U Magazine Winter 2011

WINTER 2011

WIN!

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SARAH, NICOLA AND STACEY

FOR UNISON MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

tell us why the educational maintenance allowance matters to them

Your public services need

YOU!

WATTIEWEIR ploughs through the Scottish snow to keep Edinburgh running

UNISON

Join us on 26 March to speak out for public services

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10 16

WELCOME TO from Dave Prentis UNISON’s general secretary

As the new

year begins, the Tory-led government is showing its true colours. Before the election they promised to protect front line services, to protect the NHS, to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

But now 140,000 local government jobs are to go in England and Wales alone, a radical shake up to the NHS threatens to turn this great service into little more than a brand, and inevitably those that will lose out will be the vulnerable that the government vowed to protect.

The impact on our communities could be devastating.

Research shows that the cuts to public services hit the poorest the hardest. Services such as SureStart, giving our very youngest children a fair start in life; the educational maintenance allowance, that enabled hundreds of thousands of young people to stay on in education; and pensions for low-paid workers that are being chipped away. Meanwhile the bankers keep their bonuses, their massive profits and their tax loopholes.

UNISON will fight for a fairer way, to protect your schools, your hospitals, your communities and your jobs.

On 26 March we’ll be in London, marching for public services. Join us and let us know you’re coming at unison.org.uk/million.

THIS ISSUE 10 Give us a fair chance Young people losing without the education maintenance allowance 14 Protect our public services Public services are under threat across the UK 16 About a boy How public services are keeping Isaac happy and healthy 24 Me and my job A story of a true gritter and his snow plough 26 Labour link How a local councillor switched sides

REGULARS 4 5 20 22 28 30 32

26 March march for public services News U@work pensions update U@work Crosswords Review of the year to come Letters

VOLUME 18, NUMBER 4 U is published by UNISON – the public service union – and distributed to every member. Non members pay £30 a year.

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MARCUS ROSE

PLEDGE TO BE THERE

MARCH

FOR PUBLIC SERVICES Join UNISON on 26 March in London to tell the government that savage spending cuts are unnecessary and unfair

We’ll be assembling at 11am on Victoria Embankment, London, between Temple Place and Blackfriars to march to a rally in Hyde Park. Contact your region for details of local plans.

To find out more or sign up online go to unison.org.uk/million or facebook.com/amillionvoices

4

It’s going to be an important day – and we need to make sure it’s as big as possible.

On 26 March, thousands of people will join the TUC in a national demonstration against the government’s cuts.

The cuts are starting to bite now: we’re seeing services axed, while people are losing their jobs and their homes – and it’s not just public sector jobs that are going.

In the meantime, the coalition continues to say that there’s no alternative to the cuts and, with support from most of the media, people – including our members – believe it. But this is a myth.

And it’s not just ‘the usual suspects’ saying it’s a myth either – economists from across the political spectrum are saying as much, including those such as Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang, whose book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism explains the

TALK TO US: 0845 355 0845

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facebook.com / amillionvoice s

roots to what’s really been happening in the world in recent years in layman’s terms.

And it’s worth coming along. We’ve already won small battles. We’re building coalitions with communities across the UK to win even more.

When we work together to show the coalition, at local or national level, just how much opposition there is to their slash-andburn approach, they’re back-tracking and wavering.

And with elections coming up in May, we have the chance to really show what we think about policies that hurt individuals and families and communities on the basis of a myth.

We can help to do that by making sure that as many of us as possible will be in London on 26 March – showing, in UNISON, our opposition to what the government is doing.

False Economy launches A new website has been launched for anyone concerned about the impact of the government's spending cuts on their community, their family or their home.

The site, False Economy, is part sponsored by UNISON as part of its A Million Voices for Public Services campaign. It has launched with a film presented by actor Sam West.

Visit the site to get active, give testimony on the effects of cuts on you or your community, or find out more about the alternatives to the Tory-led cuts. www.falseeconomy.org.uk

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.UNISON.ORG.UK

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FIND OUT MORE unison.org .uk/ million

EAST MIDLANDS

EASTERN

UNISON LEARNERS CELEBRATE

Cambridgeshire faces huge cuts

Fifty UNISON learners met in Leicester at the end of November to celebrate their learning successes and also find out more about educational opportunities through UNISON, the Workers’ Educational Association and the Open University.

Despite the cold and snow, learners from across the East Midlands attended a host of workshops and enjoyed a presentation about the cuts facing public services.

Cambridgeshire County Council has committed itself to a “full and meaningful consultation” with UNISON, after it announced up to 450 jobs cuts for the coming year.

The cuts will come from directly employed council staff, with the possibility of further similar cuts in the following two years.

Before the general election, the county council had projected 350 job cuts, but that has increased.

UNISON regional organiser Cheryl Godber explained that the union was waiting to hear the detail of the council’s proposals before deciding on a course of action.

This generated a lot of interest about union’s Million Voices campaign and the TUC march in London on 26 March.

In the afternoon, regional secretary Helen Black presented certificates to activists completing their courses.

You can find out more about our campaign at unison.org.uk/million and about learning and organising at unison.org.uk/laos.

Music event of 2011 PAGE

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NORTHERN

PRENTIS WARNS ON POLICE CUTS MARTIN JENKINSON

YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE

Sheffield fights

JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

The Sheffield Anti-Cuts Campaign held its first meeting in late November, with more than 300 people attending.

The council, which has a very small Lib Dem majority, has proposed 44% cuts to its budget and is already attacking workers’ terms and conditions.

The UNISON branch has been out recruiting across all the services in the city, using a giant billboard showing ‘Cleggzilla’ stamping over local services. It is building toward making sure Sheffield’s presence is felt on March’s London demonstration against the cuts.

For more information search for UNISON Sheffield on facebook.

Policing by the region’s biggest force could suffer if it sheds 450 non-uniformed posts to save £34m, UNISON has said.

In November, Northumbria Police revealed that it is looking to shed almost a quarter of its workforce over the next two years as it tries to cope with a 25% funding cut from central government.

General secretary Dave Prentis said: “There is no way the streets of Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland and other major

towns on Northumbria’s patch can be kept safe with 25% fewer police staff.

“Police staff do vital work including fingerprinting, scene of crime, emergency control room operators, and working as detention officers. They play an important role in combating crime.”

Regional organiser Peter Chapman added: “One positive thing from early discussions is that Northumbria are committed to avoiding compulsory redundancies if they can.”

GREATER LONDON

Health jobs go in London More than 3,000 jobs in London will be lost through the abolition of primary care trusts, UNISON has said.

Regional head of health Chris Remington said the jobs will now be axed by April, a year quicker than announced under the government’s plans for a shake-up of the NHS. “The health white paper paves the way for massive job losses as primary care trusts are 6

abolished. In London alone, 3,300 jobs are set to go and these losses are being changed from two years into one.

“This will cause widespread disturbance to health service provision in the capital as commissioning expertise will be lost and there is no system in place to replace it.”

For more information on UNISON’s campaign for the NHS go to unison.org.uk/ournhs

TALK TO US: 0845 355 0845

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NORTH WEST

Tameside wields job-cutting axe Tameside council in Greater Manchester has announced 800 job cuts over the next four years, to save £100m.

Anne Keighley of the union’s Tameside branch said: “We’ve worked very hard to avoid compulsory redundancies in Tameside and have always promoted the fact we’ve got a very well trained, flexible workforce that are very adaptable to a whole number of situations.”

But Ms Keighley said that any cuts were likely to have an effect on services, adding: “We’re right down to the bone in a number of services now.

“In some areas we’re probably going to have a reduction of staff, we will be finding it difficult to provide services.”

The union has described plans to cut almost 3,000 posts from Greater Manchester Police as “deeply worrying” for the region.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.UNISON.ORG.UK

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SOUTH EAST

DRIVEN TO STRIKE ACTION

EVERARD SMITH

Search for nies ON 3 compa IS N ‘U project’

SOUTH WEST

Somerset and Cornwall fight back Somerset local government branch is facing a battle over the county council’s plans to axe £43m worth of services and 700 jobs.

Regional secretary Joanne Kaye said that the Conservative-controlled council’s plans include cutting youth clubs and bus subsidies.

Yet at the same time, it has just hired a new corporate director for children and young people’s services on an annual salary of £135,000 – £23K more than any other member of its senior staff.

The union is already backing a new campaign in the county, Friends of Somerset Libraries, to defend the library services against massive cuts.

And in Cornwall, UNISON held protests outside County Hall as the Conservative-dominated county council rushed through a budget to slash £170m.

8

TALK TO US: 0845 355 0845

Members working for hospital services contractor Compass Medirest in Southampton and in Buckinghamshire have been driven to strike action by management’s refusal to implement the Agenda for Change national agreement.

“It’s not just about the money – it’s about the way we are treated.” says Jo Spear, UNISON rep at Southampton General Hospital.

Jo and her fellow domestic cleaners voted to take strike action in December because management refuses to pay the final part of the Agenda for Change terms and conditions package until April 2011 and will not discuss the payment of back pay.

The government has financed Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust since 2006 to pay the agreed rate, but Compass Medirest staff, who until October did not get sick pay, are still waiting. Now they have had enough.

“We’re all up for it, feelings are so high,” said Jo, who works on the children’s cancer ward. “We are all concerned about walking off our wards and them not being cleaned, but we have to look out for our families – we’re not getting the same benefits as other NHS staff.”

Jo and her fellow UNISON activists have built membership to 94% during their campaign for equal treatment. “We tried and tried to get meetings with the company and the trust, but they didn’t take us seriously.”

Porters and catering staff, as well as domestics working for Compass Medirest at Wycombe and Amersham hospitals in Buckinghamshire walked out for 48 hours on 15 December.

WEST MIDLANDS

A warm reception As the first snows of the winter gripped the UK, UNISON West Midlands took to the roads on a week-long organising campaign for the NHS, which more than warmed the hearts of all involved.

This intensive week saw activists, branches and regional staff join forces for a blitz focussed on fighting back against cuts and the privatisation plans outlined in the government’s health white paper.

Culminating in a regional health conference, events took place across the region from Stoke in the north to Coventry in the south, Worcester in the west to Burton in the east – and 537 new members were signed up to the UNISON family, together with plenty of new stewards.

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FIND OUT MORE unison.org.uk/ westmidlands

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.UNISON.ORG.UK

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SCOTLAND

Recording for Nurse’s Aid (left to right) Alexis Mendoza, Karen Addyman and Maxine Brooks

Police fear Police officers will be tied up with more desk work if Northern Constabulary proposed cuts go ahead, UNISON officials in the Highlands are warning.

The union said that reducing the number of staff will have a significant impact on frontline policing.

The Northern Constabulary plans to close 16 stations throughout the region, cut 25 officers’ posts and axe 50 police staff jobs as part of a £4.7million package of cuts.

UNISON steward Frank Winston told The Press and Journal: “There is no acknowledgement that the support staff are the one constant in this organisation, cops come and go and when they arrive at a new station, they rely on support staff who tend to have lived and worked for a long time in the area. I know this from personal experience having been a Northern Constabulary policeman.”

Regional organiser Ken Matthews said: “UNISON is calling on members of the public to express their concerns to their MPs, MSPs and local elected councillors to let them see the true effect of these unjust Westminster budget cuts.”

No Regrets PAGE

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FIND OUT MORE facebook.com/ thenursesuk

CYMRU/WALES

Can’t smile without you UNISON member Karen Addyman has teamed up with two nursing colleagues and legendary lyricist Geoff Morrow to re-release the single Can’t smile without you.

The song, which was originally recorded by Barry Manilow, who co-wrote it with Mr Morrow, has been released to support the charity Nurse Aid. The charity, which is open to all members of the nursing family, is hoping that it will raise awareness and provide funding for nurses in need.

Ms Addyman, who is a community psychiatric nurse at Talygarn Hospital in Pontypool, joined surgical nurse Alexis Mendoza from Harrow, Middlesex, and practice nurse Maxine Brooks from Birmingham to record the single under the name The Nurses.

The three nurses were selected via an appeal through nursing journals.

Find out more about Nurse Aid at nurseaid.org.uk and join the the Facebook group at facebook.com/TheNursesuk or follow them on Twitter at @thenursesuk. The single was released in November and can be bought as an mp3 file on Amazon or iTunes.

SOUTH EAST

A new beginning When South Oxford district council and the Vale of White Horse council merged their workforces under the shared services banner, UNISON decided that it made more sense to operate as a single branch to provide a stronger voice representing members across both councils.

The proposed new name for the branch is Ridgeway, which will be confirmed at the AGM early this year.

But to mark the end of the old branches and the launch of the new one, members took a boat down the Thames, crossing the boundaries between the two local authorities.

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ALL PHOTOS: JOHN HARRIS/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Stacey Perry and Nicola Dineley

EDUCATION

fair Give us a chance

Three college students from Walsall want to tell the government to reconsider its education funding cuts. Here, they tell Demetrios Matheou what these cuts will mean to them. and travelling to school or college. The allowance is stopped if students fail to attend classes regularly.

The EMA has become a key factor in improving participation in further education in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. In some areas of Birmingham, Leicester and the North West, as many as four-fifths of students receive the EMA. UNISON has spoken to staff and students at Walsall College in the West Midlands, exactly the kind of area that will be hardest hit when the coalition scraps the EMA. The college currently has 2,300 students in receipt of EMA, around 70% of its 16-18 year old learners. And many of them will have to end their studies if they lose the allowance.

“

The EMA encourages a lot of young people to keep going through the education system. For many of them who don’t have parents to fall back on, it’s crucial

“

T

he government says that the education maintenance allowance (EMA), which it intends to abolish in January 2011, makes “little difference to most teenagers”.

In November and December 2010, tens of thousands of students and staff from colleges and six-forms throughout the country took to the streets to disagree.

For thousands, the tiny sum offered by the EMA represents the difference between staying on in education – on a path that could shape their futures for the better – or having to leave.

“By taking an axe to the EMA, the government is chopping away at the future of the next generation,” says UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis.

“We know that this support has resulted in an increase in the number of young people going to college in the last seven years, and dramatically halted the number dropping out.

“UNISON supports the young people who expected EMA to help them stay in education.

This attack on their life chances is an attack on us all.”

Launched in 2004 by the Labour government, the EMA scheme pays 16 to 18year-olds from low-income families up to £30 a week, depending on family income, to stay in education.

The money is paid into the teenagers’ bank accounts to use on books, course equipment

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EDUCATION

“

These decisions are being made by people who are so far from reality. They don’t anticipate the impact, because it’s not their world

“

12

intention to cut the allowance, Sarah attended the first Westminster protest, with a number of her fellow students.

“I do feel angry,” she says. “We need that money to stay on our courses.

We can’t carry on without it. The government isn’t giving us a fair chance.”

Another student who attended that protest was 18-year-old Nicola Dineley.

After two years studying business, Nicola is in her first year of a BTEC certificate in applied science. She says she loves science and would like to study it at university before a related career, such as a lab technician. She lives with her parents, and has qualified for the EMA for the first time, receiving £20 a week, from which she pays rent as well as her college expenses.

And it seems that studying science is a

“

We need that money to stay on our courses. The government isn’t giving us a fair chance

“

Gail Houghton is the college’s learner experience co-ordinator, responsible for the needs of the students away from their courses, such as extra-curricular activities and financial advice.

“I’m sure some government ministers think that the EMA is pin money, which the students spend on cigarettes and beer,” she says. “In fact, that support encourages a lot of young people to keep going through the education system. For many of them who don’t have parents to fall back on, perhaps living alone, it’s crucial. Now they will be part-way through their qualifications, but unable to afford to stay. It’s going to be tough.”

Ms Houghton’s assessment of the situation goes beyond education. “We are going to get a lot of homeless 16 and 17-year-olds around here, because the parents will not be able to keep them at home. The EMA enables a lot of these students to be self-sufficient within the household.

“These decisions are being made by people who are so far removed from reality,” she adds. “They don’t anticipate the impact, because it’s not their world.”

Sarah Howard is a 17-year-old who has been living alone for the past six months while studying an Achieving Together course at the college. The course is designed to improve her level of English and maths, paving the way, she had hoped, for a hairdressing course. Hairdressing runs in the family, says Sarah, and to become a hairdresser herself “is my dream”.

She receives the full £30 EMA. “It’s so important. With my income support, I don’t get that much to last me through the week. I need to buy all my books and stuff for my course and it would be a struggle without the EMA.” When the government announced its

particularly expensive business. “I don’t just have to buy books, but also my lab coat, lab glasses and other equipment,” she says. “So when I found out they were cutting the EMA it was really depressing. I know I can’t afford all that stuff without it.

“I don’t know if I’m coming back next year,” she adds. “It’s not just me. A lot of us would struggle.”

With the special perspective that her

FIND OUT MORE emacampaign .org.uk

“

“

There are no jobs going at all. If you can’t afford to stay at college, you have nothing

It’s my money, to sort out my books, my hairdressing kit – which has just gone up to £110 – and other things that I need. I like that independence. My parents would want to help more, but I choose to do it this way. So I’m gutted that we’re losing it.”

Stacey is a little more hopeful than some of being able to continue. “My parents will help me along. But other people will find it harder. And there are no jobs going at all. So if you can’t afford to stay at college, you have nothing.”

Like her friends, she has been campaigning hard to make the government change its mind, but is not optimistic. “The students organised a petition in the college, and got a lot of signatures for it, which we gave to the local MP. But no-one’s listening.”

Any MP who professes to believe the coalition line that the EMA doesn’t make a difference should go to Walsall College and speak with Sarah, Nicola and Stacey. They would meet impressive, hard-working young people, who have a very clear idea of what they want to do in life, and are desperate to be given a chance. Five minutes with these young women would make them feel ashamed. U Demetrios Matheou d.matheou@unison.co.uk role at the college gives her, Gail Houghton observes that, “apart from the obvious fact that the EMA enables young people to study, another huge benefit is that it gives them a level of independence from their parents. It is the first time they have the experience of managing their own money.

“We do financial literacy work here, covering the different ways that they can spend the EMA and bonuses, how to make budgets, to save money. It represents their first step into the adult world.”

Seventeen-year-old Stacey Perry, who is studying for an NVQ level 2 diploma in hairdressing, is one student who has embraced this opportunity. “At the moment I don’t take a lot off my parents.

That’s why I like having my EMA.

UNISON is part of the Save EMA Campaign, alongside the National Union of Students, the University and College Union, the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Unite, NASUWT and the GMB. If you or someone you know could be affected by the abolition of the EMA please contact Jennifer Mitchell at j.mitchell@unison.co.uk.

UNISON members will be joining the TUC demonstration in London on 26 March, against the full programme of government spending cuts. To find out more or sign up online go to unison.org.uk/million or facebook.com/amillionvoices.

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t c e ot r P our public services

PUBLIC SERVICES

FIND OUT MORE unison.org.uk/ campaigns

Public services are under threat across the UK, but UNISON is working locally to defend your job and the services you provide

T

he Tory-led government is ringing in the new year with 140,000 job cuts in local government in England and Wales, an NHS shake up that risks bringing marketisation and fragmentation, cuts to education funding and an attack on public service workers’ terms and conditions.

The government justifies the cuts and reorganisations by saying it has no choice but to reduce spending. Defending cuts to child benefit, housing benefit, school sports funding, books for children and the education maintenance allowance, it has argued that there is no alternative and that ‘tough choices’ must be made.

But UNISON is part of a growing coalition of community groups, charities, economists, trade unions and members of the public, who disagree. Not only do massive public spending cuts risk creating a country where the poor and the vulnerable suffer the most, they also make no economic sense.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, explains: “If you have a household that can’t pay its debts, you tell it to cut back on spending to free up the cash to pay the debts. But in a national economy, if you cut back on your spending, then economic activity goes down, nobody invests, the amount of tax you take goes down, the amount you pay out in unemployment benefits goes up – and you don’t have enough money to pay your debts.”

And a report by consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers backs this up.

The report shows that public spending cuts, with an expected 600,000 public

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service job losses, could lead to 500,000 private sector workers losing their jobs.

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis challenges the government’s logic: “The coalition has got it wrong.

By only having a strategy for cuts, it has no plans for growth and recovery. Its public spending cuts are poisoning the private sector and condemning the country to widespread, long-term unemployment and low growth. This means misery for millions of families and for taxpayer’s who will be left to pick up the long-term bill.”

So how is UNISON working locally and nationally to protect public service workers and the services they provide?

The government has asked local councils to find innovative ways to deliver the same services for less money. But it has front loaded the cuts to local councils’ budgets – insisting that councils will have to cut 11% from their budgets over the next year. This means that far from innovating, councils are rushing to chop services, or to privatise them. Lucille Thirlby, UNISON’s senior national officer for local government explains: “The government says it wants local government transformed – demanding innovative ways of delivering services – but with this level of cuts most local authorities are looking at cutting some services completely and salami slicing others, this is not transformation”.

Across the country councils are rushing to privatise services in the belief that costs will be saved. In Edinburgh 4,000 jobs are being privatised; Lancashire has signed a £1.9bn contract for services; Cardiff has a 15-year contract for IT; and

Suffolk county council wants to outsource all its services, employing staff only to manage contracts.

UNISON is fighting back. In Suffolk, the union commissioned a report by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to look into how the community, services and public and private sector workers would be affected by the council’s proposed cuts. The report showed that cuts would affect the poorest areas the most. It also worked out the exact effect that public service job losses would have on private sector jobs.

For every public sector job in Suffolk, between 0.3 and 0.5 private sector jobs are created. So if 1,000 public sector jobs go, around 400 private sector jobs go.

Suffolk currently employs around 26,000 staff – the knock on effects of large scale job losses in the area would be dramatic. Heather Wakefield, UNISON national secretary for local government, warns that the proposals “will have a devastating impact on members’ jobs, the local economy and local services.”

She continued: “We need an alternative route, as cutting hard and fast will devastate the Suffolk community and ruin any chances of recovery from the recession.”

Nationally, the alternative is provided

by UNISON’s A Million Voices for Public Services campaign, which includes an alternative budget outlining how the government could cut spending and raise income. The union is also campaigning hard to protect members’ pensions and terms and conditions as well as running national campaigns such as Love your Libraries, Our NHS Our Future,

Academies – Defend your School and Save the Educational Maintenance Allowance.

The national executive council has set up a £20m fighting fund, vowing to use it to “be bolder and more radical in the way we oppose the cuts, raising our profile and showing real leadership.” As Dave Prentis said, “This is money set aside for a rainy day, and we’re going into a monsoon.”

But it is locally that UNISON will be focusing its resources. We’re giving tools to local activists to help them challenge cuts.

Training and factsheets on financial knowledge will help. For example, many councils hold enough cash reserves to finance themselves for a whole year – this information can be useful when a council claims it has no choice but to cut services.

The union is also developing a ‘cuts campaign pack’ with help on community campaigning, influencing your local council, dealing with the media, using social media and recruiting volunteers to help with your campaign as well as running national campaigns to protect specific services and terms and conditions.

We’ll also be out in force on 26 March, when thousands of people will join the TUC march in London, to tell the government that savage spending cuts are unnecessary and unfair. We don’t believe the government when it says we are all in this together – its public service cuts will hit the most vulnerable the hardest. Join us in defending jobs and services and speaking out for a fairer alternative – fair taxation; investment in our local communities, health and education; and a more equal and just society. U Diana Harrison d.harrison@unison.co.uk

“

We will be bolder and more radical in the way we oppose the cuts, raising our profile and showing real leadership

unison.org.uk/million

MARCUS ROSE

Add yours at

“

UNISON’s national campaign to protect public services is A Million Voices for Public Services. To find out more and let us know you’ll join us on 26 March go to unison.org.uk/million.

For more information on cuts in health and UNISON’s response see ‘About a Boy’ on page 16.

For more information on cuts to the educational maintenance allowance and UNISON’s response see ‘Give us a fair chance’ on page 10.

PUBLIC SERVICES ALL PHOTOS: JOHN HARRIS/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

S

tuart White has an academic interest in the role of the public sector in a civilised society – he teaches politics at Oxford University. But his enthusiasm for public services is personal as well as theoretical.

Two years ago Stuart’s son Isaac was diagnosed with a progressive muscle wasting condition, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Stuart and his wife Kathy rely on a team of over a dozen health and education professionals to help them manage Isaac’s complex needs.

“

Without his teaching assistant, Isaac would just flounder. He would just exist in the classroom, he wouldn’t learn anything

“

16

Isaac has muscular dystrophy and, as his parents tell Clare Bayley, public services are key to keeping him happy and healthy

a t u o Ab boy

“

Where services are good and well-coordinated, life expectancy for people with DMD is 30 years plus. Where services are poor, it can be as low as 18 or 19 years

“

Isaac has Greta Shepherd, a full-time teaching assistant, to support him at school. And as she explains, “Without his TA, Isaac would just flounder. He would just exist in the classroom, he wouldn’t learn anything. With the best will in the world, with 30 kids in the class, the teacher wouldn’t be able to meet his needs.

And his twice weekly physio sessions – crucial to maintain his ability to walk – would just go out of the window. Having a TA means that Isaac is included, he’s one of the class.”

He also has speech therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and a range of special educational needs support services and medical specialists. All this enables him to flourish and continue in mainstream education.

Crucially, it also helps to delay the time when Isaac will have to use a wheelchair, and prolongs his life expectancy.

Now that all councils are being asked to make immediate and deep cuts, Stuart and Kathy are understandably worried about Isaac’s future.

“Research has shown that where services are good and well co-ordinated, life expectancy for people with DMD is 30 years plus. Where services are poor, it can be as low as 18 or 19 years,” explains Kathy starkly.

“Research is ongoing and they are close to finding a treatment which would effectively halt or slow the muscle wastage. But we’re also very worried about cuts to research funding,” she adds.

Isaac needs a large team of professionals because of his multiple physical, medical and educational needs. “We personally value and respect the dedication, expertise and care of the people providing the public services. We have experienced what it is to receive good quality services.”

Even so, as Kathy reflects, “it took the whole of the first year after diagnosis to work out who they all were, why we needed them, and how to get them to liaise with each other.” Families in their situation need and deserve support in finding their way around the system. Without that support, that difficult time would have been so much more bewildering and distressing.

The family were eligible for disability living allowance, but the 40 page form was intimidating even to an Oxford academic.

Stuart and Kathy relied heavily on the muscular dystrophy regional care adviser to help them apply for the benefit.

17

PUBLIC SERVICES “

And despite all of the support they receive, Kathy has decided to give up work this year in order to concentrate on managing Isaac’s care. She is already operating at full stretch and working with the public sector to provide her son’s care.

She is outraged at the Conservatives’ so-called big society agenda.

18

“The idea that we could cut back all the services we currently get and volunteer to step into the breach is ridiculous,” she says.

“Why should the burden of deficit reduction fall on children and the vulnerable?” she asks. “We know that these cuts are going to hurt poorer people and disabled people. Cuts at this level will lead to a two tier system with an adequate private service for people who can pay and an inadequate service for people who can’t.”

“I’m in the top 10% of the population earning over £40,000 a year,” Stuart points out wryly. “The idea that we could go out and buy what we get from the NHS and the local education authority is just…” he breaks off, laughing in horror at the very idea. “It’s just absurd!”

And Kathy adds: “It’s not just the financial issue of buying the services – we’ve benefited from the professionals who have an overview of the situation.

“

We personally value and respect the dedication, expertise and care of the people providing the public services

“

“

Why should the burden of deficit reduction fall on children and the vulnerable? We know that these cuts are going to hurt poorer people and disabled people

I can’t see how we as parents could meet Isaac’s needs without that overview that the local authority has.”

Stuart and Kathy are active in Oxfordshire’s local anti-cuts campaign, Save Our Services. The council leaders recently invited local people to a ‘Big Debate’ to discuss the best way to implement the cuts.

“I regard these services as rights,” says Stuart. “Given the overall scale of cuts, they were effectively asking us to discuss whose rights were going to get violated.

Of course we’re anxious about our son, but even if nothing happens to his services that will be at the expense of somebody else’s services.

“I resent being put in a position where I’m being invited to squawk on behalf of my child’s rights, knowing someone else will have to pay, who has just as much right to their service.”

The philosophical point was not lost on the council leaders who, however, had no satisfactory answer to the question.

“Those of us who are concerned in one area have to show solidarity to those in another area,” insists Stuart. “We can’t sit in our silos and fight a particular cut – we have to come together, share information and show support for each other.”

He is keen to raise the debate above the level where citizens are pitted against each other, squabbling over who is most deserving.

Save Our Services is a coalition of residents, trade unions and other groups working together.

“The best way we can fight these draconian cuts is by unions, service users, community groups and the public getting together and telling politicians, locally and nationally, that we oppose them,” says UNISON regional organiser Steve Waite.

“The council needs to fight back against these government imposed cuts instead of implementing them without question,” he continues.

“Save Our Services is a local campaign and it’s taking that message to Oxfordshire council.”

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FIND OUT MORE

“

I regard these services as rights… Given the overall scale of cuts, they were effectively asking us to discuss whose rights were going to get violated

And they will be joining UNISON to march for public services at the TUC march on 26 March 2011 in London.

Stuart is a passionate speaker and brilliantly combines a practical approach with highly intelligent reasoning.

His academic research is into philosophical issues around the welfare state, and he has published widely on the subject, including a book, The Civic Minimum, about social rights. He argues very cogently that cuts are not the way to manage the country’s deficit. And he also has an alternative solution.

“The obvious way to share the burden is through the tax system, not through spending cuts. Through the tax system, you can put the greatest burden on the strongest shoulders. That’s the basis of a civilisation,” he says. U Clare Bayley c.bayley@unison.co.uk

OU CAMPARIG N

• Find out more about Save Our Services in unison.o rg.uk/ million Oxford at indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford • Find out about UNISON’s Million Voices for Public Services campaign at unison.org.uk/million • Speak up for the NHS: Our NHS Our Future is UNISON’s campaign for a quality NHS that is publicly owned, not driven by profit. For more information go to unison.org.uk/ournhs • UNISON will be marching for public services on 26 March in London. To find out more or sign up see the article on page 4, go to tuc.org.uk, unison.org.uk/million or facebook.com/amillionvoices.

U@WORK

PROTECT PENSIONS UPDATE

Our pensions are under attack. Already the government has changed the way it allows for inflation – from using the standard retail price index to using the lower consumer price index, which doesn’t include housing costs, to calculate annual increases.

And other attacks are being lined up, courtesy of Lord Hutton’s independent public service pensions commission. Its interim report back in October 2010 admitted that public sector pensions are far from ‘gold plated’ and rejected a ‘race to the bottom’.

But it did argue that final salary schemes favour so-called high fliers in public services, and suggested looking at moves from final salary pensions to a career average or including some element of ‘defined contribution’ – where you have an individual pension pot which is used to buy a pension when you retire: how much you get depends on the state of the financial markets at the time you retire rather than your final salary.

The commission also suggested the best way to save the government money in the short term was to increase what members pay - something taken up by Chancellor George Osborne in his comprehensive spending review. These increases will be phased in from April 2012, to save an extra £1.8bn a year for the Pay As You Go schemes alone. The effect will be to make each person paying in to a public pension scheme pay an average 3% more of their pay.

The low paid could pay a bit less of the increase with middle earners paying significantly more.

But Hutton still has to make a final report before March’s budget, and UNISON has presented evidence putting our arguments in defence of our members’ pensions.

20

OUR PENSIONS

All public service schemes were reformed and renegotiated in 2007 to keep them both affordable and sustainable. The Hutton commission itself admits that these reforms reduced costs by 10%.

If you then add the effect of the change from the retail price index to the consumer price index when calculating the annual increases in pensions, costs have been cut by 25%.

The combined effect is that the value of benefits has already reduced from an average of 24% to 18% of pay. Further changes would reduce benefit values further. This could cause the very race to the bottom that the commission and government say they wish to avoid.

Indeed, a Pensions Week article warns that increasing workers’ contributions by 3% on average could see as many as 350,000 people opting out of public service pension schemes because they can’t afford it – and these people would then have to rely on state benefits to avoid poverty in their old age.

On top of that, any move that included ‘defined contribution’ elements rather than defined benefits would place all the risk on individual scheme members – potentially leaving generations of savers having to rely on tax-funded state benefits when they retire.

A defined benefit scheme, like the current final salary pension scheme or possibly a good career average scheme revalued in line with earnings, is the only thing that can deliver a reasonable income in retirement.

There has also been talk of further raising the retirement age in public sector pensions – which, like so many comments on the issue, ignores reality: the local government pension scheme, the 2008 section of the NHS pension scheme, the reformed teachers’ pension

scheme and the new civil service pension scheme all already have normal retirement ages of 65.

And far from being ‘gold plated’, the average public sector pension is just £7,800 a year – and a lot less for many local government and NHS workers, particularly women.

But what it all boils down to is that the government wants to impose increases in the amount you pay and to increase retirement ages so you either retire into poverty or work for longer if you are able to do so. The pension schemes have already been made affordable and sustainable and there is already an agreed process for sharing costs and changing benefits if the cost of the schemes go up or down.

UNISON will be arguing in support of your pension rights through the Hutton review. But the government might press ahead with changes anyway. And then all of UNISON – all our members – will have to ask whether we can afford to sit back and allow ourselves and future pensioners pay the costs of the banking crisis. U

UNISON members will be joining the TUC demonstration in London on 26 March, against the full programme of government spending cuts. To find out more or sign up online go to unison.org.uk/million or facebook.com/amillionvoices.

Accident?

An apology won’t pay the bills.

UNISON is here to get you compensation for everything your accident has cost you.

The legal service is FREE and you will always keep 100% of the compensation.

You can claim for any accident – at work, on the road or on holiday. Your family is also covered.

UNISON’s lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors, have been working with UNISON members

over many years. This experience helps you to get the maximum compensation you are entitled to in the shortest possible time.

In 2009, 97% of UNISON members surveyed would recommend Thompsons.

So if you or a member of your family have had an accident call UNISONdirect on 0845 355 0845 (Textphone 0800 0 967 968)

Conditions apply. Accidents outside of the UK are covered where we can pursue the case through the courts in England/Wales. Family members are covered for accidents outside of the workplace.

SIMON CLARK/EYEBOX

U@WORK

HEALTH SERVICE

Employers offer a tough choice NHS employers have offered a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies – in return for a pay freeze, including incremental progression, for two years.

Health staff on less than £21,000 a year would still get their £250 a year increase under the offer, which would apply to health workers on bands one to six. For staff on bands seven to nine, covering managers and senior clinicians, trusts have said they will try to find alternatives such as redeployment, before making any redundancies.

“

As well as job security, the offer would protect Agenda for Change terms and conditions, which have been under attack in a number of NHS trusts

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As well as job security, the offer would protect Agenda for Change terms and conditions, which have been under attack in a number of NHS trusts, and the employers would ask the government not to implement the 1% increase in members’ pension contributions, due on 1 April 2012.

UNISON senior national officer Mike Jackson said members face a tough choice, with families to feed and mortgages to pay.

“We will have to give this offer serious consideration,” he added, “but the final decision will be in the hands of our members.”

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Pay claim submitted UNISON and other council unions have asked for a 2011 pay rise of at least £250 a year for the 1.6 million council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Tory-led local government employers have so far refused to pay the 67% of council workers earning less than £21,000 the £250 wage increase promised to them in the budget, earlier this year.

The unions are calling on the employers not to freeze council workers’ pay for the second year running, saying it will hit the overwhelmingly female, and overwhelmingly low paid, workforce hard.

“Councils can afford this small increase,” says UNISON head of local government Heather Wakefield. They have billions in their reserve funds stashed away.”

In Scotland, employers have imposed a three-year package of a 0.65% rise for 2010 and pay freezes for 2011 and 2012.

22

POLICE STAFF

Wiltshire pays up UNISON pressure has seen Wiltshire police pay a 2.58% rise to police staff that was due as part of a three-year deal.

The police authority had originally used government cuts as an excuse not to honour the deal – though it did pay the increase to police officers. But now police staff will also get the rise, backdated to October.

“UNISON and staff are absolutely chuffed,” commented branch secretary Michael Murphy.

A MILLION VOICES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES

Union commits £20m to protecting members and services

FURTHER EDUCATION

“This is money set aside for a rainy day, and we’re going into a monsoon”

“These are unprecedented and challenging times and we face our biggest test yet,” UNISON’s national executive council declared in December 2010 as it agreed to set up a fighting fund of up to £20m to fight the attacks on public services.

“We need to be bolder and more radical in the way we oppose the cuts, raising our profile and showing real leadership,” said a report on “defending our members – defending public services,” which was adopted by the NEC meeting in London.

The money for fighting the cuts includes £10m in the union’s industrial action fund, some £5.5m to help regions and branches organise against job losses and service cuts and campaigning money from the union’s general political fund, including £2m from reserves.

“This is money set aside for a rainy day, and we’re going into a monsoon,” general secretary unison.org.uk/million Dave Prentis told the meeting.

Rises accepted in England Members working in English further education colleges voted to accept a pay rise of 0.2% or £50 a year, whichever was higher, by 53% to 47%.

Their colleagues in English sixth form colleges have voted to accept a 0.75% pay rise, backdated to September 2010. This gives a new hourly minimum rate of £6.41.

Add yours at

THE LAW AND U

Legal changes that affect you at work The 2010 Equality Act came into force at the end of last year and included changes to equal pay law which could affect you.

These are in two main areas.

Up until now, any one making a claim for equal pay had to find a direct comparator – a person of the other sex doing the same work, or work of equal value, who was being paid more.

But in many areas of work, this hasn’t been possible because, for instance, work is done almost totally by women. Because of that UNISON has been arguing for the law to allow hypothetical comparators.

The new law allows a woman who doesn’t have an equal pay claim because there is no direct comparator to bring a claim for direct sexual discrimination instead, using a hypothetical comparator.

This is a step forward, but different legal tests exist for equal pay and sex discrimination, so cases which might succeed in one area might fail in the other. And individuals do not have a choice of which claim to make.

There has also been a change to the defences employers can use to justify different pay.

Case law on using so-called ‘genuine material factors’ to justify differences in pay has been confusing and often contradictory.

The new act makes it clear that an employer can only justify a pay difference with a material factor if that does not itself directly or indirectly discriminate against women.

If you think you have a legal issue at work contact your local UNISON rep or branch for help and advice on whether the union can provide free legal help. See page 34 for information on equal pay claims.

FIND OUT MORE see page 34

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24

SANDY YOUNG

ME AND MY JOB

WATTIEWEIR This true gritter and his snow plough have kept the roads of Edinburgh clear during the worst cold snap in years

I feel a million dollars… …when I’m out there with the snow plough clearing the roads. If there’s a fallen tree or debris over cars and roofs we’re called out and we’ve got to clear all that up. You really take pride in getting there and being of assistance to people. You can’t stop

“

If we don’t clear the main roads then no food gets in, no fuel gets in, there’s no public transport

for the rain – we’ve just got to work in these horrendous conditions – hail, rain, sleet or snow.

Nobody moves until we do…

We go on dangerous roads, but there’s nobody there to help us along.

A snowplough can slide just the same as anybody else – that’s why we’re qualified drivers.

I get a buzz… …when I’m out doing my job and I’m in control of the vehicle. The vehicle never controls me. If it slides I speak to it and I shout at it – just like a bairn.

People think there’s something wrong with you, but I say ‘I’m giving it a telling off for sliding’.

When you’re driving a snow plough… …you’re like a puma going on a hunt.

You can’t move because it takes full concentration. It’s not the vehicle in front you’ve got to watch, it’s the one four or five in front of them, because if we’re stuck behind the traffic then nobody goes anywhere and then people say: “Where are the gritters?”.

Life would be great if… …everyone had a gritter at their home but life’s not that easy. Nobody seems to think “Who comes to dig the guys’ cars out of the snow that are coming out in these treacherous conditions to get the food chain open?”

Your whole body is turned upside down… …when you work a day shift, a night shift, back to a day shift – you’re up at four in the morning to get into the depot for five and that’s through to 10 o’clock at night, then back home and back up at four o’clock in the morning again.

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When you’re driving a snow plough, you’re like a puma going on a hunt

“

I

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’m a skilled road worker for South Edinburgh Council. The job involves the resurfacing of roads and footpaths – so it’s drainage, storm damage and the winter gritting. I drive a snow plough and when it’s loaded up, between the weight of the plough loaded with salt and the vehicle, it’s near enough 20 tonnes.

We’re professional drivers and we’re keeping everything going – the buses, the food chain. You just try to help everyone the best that you can. I like to think that we’ve got a wee bit of pride in ourselves to know that I can walk home tonight and see that I’ve opened up these major roads.

I went into the armed forces when I was 17 years old, then worked for a private company for 11 years and started with the council in April 1979.

In the 30-odd years I’ve been here I’ve never come up against conditions as bad as this winter. If we don’t clear the main roads then no food gets in, no fuel gets in, there’s no public transport. So the winter gritting gets top priority over any job that we do.

There are a lot of times you never get to be with your family…

This year hopefully I can have time with my wife, daughter, son and my granddaughter, but if mother nature demands it, my Christmas meal will have been put aside and I’ll have gone out and done what I’m paid to do and kept the roads open.

I’ve seen cheering crowds…

They stand at the side of the road and if they see you coming along with a plough and you’re clearing the snow – they’ll put their hands up and clap.

It gives you a wee bit of pride that at least I’m keeping somebody happy. It’s nice to see. You’ll always get one or two Victor Meldrews, but I’m big and ugly enough, as my mum used to say, to just take it on the chin.

After a day’s work… …I get in, get my tea, put my feet up and watch my football or my horseracing on the television.” U Celestine Laporte c.laporte@unison.co.uk

If you think Wattie’s doing a good job then add your voice to our campaign A Million Voices at unison.org.uk/million 25

LABOUR LINK

Switching

NEWSTEAM

Local councillor Elaine Costigan tells U about what drove her tough decision to switch from Conservative to Labour

26

FIND OUT MORE unison.org.uk/ labourlink

sides

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Elaine’s commitment to her home town drove her decision, in July 2010, to leave the Conservative party and move to Labour. What began as a sense that things were not right

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M

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y father was a Conservative councillor for 36 years, and I decided I would do the same to represent the people in my community” says Elaine Costigan, explaining her decision to become a Conservative councillor in for Wednesbury North in Sandwell in 2002.

A part-time sales manager for Charles Cantrill Ltd, a small business based in Wednesbury, Elaine’s commitment to the town is undoubtable – it’s the place she was born and brought up and what drove her to become a councillor.

It was also what drove her decision, in July 2010, to leave the Conservative party and move to Labour. What began as a sense that things were not right came to a head when Woodgreen High School, in Elaine’s ward, lost sorely needed funding for its crumbling school building as part of education secretary Michael Gove’s cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme.

To make matters worse, the school was originally told that the funding was safe, only to find out the next day that this was an error – the funding would be cut. “The children and parents were devastated,” Elaine explains, “they had been so relieved at first to hear the plans were going ahead but

then to have their hopes dashed the next day was particularly devastating.”

This wasn’t Elaine’s only concern though.

“I am against the fees in higher education.

I know there is a cost to education but the families in my area are not rich. The young people today are asking: ‘I know there’s a deficit, but why are they asking students to pay for it?’ That was asked of me at a local school.”

Elaine reels off further cuts and the impact she’s worried they will have on her community: “The cuts to council funding are affecting all sorts of things like traffic calming near schools. Children’s safety is compromised. The 20% VAT rise which came in January will affect the low paid most. There are no pay rises in the public

sector but costs are going up. Elderly people are fearful that they will lose their winter fuel allowances. Child benefit has not been thought through properly. Being about single income, it could make people think they will be better off separated than together. What does that say about keeping families together?”

Elaine worries “it’s too much too soon.

I am passionate about the people I represent and I don’t think Tory policies are in their best interests.” U Val Gibson u.magazine@unison.co.uk

GET INVOLVED Have you ever thought about running for public office? This could include becoming a local councillor, becoming a school governor, or even becoming an MP. If so UNISON can offer you help and advice. Contact your local branch for more information or get in touch with Labour Link at l.labourlink@unison.co.uk.

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CROSSWORDS

w

! n u f Puzzle

by Caper

A plain puzzle A nice and easy plain crossword to warm you up for the sterner challenges ahead

ACROSS

n

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1 Bring a charge against (6) 4 Of a private nature (8) 10 Series of steps (9) 11 Wed (5) 12 Burn slowly without a flame (8) 13 Yellow bird (6) 15 And (4) 16 Roman gown (4) 17 Wild dog (5) 20 Item of furniture (5) 22 Animal fat (4) 23 Operatic prima donna (4) 26 Terrifiying woman (6) 27 Tradesman, generally (8) 29 Point of a church (5) 30 Find fault with (9) 31 Walked slowly (8) 32 A paved road (6)

DOWN

1 Helper (9) 2 Soft leather from a antelope (7) 3 High pitched (6) 5 Jug (4) 6 Compassion (8) 7 Tell a story (7) 8 Place to pull over when driving (3-2) 9 Fast equine beast (9) 14 Place to eat (9) 18 Dwelling in a block (9) 19 Remains of a mollusc, say, found on a beach (8) 21 A defence (7) 24 Think about (7) 25 An actor’s text of a play (6) 26 Lush place in a desert (5) 28 Continued pain (4)

d 28

a

Alphajig Each of the 26 answers starts with a different letter of the alphabet – solve the easy clues and work out where the answers go – use the answer lengths to give you help. I’ve even given you three to start you off – so you can cross off K, C and N and the clues to them straight away – and now you know where V goes ■ Garland of flowers (3) ■ Slippery fish (3) ■ Homer’s exclamation suggesting stupidity (3) ■ How to address a knight (3) ■ Adhesive (4) ■ Disgusting (4) ■ Likewise (4) ■ Midwestern American state (4) ■ Beams of electromagnetic radiation that can penetrate matter (1-4) ■ Discovers (5) ■ Strange (5) ■ River- loving character in Wind in the Willows (5) ■ Type of film showing life- story of a celeb (6) ■ International organisation promoting collaboration through education (6)

S

■ Person of the same race or family as another (7) ■ Short bits of wood that flare up or competitive games (7) ■ Massive unspecified number (7) ■ Henry, English organist and Baroque composer of sacred music (7) ■ Standing behind others waiting to be served (7) ■ To cancel out and make void (7) ■ Expensive smoked fish eggs (7) ■ Caribbean island (7) ■ In a manner that is fair and true (8) ■ Double veils worn by some Muslim women (8) ■ Change to a sloping font (9) ■ In a manner displaying awareness for feelings for others (9)

w

b

d

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W A DIGIN

ITAL RADIO Send y

our an to all swer th the ad ree puzzle s s to dres Friday s below by 4 Marc h

Overlaps

ANSWERS FROM LAST ISSUE

Each clue contains a definition of the answer as usual – but also a consecutive letter mix of the answer – straddling more than one word but never ‘touching’ the definition – for example 4 Comment on impressionist (5) Gives MONET, which is defined by impressionist, and can be found in COM(MENT O)N – all mixed up

A plain puzzle Across: 1 Vacuum, 4 Cardigan, 10 Lunchtime, 11 Slave, 12 Up-market, 13 Notice, 15 Easy, 16 Cast, 17 Error, 20 Train, 22 Lark, 23 Camp, 26 Season, 27 Moderate, 29 Lemon, 30 Turquoise, 31 Exchange, 32 Detest Down: 1 Vol-au-vent, 2 Cinemas, 3 Ushers, 5 Aged, 6 Discover, 7 Glacier, 8 Niece, 9 Miserable, 14 Starboard, 18 Represent, 19 Insomnia, 21 Anaemic, 24 Avarice, 25 Secure, 26 Solve, 28 Stag.

Alphajig Alto, Balder, Caveats, Darkest, Ewe, Firms, Glue, Holistic, Inoculate, Jesters, Kuwaiti, Lea, Men, Neutral, Ohio, Parched, Quietly, Re-examine, Sly, Tattoos, Ulster, View, Weird, Xylem, Youngest, Zaire Overlaps Across: 2 Ram, 4 Cater, 7 Solitaire, 10 Madness, 11 Caped, 15 Fortieth, 17 Sob story, 18 Unfortunate, 19 Ice-cold, 20 Ploys, 22 Yam Down: 1 Rat, 2 Rabies, 3 Medal, 5 Counterfeit, 6 Bread boards, 8 Tantrum, 9 Heather, 12 Doc, 13 Pseudonym, 14 Bra, 16 Horsefly, 21 Oak

ACROSS

DOWN 1 2 3 5

Change colour when talking (3) Cello irritates dog (6) Combine germ embryos (5) Small place to cook chicken teeth tarts (11) 6 Brilliant at fencing ?

Imagine! (11) 8 Get to a cosy bungalow (7) 9 Island I dream about (7) 12 Nasty old bag (3) 13 She works on a farm – Maria did yesterday (9) 14 The cabaret’s brilliant (3) 16 To design a city (3,5) 21 Did a difficult sum (3)

a

n

h

b

2 Dam a Cornish river (3) 4 Comment on impressionist (5) 7 Big tall boy is male beast (5,4) 10 Cheap doughnuts cooked in water (7) 11 Massage neck and elbow (5) 15 Woman in restaurant swears, I think (8) 17 Picnic for sale outdoors (8) 18 Shop keeper giving Roger receipt (11) 19 A hint – miraculous vitamin (7) 20 Once more Ian agrees (5) 22 Strange old doctor (3)

a

WIN A DIGITAL RADIO! For your chance to win a digital radio, please send your filled-in grids for all three of this issue’s crosswords in one envelope, together with your name and address, to U magazine crossword competition, UNISON, 1 Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9HJ, to reach us by Friday 4 March.

b

a

e

The five lucky winners of a digital radio from the last issue are: Mr A Leonard, Southampton; Mrs R Elliott, East Riding; Mrs H Rowlinson, Leigh; L M Jones, Bristol; Mrs E Raison, Abbots Langley

a

29

PREVIEWS

1

The

cultural year to come 2011

BOOKS Julian Barnes, the author of Metroland, Flaubert’s Parrot and Love Etc…, opens 2011 with his collection of short stories, Pulse. Ranging from the domestic to the unexpected, the vineyards of Italy to the English seaside in winter, the stories here deal with love, marriage, reconciliation and memory – one hopes with the insight, humour and poignancy that distinguishes Barnes’ writing.

Could it be that we finally receive a decent telling of the life and times of the singer Edith Piaf, in English? No Regrets: A Biography of Edith Piaf may be that book. It’s written by Carolyn Burke, whose Lee Miller – On Both Sides of the Camera was the first full-length biography of the legendary photographer. Burke is also a translator, art critic and Francophile.

Fingers crossed that she will bring the Little Sparrow to life.

For those who haven’t yet discovered the delights of Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews will be a perfect starting point; seasoned fans will need no encouragement. Whether writing novels, criticism or travel 30

journalism, Dyer is one of today’s most unusual British writers, witty, versatile and decidedly leftfield. This collection of 25 years of essays, reviews and misadventures sees Dyer pursuing the shadow of Camus in Algeria, writing about the photographer Richard Avedon and saxophonist David Murray, reflecting on fashion and life on the dole.

On the food front, expect to get exactly what’s written on the tin with Rosemary Shrager’s Absolutely Foolproof Classic Home Cooking. The English chef, who shot to fame as the haute cuisine teacher on the TV reality show Ladette to Lady, and later helped to wean fast-food families onto healthy cuisine in Kitchen Showdown With Rosemary Shrager is a real character, with an accessible style.

EVENT OF THE YEAR Love or loathe the Windsors, this has to be the Royal Wedding of Wills and Kate.

The future king and queen tie the knot on 29 April. Expect the nation to grind to a halt, in a cheerier manner than the one currently being contrived by the government.

MUSICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR Fans of Britpop will be particularly heartened by the news that Pulp are to reunite for July concerts in Hyde Park. In 2007 Jarvis Cocker declared that “Hell would have to freeze over” before the band returned to the stage.

Those who believe that the writer of Common People was the best thing about Britpop are very pleased he’s thawed.

4

PICTURES: 1 Geoff Dyer, 2 Cowboys & Aliens, 3 The King’s Speech, 4 Pulp, 5 Johnny Depp

2 3

You may already have had a chance to see The King’s Speech, which was released in the first week of 2011. If you haven’t – do so. Like The Queen a few years ago, this fond, funny, consummate British drama about one of the country’s best-loved monarchs is heavily tipped for Oscar success, and rightly so.

The monarch this time around is George VI, who had the thankless task of replacing his brother Edward VIII when the latter

5

PA PHOTOS

FILMS

abdicated in order to pursue his love affair with Mrs Simpson, then the equally wretched job of accompanying the country through World War II. Everyone knows those two things about George; what is less known is that he had the most appalling stammer.

The film’s title refers both to the great pains that King George went to, to conquer his impediment, but also to the very particular radio address he had to make to the nation, on the eve of war. The film charts the journey, physical and emotional, which George makes towards that fateful moment, guided by a most peculiar speech therapist.

Colin Firth plays George, Helena Bonham Carter Queen Elizabeth (best known to most today as the Queen Mother) and Geoffrey Rush the Australian therapist Lionel Logue, whose lack of kowtowing before the royal was marvellously daring, and understanding of the psychological dimension of stammering ahead of its time.

Wonderfully written and acted – Firth and Rush joust magnificently – this moves and amuses in equal measure.

It takes a great actor, and one with a lot of goodwill in the bank, to reprise one of the most famous roles by one of cinema’s most enduring icons. But Jeff Bridges can tick both of those boxes. All eyes will be on Bridges as he gives his version of the irascible one-eyed lawman Rooster Cogburn, in the western True Grit.

The fact that this is directed by the Coen Brothers – who refresh any genre they turn their hand to – and that we don’t see enough westerns these days, are two more reasons to seek out the film, about a US Marshall who helps a teenage girl track down her father’s murderer.

The must-see of the springtime may be Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, if for no other reason than to see

Johnny Depp reprise his loveable rogue Captain Jack Sparrow. There is added incentive in the knowledge that those soppy lovebirds Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have been left in the harbour, with Depp joined instead by Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane as Bluebeard, and that man Rush again as Sparrow’s old enemy Barbossa. Hoist the mainsail!

One of the most intriguing films of the year has to be Cowboys & Aliens. Set in Arizona in 1973, it has Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig as cowboys – and the only ones standing in the way of an alien invasion.

Craig also features in The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn, Steven Spielberg’s “motion capture” animated adaptation of three Tintin stories. Young Scot Jamie Bell will be the actor whose every move is turned into an animated Tintin, with Andy Serkis – who perfected the technique as Gollum in Lord of the Rings – as Captain Haddock. U Demetrios Matheou d.matheou@unison.co.uk

ios

32

up for grabs

U welcomes readers’ letters (we reserve the right to edit contributions). Please send them to The Editor, U Magazine, UNISON, 1 Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9AJ or email them to u.magazine@unison.co.uk

FOR UNISON MEMB ERS AND THEIR FAMIL IES

Ed Miliband

UNISON midwife quiz zes the

You must provide your full name and address although we will of course not print it. of the time for South Cambridgeshire District Council. Ipswich are now looking at making serious cutbacks in their service which will have serious effects on what the public get from the parks there. South Cambridgeshire transferred me and a colleague under TUPE to a very small charity with a very small dowry on 1 April 2008.

After almost two years I was redundant as they could not afford to keep me on, so much for their financial planning and assurances to the council. They now employ more casual selfemployed staff in a bid to lower operating costs at vastly lower rates.

There are threats to countryside staff all over the country and threats to services to the public as parks will close as we need them more than ever as places where folk can de-stress.

The arts and museums are also small service areas under severe threat, all services the public need which will not be

Kitchen confidential Meet Audrey, the din

ner has to provide her own lady who cutlery

taken on by the private sector as how can you make money out of them.

Surely without some services you lose the right to be called a caring society, although I suppose the Big Society will help keep them running – there’ll be loads more volunteers about when the long term unemployed get involved.

Malcolm Busby by email

Swimming success

I wanted to let you know that London’s Disability Swimming Squad, which is sponsored by UNISON, took their largest squad ever to the National Championships with 22 swimmers, and came home with almost as many medals – 21.

UNISON agreed a three-year sponsorship deal with the squad last year, which enables London to give each team member a full team strip including shirts and hooded tops, each embroidered with the swimmer’s name as well as the London team and UNISON names.

The team had a fantastic championships. Last year we took a large team and they performed well, but this year was even better. Every

UNISON

Big society?

new

Labour leader

“

UNISON sponsorship has made a huge difference to the squad, even the newcomers instantly feel as they belong

“

LETTERS

Got something to say?

I liked the Kitchen Confidential article in the latest issue, and am pleased that UNISON is able to help.

While I think that we all realise we all need to do what we can to reduce spending, it’s how we do it that matters.

The current plans to cut staff numbers and scale back pensions etc while expecting so-called efficiency savings make little sense and only serve to convince the wider public that public sector employees are lazy and need these cuts etc to make them work as hard as people in employment outside the sector.

The scope of cuts is amazing, aside from the obvious places such as police, health etc, there are those affecting folk in countryside services.

I worked in that sector as a local government employee from June 1991 until March 2010 for two employers, Ipswich Borough Council and latterly and for the majority

AUTUMN 2010

WDiIN! gital rad

swimmer achieved a personal best or won a medal, and the team spirit among them was fabulous, In that respect the UNISON sponsorship has made a huge difference to the squad, even the newcomers instantly feel as they belong.

Izabel Grindal by email

Food for thought

I would like to respond to John Roberts’ and Gill Mitcham’s letters in the last issue.

Compassion in World Farming has some admirable aims but can as so often happens (eg RSPCA) have members who are vegetarian or vegan who really have the hidden agenda of wanting everybody to stop eating meat. This leads to the situation where they lose credibility.

Get a CV fit for a successful healthcare career Leading nursing and healthcare qualifications from The Open University Want to make progress in your career? Your prospects could be a lot healthier with a qualification from The Open University. We offer a wide range of professionally developed courses that support core issues within the healthcare sector providing you with relevant skills you can apply at work straight away to help meet your ambitions. All delivered in a study style that fits around your busy working day.

BRIAN MORGAN

“

I will enjoy my steak, thank you, knowing that if I have shopped carefully the animal it came from has had a comfortable life

“

The reference to ‘animals sent to slaughter are distressed and panic stricken... fecal contamination... defecated in sheer fright’, shows that the writer of the second letter (Gill Mitcham) doesn’t take account of the mentality of sheep, cattle, horses etc.

As a farmer of some 30 years, I can assure her that they ‘defecate’ at the slightest change to the pattern of their lives.

Moving from one field to another causes them to do it, or being hassled by another animal, or a lorry rushing past their field etc.

I have had personal experience of taking lambs to slaughter. I regularly took a trailer of 20 or so lambs to our local abattoir.

They didn’t like being loaded, and if you have ever tried to drive 20+ lambs up a ramp you will know how stubborn they can be.

However, once in, they settle – they are with lambs they have grown up with and nobody is shouting or pushing them up the ramp, so they settle.

They may ‘defecate’ a little in protest at being shut in a trailer which has never happened before, but 10 minutes down the road and

off loaded into a building – with me still there talking to them – standing in a pen for five minutes or so and by the time I’ve collected the booking slip they are dead.

Not a bad way to go, considering how some of us humans are shipped of this earth!

I will enjoy my steak, thank you, knowing that if I have shopped carefully, the animal it came from has had a comfortable life and a quick death. Are we assured of this option?

Rosemary Allen by email

“I’ve been a nurse for 20 years but it’s only recently that I’ve become a clinical nurse specialist – and that’s thanks to my Open University degree.”

Sandy Davies, Open University student

Did you know?

• RCN and Unison members receive a 10% discount on many of our courses • Learning materials reflect the day-to-day practical issues involved in running a hospital ward or clinic.

Get ahead at work These are just a few of the areas you could study to improve your skill set. All of our courses and qualifications can be found on our website.

Leadership Qualifications: ‘Top-up’ degree for Management nurses Public Health Postgraduate Care of older people

Courses:

Complementary skills

Improving patient care

Advance your career www.openuniversity.co.uk/healthcare

0845 300 8846 Quote: GAMACE INSPIRING LEARNING The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England and Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).

O Has your council implemented Single Status? If it hasn't you may have an equal pay claim!

O Has your council implemented Single Status and given protection payments to people on the grade you've been been placed on, but not you? If it has you may have an equal pay claim!

O Do you have an equal pay claim? Make sure you check the time limit!

If you want to make an equal pay claim, you should contact UNISON as soon as possible.

There is a strict time limit on making a claim. You have only six months from any change in your employment situation.

So you must contact UNISON urgently if you have for example in the last six months: ended your employment (eg you retired or resigned); changed your contract or terms and conditions (eg the number of hours you work); changed job, but stayed with the same employer;

stayed in the same job, but transferred to a new employer (sometimes known as a TUPE transfer).

If you have already made a claim, you must tell us whenever your circumstances change (eg you move address or there is any change to your employment situation).

We cannot help you unless you register your claim and keep us updated.

For more information, or to request a claim form or fact sheet, call UNISON on 0845 355 0845 (textphone 0800 9 967 968)* or contact your regional ofďŹ ce on: Eastern 01245 608 918 East Midlands 0845 355 0845 Greater London 0845 355 0845 Northern 0845 355 0845 Northern Ireland 0845 355 0845 North West 0161 661 6740 Scotland 0870 7777 006 South East 0845 355 0845 South West 0117 968 9479 Cymru/Wales 029 2072 9415 West Midlands 0121 685 3127 Yorkshire and Humberside 0845 355 0845 * lines are open 6am to midnight, Monday to Friday; 9am-4pm Saturday.

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NUTRITION FOR A HEALTHY LIFESPAN

Membership Services Advertisement

Better than a Credit Card or a Debit Card…we think so!

The UNISON prepaid plus card

U

0 Ex HP cl EH us U % iv HQ e HÀ W

NISON’s membership services department has been working in partnership with UNISON Welfare to find products and services that will help UNISON members during the credit crunch and economic downturn.

One of the main things we wanted was to find an alternative to credit cards and debit cards which have caused many people so many problems with debt but are almost impossible to live without these days.

Many shops and businesses will not accept cheques any longer and most of us do not feel comfortable about carrying large amounts of cash around so ‘plastic’ has probably now become the most widely used payment method.

But because of the credit crunch an increasing number of UNISON members are

finding that if they do apply for a credit card they will get turned down because of tougher lending criteria or that they will only be offered a card with very high interest rates.

Or they may risk running up an expensive overdraft if they use their debit card.

The UNISON prepaid plus card is an excellent alternative because you cannot run up debts and you decide how much money you want to put on the card. The card can be used like a credit card or debit card anywhere in the world and it is available to every member so no-one will be turned down if they apply.

Unlike many prepaid cards the UNISON prepaid plus card is free to apply for and there is no charge when you use it to buy something. We have worked hard to keep other charges as low as possible and

you can find all the terms and conditions at www.UNISONprepaid.com.

Maureen Le Marinel NEC member and Chair Services to Members Committee: ‘UNISON is always looking to introduce products and services that we think offer members added value and benefits. This card was specially designed for UNISON members’ and provides a great alternative to credit cards and debit cards’.

You can find out more details about the card by visiting UNISON’s website www.unison.org.uk and going to the UNISONplus pages and apply online or you can telephone 0800 107 8065 (please quote UP01/11).

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arranged by UNISON and Union Income Ltd (“UI”). The card is issued by Newcastle Building Society(“NBS”) pursuant to a licence by Mastercard. Mastercard is a registered trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. NBS subscribes to the Banking Code, copies of the Code are available upon request. Prize draw rules: terms and conditions apply see www.UNISONPREPAID.com/prize_draw_rules

5694 (02/2011)

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GOVERNMENT CUTS WILL END FREE TUITION FOR MANY ADULT LEARNERS

BUT UNISON STILL SUPPORTS

LIFELONG LEARNING I

Learn for FREE with UNISON programmes like Return to Learn and Women’s Lives I Learn at Work with UNISON/employer partnerships I Get UNISON discounts from leading distance learning providers Find out more from your Union Learning Rep or your branch or visit www.unison.org.uk/laos Phone UNISONdirect on 0845 355 0845 for your branch and regional education team contact details.

CAR INSURANCE FOR

UNDER £270?

(Based on new policy sales Dec 09 - Nov 10)

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CALL 0800 756 8154 www.unisoncarinsurance.com

Textphone for the hearing impaired: 18001 Lines open Mon – Fri 8am – 9pm, Sat 8am – 5pm, Sun 9am – 5pm. Calls may be recorded

U I UR P 1 F$OL VW H /LVD 0

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UNISON acts as an Introducer Appointed Representative to the Liverpool Victoria group of companies for General Insurance.

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Q H Z 0

Introducing...

...our new and improved Croyde Bay Holiday Resort

Set on the stunning North Devon coast, Croyde Bay Holiday Resort is a superb holiday choice.

This spring we will be opening a range of new accommodation options, including hotel-style rooms and luxury tents. Or you can stick to what you know and love and rent one of our traditional summer chalets or self catering cottages.

Whatever you chose you’ll be able to enjoy a host of on-site facilities including the fabulous Oasis leisure pool and spa, tennis, bowling, adventure playground and children’s entertainment in the peak Summer weeks. Or use the resort as a base to get out and about to enjoy the beautiful Devon landscape – it’s completely up to you.

On-line booking now available

For more information or to book a holiday visit

...Our New Hotel

...Our New Rooms

Discounts!

2011 Self Catering Cottage Holidays from £29.50 *

Our Self Catering cottages offer the freedom to do as you please.

Each cottage has two bedrooms and a high quality sofa bed in the lounge.

Our Atlantic cottages also offer 2 en suite shower rooms and are closer to the beach.

The following dates are available...

Spring: 4 nights: 18 April, 2, 8, 15, 23 May, 20 June 3 nights: 29 April, 17, 24, 27 June Autumn: 4 nights: 12, 26 September 3 nights: 3, 6, 9 September

10% off for UNISON members We also offer discounts to senior citizens, single parents and groups at selected times. Call for details.

50% off holidays for low paid UNISON members Check out the website for details.

New

this summer we are introducing our dune side, Berber-style tents! Out with your sleeping bags and in come our big, comfy beds.

Glamping, cool camping, posh camping – call it what you will, it’s a million miles from the camping we once knew.

*£29.50 per person per break based on a minimum of 5 people sharing. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Prices are inclusive of UNISON discount. Subject to availability, offer may be withdrawn at any time.

Telephone only bookings.

www.croydeunison.co.uk or call us on: 01271 890890