

Donations made by the Branch over the year exceeded £2,000 and included support for industrial action, UNISON Welfare and the campaigns against the Bedroom Tax and Academies. Spending on stewards’

Branch Communication

I have thoroughly enjoyed the communication role over the year.

We have an active union branch that protests against cuts and supports disputes (eg Hovis Workers’ zero hours dispute) and is at the forefront of campaigning. I have tried to promote this and the principle of solidarity through Battling for Bolton and all areas of branch communication over the year.

Martin Challender

training, membership resources and sports and social activities for members has been £17,500.

The Branch has sent delegates to UNISON’s Annual Conferences and has been able to maintain this level of activity because it pays no honoraria to its Officers or Stewards. All this is reflected in the accounts which any member is welcome to inspect at the Branch Office.

Janet Bryan

Health and Safety

It’s been another year of rampant attacks on health and safety. The disgraceful restrictions that have tied the hands of HSE enforcement abilities mean that Union Health and Safety reps are the only line of defence for members. Do you know who your workplace H+S rep is? If not then you’ve probably not got one. Why not volunteer to be one. You’ll get full training and support, paid time off for training and to perform your functions.

David Milne

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Education Report The Education Committee meets every month to discuss the branch training objectives and agree the training programme for the year. We have had a slight problem this year with courses having to be reorganised due to budget overspend. The committee is working on this year’s programme.

This year we have managed to get all stewards ERA accreditation up to date.

ERA steward’s accreditation refresher training has now been changed to every five years from what was every three years. Courses that have been run this year include TUC stage 1 course, Equality course, Accreditation course, ten Stewards Induction courses and several Steward Support training sessions.

All these courses have taken place in Bolton to cut down on travel time and have been welcomed by stewards

attending.

Feedback from stewards who have attended the above training sessions has been very positive and there has been a good take up on UNISON run course throughout the year.

The committee has agreed that all stewards’ development training should go through the relevant Convenor for support before coming to the Education Committee for agreement.

Joan Pritchard Jones

Equalities Officer The Branch has recruited a team of new Equality Representatives who have now undertaken the TUC Equality Rep course. Equality Reps will join other Branch Officers on the Branch Equality Committee and we have agreed a structure of lead reps for each of the strands (such as Disabled, LGBT, Black, Women Members, etc).

The Branch has continued to be represented at several

National Self Organised Group conferences and members of the committee are actively involved in the work of Regional Self Organised Groups.

The year ahead will see the further development of our new role of Equality Representatives who will work closely with Branch negotiators on equality issues.

John McSwiggan

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Sports and Social The Sports and Social Committee have been very active throughout 2013. We have really begun to see the results of the impact of this Government’s attack on budgets. Members are beginning to feel the financial squeeze.

Usually when money has to stretch further, and members have to prioritise, socialising comes further down their list.

It is with this in mind, that the sports and social committee try to organise and hope the events can bring Union members together.

We have organised events including the regional and local golf competition, and a pool competition, plus the Trans Pennine

Pub crawl again and the Wigan Diggers event.

We have provided subsidised tickets for a number of events at both the Albert Hall and the Octagon Theatre, and have organised special Panto and Christmas events at these venues. We have also invested in 100 cinema tickets which we intend to sell on at a subsidised rate.

They are valid for Ciniworld.

Andrea Egan

Young Members Over the past year I have attended North West Young Member Forum meetings at Arena point, arranged a meeting for Young Members in Bolton but have found very little interest either in person, by phone or by email.

Recently I have networked with Ashley Charlton from Bolton Health Branch and Natalie Piercy from GMB, much in the same way that the TUC do but locally in Bolton. I have also attended National Conference and spoke on a variety of topics.

Andrew Thomas Please Note: Andrew Thomas is no longer eligible to be the Young Members officer this year, so new blood is needed!

Labour Link I was elected to take over from Steve Rigby in December and hope he will continue to take an active role. We must resist the idea that cuts and austerity are inevitable. We need an alternative agenda based on jobs, rights at work, the Living Wage and social justice.

Through the Labour Link committee it is hoped we will develop a clear,

consistent and credible approach to this challenge over what will certainly be another tough year ahead.

Martin Challender

50

Life Long Learning With the appointment of Region’s Learning Organiser my local role now has resources and back up which I’d not been able to access previously and the potential for delivering LLL initiatives has improved. It’s been a busy and productive year.

I’ve worked closely with the RLO, whose knowledge and enthusiasm has been invaluable, to develop a service strategy to drive LLL within the Branch forward and to define the focus for 2013/14. Also there’s been much work with the Branch’s Education Committee to produce a concurrent learning schedule, while an LLL/Education Committee shared newsletter will be produced in 2014.

I’ve worked with The GMB LLL Officer to develop a flexible exchange of good working practice and with Corporate OD to produce complimentary training proposals. In addition to supplying general information on a wide range of training, I’ve signposted ESOL requests and organised learning pathways for an increased number of inquiries re functional and entry level skills, trialling the Tribal GoLearn online platform which offers Functional Skills in English and Maths right up to test ready.

My Celebration of Learning bid was successful and UnionLearn will consider funding on an on-going basis.

On this assurance I’ve had a standing invitation to all Convenors and senior

Stewards throughout the year to submit projects. I’m currently exploring funding for bespoke courses and monies which the Branch can tap into for general training/materials.

Principles initiatives over the past year ranged from Adult Learners Week, to the Six Book Challenge to the Mid Age Career Review, UNISON Bursaries for learning through the Open University and promoting a Forensic Linguistics one day course.

Ongoing initiatiatives include a half day Managing Finance event for Environmental Services; a Managing Finance event for the OSS and cross working with Bolton at Home to develop ALW and Learning at Work Day 2014.

Our LLL events this year have been widely reported regionally and, considering this momentum has gathered in just one year, I’m hoping, to develop LLL in Bolton into a flagship for Union sponsored learning.

Sue Vickers

51

International I have been the International Officer for a very short time but I have been surprised by how widespread the Trades Union movement is internationally. It is however quite sad and shameful that our comrades in some countries are still fighting for human rights, the rights to be in a Trade Union, for basic health and safety standards and decent wages.

The failure of the richest companies to provide these basic requirements in their quest for profit leads to poverty, poor health and dangerous workplaces. A perfect example of this corporate greed is the Rana Plaza Clothing Factory Disaster in Bangladesh. I first reported on this tragedy in the October International Officer Report - 1,133 workers were killed due to the lack of health and safety provision.

In order to prevent a reoccurrence of the disaster, unions took the fight forward and Uni Global Union (which is comprised of 20 million members of 900 unions across 150 countries) and IndustriALL (50 million members in 140 countries) along with other agencies forced many high street retailers to sign an ‘accord agreement’ which made them responsible for the health and safety of workers in the garment factories. Unfortunately

whilst there has been some success in this area, families who lost loved ones in the disaster have not yet received one penny of compensation.

Not only are our comrades dying in shabby workplaces but trades union activists risk their lives to fight for their rights. In the November report, Honduras, Guatemala and Columbia were identified as the most dangerous places to live if you are a trade unionist. Recently I reported that after receiving death threats, Oscar López Triviño a member of the Sinitrainal Union was murdered, his union has been on strike at the Nestle factory in Bugalagrande.

The continued greed of the financial sector and the influence this sector has on our political parties means that trades unions and activists are the only ones fighting for a decent way of life the - fight goes on. Internationally.

Jackie Peploe

Bolton UNISON contacts list 2013

Branch Officers

(01204 336044) Branch Chairperson: Matt Kilsby (07969 511622) Bernie Gallagher Branch Secretary: (07876 146245) Janet Bryan Branch Treasurer: John Vickers Vice Chair: Assistant Branch (01204 338901) Andrea Egan Secretary: (01204 334481) John McSwiggan Equalities Officer: Joan Pritchard-Jones (07775 642640) Education Officer: (01204 338901) Julie Tudor Welfare Officer: Life Long Learning (01204 334447) Sue Vickers Officer: New Technology (01204 338901) Eddie Pilling Officer: (01204 338901) Membership Officer: Eddie Pilling Young Members (01204 334450) Andrew Thomas Officer: Communications (01204 337715) Martin Challender Officer: (07817 591095) Community Organiser Kieran Grogan (01204 337715) Labour Link Officer: Martin Challender

Convenors

Adult Services: Chief Executives, Joint Convenors:

Bolton at Home: Children Services: Environmental Services: Development and Regeneration: Bolton Community College:

matthew.kilsby@bolton.gov.uk admin@unisonbolton.org janet.bryan@boltonathome.org.uk john.vickers@boltonathome.org.uk andreae@unisonbolton.org john.mcswiggan@bolton.gov.uk joanpj@unisonbolton.org admin@unisonbolton.org sue.vickers@bolton.gov.uk admin@unisonbolton.org membership@unisonbolton.org andrew.thomas@bolton.gov.uk martin.challender@bolton.gov.uk cvsunison@unison.bolton.org martin.challender@bolton.gov.uk

Joan Pritchard-Jones (07775 642640)

joanpj@unisonbolton.org

Jeanette Pemberton-Billing (01204 331039) (01204 338901) & Cecilia Costello (07876 146245) Janet Bryan (07917 260711) Phil Travers

jeanette.billing@bolton.gov.uk cecilia@unisonbolton.org janet.bryan@boltonathome.org.uk philt@unisonbolton.org

Tony Cowell

(01204 338906)

tonyc@unisonbolton.org

Matt Kilsby

(01204 336044)

matthew.kilsby@bolton.gov.uk

Graham Walmsley

(01204 482138)

graham.walmsley@boltoncc.ac.uk

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