Northern Star

The magazine for GMB members

Star Northern

www.gmb.org.uk | Winter 2012

WIN

an Apple iPhone!

See p age 10

Gold STAR! Mary Tu rner’s TUC honour

ETERNAL FLAME

s r e k a m l e e t s e d i s s e Te can’t be stopped!

Use your smartphone to bring this issue to life! See p9

In this issue...

Tom Brennan gional Secretary GMB Northern Re

GMB Young Members rock Reading and Leeds Page 26

Regional

National

4 Steely determination

9 Get elected with GMB

5 Quality time

12 TUC cracker!

6 Political update

13 Paul Kenny

7 Tour of duty

14 The heat is on

8 Join the Labour Party

15 Pensions for all!

25 Stealing your rights

16 Paul Routledge

26 Festival fever

18 Better off with GMB

27 The cost of justice

20 The best you can be

29 The benefits of GMB

22 Watch your wages!

30 Contact GMB

24 The Full Monti

GMB brings steel works back to Teesside

South Tyneside Homes win leanring award

Why we need a radical future

GMB member’s epic charity trek

Complete the form to join now

The government’s latest attack

GMB members work at Reading and Leeds

New laws deny justice to injured workers

Great offers exclusive to GMB members

Names and numbers you can call on

Front cover: Andrew Wiard/ Rex Features. This page; Rex Features

Mary Turner gets a TUC gold badge Page 12

GMB regional editor Nigel Hepplewhite: 0191 233 3930 Editorial director Stephen Pierce Editor Simon Hugo Art editor Johnny Goddard Contributors Jake Day-Williams, Victoria Ford, Jayne Nelson, Matthew Robinson Advertising manager Debbie Blackman Account managers David Parker, Lisa Dunham Production and procurement manager Matt Eglinton Production co-ordinator Katty Skardon Creative director Matthew Williams Design director Dylan Channon Director, Future Plus UK Jayne Caple Printed at St Ives Direct

We’ll help you stand for office – and win!

Award for national president Mary Turner

A word from your general secretary

Sign the petition for fairer energy policies

How automatic enrolment will affect you

The Mirror man on the future of gas

Our annual report on GMB membership

GMB’s John Kane on living with Parkinson’s

Beware the dangers of regional pay

GMB defeats EU threat to workers rights

The Olympic experience was a lesson The Olympic experience was a lesson for us all and a shining example of what can be achieved through the application of hard graft in pursuit of either a personal or team goal.

The spirit of the competitors, matched by the support and admiration of the onlookers, saw the nation and international community throw off the shackles of difference and discrimination, without detracting from the patriotic pride in the success of their athletes.

Mo Farah and Eleanor Simmonds have, in my opinion, done more for equality and diversity than a multitude of training and education courses could ever do, no matter how necessary, well-meaning and successful.

I ran every step of the way in the men’s 5,000 metres and swam every stroke in the 200 metres individual medley, along with the millions who watched and participated in the winning of these two particular gold medallists. These were two highlights among many successes in the two Olympic Games.

This represented a timely and welcome distraction from the doom and gloom created through the austerity measures of this ConDem Government. The memory will remain, but the glow will fade all too quickly with no end in sight of this recession and no apparent light at the end of the dark tunnel.

Produced by Future Plus, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from well managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. Future Publishing and its paper suppliers have been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).

Would you like to advertise in GMB Northern Star magazine?

Please contact Debbie Blackman on 01225 442244 (ex 2243)

SHINING EXAMPLE The Olympics showed what we can all achieve. www.gmb.org.uk 03

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How GMB brought steelmaking back to Teesside

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MB members have gone back to work at the former Corus steel plant in Teesside after nearly two years of campaigning.

Hundreds of workers lost their jobs when the plant was mothballed in 2010, but, after a long-fought Save Our Steel campaign led

by GMB rep Steve Redman, the site has now reopened under new owners. More than 700 jobs have now been created at the steelworks, which was taken on by Thai firm SSI. GMB started campaigning to have the site reinstated as soon as previous owners Tata Steel announced plans to close it in 2009.

04 www.gmb.org.uk

Save Our Steel GMB campaigners never gave up.

Efforts to save the plant took activists from GMB Northern region all around the country, from the national Congress to the Labour Party conference, while a mass march was held in Redcar.

Despite these efforts, the site was closed amid public outcry in February 2010.

However, GMB members were not about to give up hope and stuck to their campaign to save the plant. “Throughout this difficult

period we believed in – and hoped for – a positive solution from interested parties,” said GMB organiser Tom Allison.

This belief paid off in 2010, when GMB national officers went to Thailand to meet Thai steel firm, SSI. By February 2011, the company confirmed it would take on the site, bringing relief to Teesside.

“The campaign lasted 657 days,” recalled

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QUALITY GMB celebrates unionlearn Quality Award

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TIME!

pprentice programmes at South Tyneside Homes (STH) are among the best in the country and, to prove it, STH has won an award from unionlearn!

GMB members at STH work closely with managers to develop young employees, and in September, officials from unionlearn gave STH a quality award for delivery and coordination of the apprenticeship programme.

The unionlearn quality award is Lessons learned a kitemark given to Apprenticeships at organisations that STH are award-winning. are committed to working with trade unions and can show that unions and union learners are at the heart of their development programmes. The Having a blast Will Waterfield lights the award is a ringing Redcar blast furnace. endorsement of the hard work of GMB members Mr Allison, “but it has ended in success for at STH. the workforce and the local community.”

Unionlearn union Normally, opening a major steelworks development coordinator Beth Farhat would take years, but thanks to the presented the award to STH staff and monumental efforts of everyone involved, the praised them, saying: “This must site was up and running by April 2012 – less than a year after contracts were signed.

To mark the historic reopening, the Redcar blast furnace was lit by Will Waterfield, son of Geoff Waterfield, the TUC official who worked tirelessly on the campaign until his death in August 2011.

The site is now making record shipments, and a new pulverised coal injection plant is set to open in January next year, further improving prospects for workers in Teesside.

“So far, the recruitment has been balanced between previous employees with a wealth of experience and new recruits in the industry,” says Mr Allison.

“The PCI plant is another huge investment for the site, and proof that Top Quality Teesside’s 150-year-old steel industry will Unionlearn’s Beth Farhat be here for generations to come.” presents the Quality Award.

have been one of the easiest jobs for our assessors, as everyone at South Tyneside Homes has been working together and delivering on this agenda for quite some time. It is only right that they now have the official quality award in recognition of their progressive approach and successful partnership.”

The partnership between GMB and employers enables STH to offer training that meets the needs of all parties, as GMB workplace organiser and union learning representative Andy McIntosh explains.

“Working collaboratively with the employer on the apprenticeship framework is crucial in allowing GMB to engage with younger workers,” he says. “It strengthens both the trade union movement and the employer’s organisation, while delivering a life-skills opportunity for the individual from an early age. Young workers are the lifeblood of any organisation, whether it’s a trade union or an employer. “ The future is now looking even brighter for STH, as it builds its training scheme beyond its current roster, to include IT, administration, customer service and housing, so young people can get better training across the board.

“Young workers are the lifeblood of any organisation.”

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from GMB All the news

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l a c i polit

re, u t u f l a c i d a rad s Jukes n a m e d bers r Chri m e e c i m ff r o u l a O olitic p B M G s say

“If ever there was a time for radical

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Take welfare. ur region is In the very year beginning to when the country feel the bite is celebrating of cutbacks the Paralympics, and increasingly rightthis government wing coalition policy. of millionaires The debate on the rule and hanker after Thatcherite policies. has signed up to the funding of adult social They conveniently forget that they are only in destruction of Remploy care rages on while care government with Lib Dem support. For all and cuts to the benefits homes continue to close. their rich donors, the Tories still couldn’t that enable our Proposed cutbacks and ALAN MILBURN Former Health Secretary. win a majority back in 2010. country’s great closures at MOD sites in So now the Tories want to Paralympians Cumbria and elsewhere show the bury House of Lords reform. to live everyday lives. folly of sending contracts abroad.

In return, the Lib Dems want The worst hypocrisy The scandalous closure at Alcan in South East to bury parliamentary is that the company Northumberland has uprooted communities boundary changes (which sponsoring the as the foreign firm seeks to cut back and would have given the Paralympics, Atos is liquidise its assets.

Tories an in-built behind the new tests In the public sector we have the obscenity advantage in future that will see people’s of full-scale privatisation of council services elections, so at least benefits being slashed. by a Tory mayor in North Tyneside, and something good has come Let’s be clear: this job similar proposals by the Lib Dems in out of the in-fighting). should never have been Northumberland. Benefit cuts and MICHAEL GOVE Caused GCSE chaos.

Tory backbenchers also think outsourced to Atos in the first Remploy closures have heaped it is a good idea to scrap, cap or place. The contract should now misery upon disabled workers. reduce the minimum wage. They think be scrapped and the money saved put Yet, despite all this, it is a good idea to scrap employment laws into effective job creation. estimates suggest that more and health and safety regulations, giving than 80 per cent of the a green light to every cowboy who is looking coalition’s austerity NG HTI FIG INto cut corners. And at every turn they are programme is still to being aided and abetted by the Lib Dems.

While Tories and Lib Dems be implemented.

If we are to set a new course for our act together in government In the Northern members, their families and their to attack GMB members, region, where communities, we must ensure that at every agreeing that it is fine for the the public election – whether local, parliamentary or for taxpayer to be fleeced while sector plays police commissioners – we give a resounding millionaires to pay virtually such an thumbs-down to Tory and Lib Dems. They nothing, the same Tories important role, are racking up the biggest debt in our history, and Lib Dems fight each the cuts are giving us a double-dip recession as bad as other within parliament. devastating to our anything since the 1920s, and forcing our Right-wing Tory members, their members out of work by the direct and backbenchers think they families, and their STRIPPED OF SUPPORT indirect effects of policy.

The Tories are removing have a divine right to communities.

support for disabled people.

06 www.gmb.org.uk

Rex Features x 4

change, it is now.”

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SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk A BETTER FUTURE What we need is a radical change of direction.

Whether it is bus companies, train companies, energy companies, defence, supermarkets, social care, public utilities or the public sector, we need a vastly different industrial and political culture.

Hard graft must be rewarded; British companies must get work; spivs and speculators ED MILIBAND must be made Rejuvenating Labour. to mend their ways and regulated to do so; and those at the top must pay their dues.

It is also what we want to see from a rejuvenated Labour Party. Ed Miliband, made a great statement by being the first Labour leader for 23 years to attend the Durham Miners’ Gala in July. The people of Durham and beyond turned out in tens of thousands to cheer him on for being there.

As the Labour Party recharges its batteries and puts together its policy programme, both party and leader need to reflect the needs of GMB members. That will be the starting point from which to fundamentally and radically change Britain.

We don’t need to waste ink, as former Labour minister Alan Milburn did, saying that the gap between rich and poor had widened and it is now harder for working class kids to get on. We know that. What we want are policies that will pass the test of time.

Policies such as free education, no tuition fees, education as a human right and proper apprenticeships lasting three to five years.

Not the high-handed tinkering of right-wing education Tory secretary Michael Gove as he causes chaos with GCSE results, telling students and teachers all their hard work counts for nothing.

If ever there was a time for radical change, it is now, as scandals engulf the banks, the media and numerous other branches of UK PLC. We need root and branch change in behaviour and sanctions to ensure that the excesses of the last 30 years are never Fill in the form repeated and that over the page. they are brought to an end forever.

That is the test for Ed Miliband and Labour as we move towards 2015.

GMB soldier’s epic trek A GMB member has raised more than £1,500 for charity by walking 100 miles across the Sahara desert!

Lee Dixon from Blyth in Northumberland was raising money for wounded soldiers and their families, following his own tour of duty with the Territorial Army in Iraq.

“I saw many soldiers injured and others who lost their lives,” said Lee, just before the trek in October. “Therefore I am very passionate about helping soldiers and their families to rebuild their lives.”

Lee was joined by a fellow instructor from the outdoor fitness company where he works, plus three of their most hardy clients.

Covering 20 miles a day for five

days, the team had to contend with sandstorms and extreme heat by day, while sheltering under canvas to escape the biting cold at night.

The money raised will go to The Undentable Trust, a charity that supports the Royal British Legion, Help For Heroes, Rifles Care For Casualties and Families’ Activity Breaks, which organises holidays for bereaved families.

Go to www.undentabletrust.co.uk for more information, or, to make a donation, visit Lee’s fundraising page at www.bmycharity.com/pepiodfc

“I want to help soldiers rebuild their lives.”

MILITARY MIGHT Lee’s trek raised £1,500 for military charities.

Help reclaim Labour

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from GMB All the news

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2012

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B M G m o r f s All the new

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. . . y l r e prop GMB is helping its members get elected to public office – and you could be one of them!

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don’t agree with that! Why didn’t Labour sort this out when they were than in power? I could do a better job this lot! ething How many times have you said som felt let bers mem like that recently? Many GMB now and ent, rnm gove down by the Labour we’re stuck with a cutters’ coalition literally no one voted for.

There is still a lot of work to do to make sure the Labour party has real policies that help ordinary people and families. That’s why GMB members made a decision at Congress this year. If we want a Labour party that to we can really get behind, we need it. t abou g do somethin

pean Whether its local councils, the Euro hern Nort and s Wale on, Lond Parliament, the nts in iame parl the or ies, mbl Asse nd Irela to get Westminster and Scotland, we need into ce rien expe life people who have reale. renc diffe a e mak can they re positions whe councillors, as bers mem GMB e mor ns mea That MPs, assembly members and MSPs. t it You might not think you’ve got wha we but , me” like le peop for “not takes, that it’s , working nary ordi of s dred hun have dy alrea e. class GMB members in elected offic them gave and skills GMB developed their ing winn a run to ce iden conf and the insight difference a ing mak ’re they Now n. paig cam and for every day for their own communities ’s help GMB With UK. the ss GMB members acro ? next be you ldn’t shou why and support, e! mor out find to e pag the Turn

Rex Features x 2

Bring YOUR mag to life!

YOUR FACE HERE! election With GMB behind your ere wh ws kno o wh , campaign you might end up?

Discover a world of extras when you point your smartphone at the pages of this GMB magazine. To get started, download the Layar app from get.layar.com

1 Download the Layar app for iPhone and Android devices.

2 Point your smartphone at a WHOLE page of the mag where you see this logo.

3 Watch as it comes to life on your screen.

www.gmb.org.uk 09

national

from GMB All the news

GMB members are already MPs, SMPs, MEPs or AMs

ORD le MUM’S THE W sa has the peop Li um m ng ki Wor r! he nd gh behi of Peterborou

Name :

Lisa Forbes e parliamentary Labour’s prospectiv orough candidate for Peterb gh for has lived in Peterborou I’m a mum of four who ss cla ng an ordinary worki over 25 years. I’m from my d an rer s a manual labou background: my dad wa jobs, of ts sor NHS. I’ve done all mum was a carer in the t! en being a travel ag from potato picking to last Labour party after the the I got involved with my to ed en ember what happ election, because I rem le op Pe r. we Tories were in po family the last time the

here can’t afford for that to happen again. I know my family can’t – we’re already starting to feel the pinch.

Thanks to the support of the trade unions – especially GMB – I was recently selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for Peterborough. GMB is serious about helping people like me get into parliament.

They’re serious about supporting people with a genuine connection to the everyday lives of working people, and the support they gave me really showed that.

If Labour is going to deliver policies that relate to the real lives of the people we seek to represent (and win elections at the same time), we need more GMB members to come forward to become party members, activists, councillors, MPs and elected representatives at all levels.

It might seem daunting, but whether it’s going along to your first branch meeting or asking for advice on standing for council there is always someone on the end of the phone to ask for advice.

When I moved to Peterborough 25 years ago, I never dreamed I would be standing to be the city’s MP. Now I am determined to beat the Tories and make sure that people have someone in Westminster who understands the impact of government policy on their everyday lives.

Get 50% off Labour party membership! Go to

www.gmb.org.uk

WIN an iphone 4s!

Register online to enter

E

very elected official needs to stay in touch! That’s why, when you tell us that you want to stand for the Labour party, we’ll automatically enter you into a free prize draw to win an Apple iPhone 4S! The iPhone 4S is a super-fast phone, camera and music player, with email, internet and access to thousands of apps and games – all available to download. It also comes loaded with maps, HD video

recording capability and futuristic Siri voice-recognition software.

To find out more about standing for election, and to be entered into the free prize draw, call GMB national political officer Hilary Perrin on 020 7391 6749, or email hilary.perrin@gmb.org.uk before Friday 14 December.

When emailing, remember to include your name, address and your GMB membership number.

TERMS & CONDITIONS The winning entry will be drawn at random. Draw includes members who enter themselves into the draw by phone or email before close of business on Friday 14 December. The winner will be notified by GMB. Prize is subject to availability. No purchase necessary. This prize draw is only open to GMB members. Entries from employees of GMB will not be accepted. The winner must be prepared to participate in publicity arising from the competition. Winners’ names and photos may be published in future issues.

10 www.gmb.org.uk

Case study 1

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Join the GMB what to do councillors’ Want to become a Labour network candidate? Here’s what you need to do…

1

Join the Labour party at the discounted rate for GMB members at www.gmb.org.uk/ LabourPartyApplicationForm

2

Call GMB national political officer Hilary Perrin on 020 7391 6749, or email her at hilary.perrin@gmb.org.uk and tell her which seat you want to stand for.

3

Sign up for GMB’s I Want To Be Elected programme for all the help you need to be selected. Sign up at www.gmb.org.uk/ GMBLabourcandidatesnews

Case study 2

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Get elected, then get online for full support from GMB

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MB won’t desert you once you get elected! We’ve set up an exclusive network to offer you help and support in your role on the local council. GMB’s councillors’ network is a new online forum where GMB councillors can share experiences and best practice, ask for and offer advice, and set up realworld meetings with fellow members who have plenty of experience of council business.

So, maybe you want advice on implementing the living wage for council workers? Log-on to the forum and ask Gary Doolan, GMB national political officer and councillor for the London borough of Islington, where the living wage is now official policy.

This is the sort of difference that GMB can make, and with info and ideas flowing, we can make those differences nationwide!

GMB has more than a quarter of a million members working in local government, with many more directly affected by the decisions their local councils make. So who better to turn to for help and advice?

The network is completely confidential and exclusively for GMB members. To sign up, go to www.gmbcouncillorsnetwork.org.uk and enter your GMB membership number to get started.

GMB members are already Labour councillors

Name:

Clive Lewis Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Norwich South I’ve lived in Norwich for more than 12 years and work locally at the BBC. I’m not from a professional political background, so running for Labour was daunting.

It was certainly a bit different from the Afghan desert, where I served as an army reserve!

From the coalition’s plans to close two-thirds of Remploy factories, to their nakedly political attack on the pensions of public sector workers, it’s obvious that the first priority is to get rid of this government.

But I don’t think that’s enough in itself. Undoubtedly, the Labour party did many good things during our time in government, but we also got some very important things wrong and didn’t do enough in other areas.

I’m not in politics for the career – I want to see real and lasting change for the many not the few. For me, getting a Labour government is just the first step.

ON THE FRONTLINE other GMB Army man Clive joined mploy demo.

Re members on a recent GMB supported me throughout my selection and continues to support me now. I will be working closely with GMB to secure the change we need for people, families, communities and for soci ety as whole. If you live in Norwich and want to get invo lved, get in touch at clive@clivelewislabour.org.uk

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from GMB All the news

Over seas

AID

GMB and Maggie Hughes win change in EU law

golden girl Mary Turner honoured at TUC Congress

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ongratulations to GMB national president Mary Turner, who was awarded the TUC Women’s Gold Badge at this year’s TUC Congress.

Mary was presented with the award

by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber and dedicated it to trade union members around the world.

TUC Congress is the annual policymaking get-together of the Trades Union Congress, made up of GMB and other unions. This year’s event took place at the Brighton Centre from 9 to 12 September and was chaired by GMB general secretary Paul Kenny in his role as TUC president.

Also flying the flag for GMB was CEC (central executive council) member Barbara Benham, who took the shadow chancellor Ed Balls to task during his address to delegates.

12 www.gmb.org.uk

GET HELP SAYING HELP!

“The last Labour government failed Want to know how to ask for help to regulate so many areas to protect abroad?

Go to www.missingabroad.org for the interests of the British people,” a list of essential foreign phrases, plus she said. “Labour deregulated and lots more vital info for travellers. removed controls over pricing in areas Originally set up to help families like energy markets, failed to build of miss ing people, the GMB-backed char social housing, embraced PFI, and lost ity now offers practical support for anyo touch with millions of people by taking ne who has been affected by an acci their votes for granted.” dent or serious crime away from home.

She went on to ask Mr Balls what he If you or your loved ones get into would do differently if he could turn trou ble abroad, call the Missing Abro back the clock. He replied immigration ad 24/7 helpline, which is part-funded and regulation of the banks. by GMB donations, on 020 7047 50 TUC Congress also paid tribute to 60 (or 44 20 7047 50 60 from overseas). outgoing GMB national secretary and TUC general purposes committee (GPC) member, Phil Davies, warmly congratulating him for all his hard COSTA LIVING work on behalf of Remploy and Don’t go away without wishing him well in his retirement.

Missing Abroad’s details.

Sharon Holder will now replace Phil on the GPC for Congress 2013.

Rex Features

TURNER PRIZE Mary Turner is the GMB national president.

GMB member Maggie Hughes has won a change in EU law with help from GMB. Victims of violent crime across Europe will now get better access to medical care and legal help, thanks to her campaign.

Maggie’s own son Robbie was beaten and left for dead while he was on holiday in Crete in 2008. She did everything she could to support him in his hour of need, but didn’t speak the language and found there was nowhere she could turn for help and advice.

With support from GMB Brussels officer, Kathleen Walker Shaw, Maggie has spent the last four years campaigning to make sure other victims and their families get better treatment than her and her son.

The new laws will make sure all EU countries offer the same levels of advice and access to medical and judicial services.

“I hope that no other family will now have to go through the agony, frustration and pain that we did to get support and justice for our son Robbie,” Maggie said. “I am delighted by the progress we have made on victims’ rights in the EU.” “However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and once these measures have been adopted, all member states need to work hard to implement them in their countries. This will turn the progress we have made into a practical reality on the ground.

“I have been on a major journey with GMB, and I would like to thank everyone who has supported our campaign so far.”

Paul kenny

speaks

cretary e s l a r e n e g your GMB m o r f d r o w A

Protection from a mansion tax and £40k pay rises for the super-rich show whose side Osborne is on

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ny suggestion that George Osborne doesn’t know how tough things are right now for his friends have been robustly put to flight by his decisive interventions to protect millionaires from the mansion tax and, of course, his £40,000 a year handout to the super-rich from next April.

At a time when decent, hardworking families are facing pay freezes and cuts to working families tax credits threaten to finally shove hundreds of thousands into poverty, this Conservative government reverts to type and – with utter contempt – merely goes about lining the pockets of the rich and greedy.

IT’S NOT WORKING Pay freezes; cuts to our NHS, schools and services; and unemployment – particularly among the young – are the price the country is paying for Osborne’s obsession with an economic plan which even his own side are having to admit just isn’t working.

In fact, the deficit is growing not shrinking – a direct result of more people out of work courtesy of Cameron and co, and the

subsequent downturn in spending created by year upon year of squeezed household budgets.

Is it any surprise that the Olympic crowds, who cheered their hearts out at every event and for every competitor, ended up roundly booing George Osborne at a medal ceremony? Why, the pundits asked, did 80,000 people boo George Osborne? Answer: that’s all the stadium could hold!

TIME FOR CHANGE As the TUC march for the alternative showed, hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are prepared to march and campaign for a change in economic strategy. Social and economic justice will not come about by doing nothing.

Everyone knows that building more social housing will cut waiting lists, reduce emergency housing costs and help cut the £20 billion a year housing benefit bill, most of which ends up in the tax-free offshore back pockets of private landlords and property companies which feed off the council housing shortage.

Everyone knows that leaving a million young people without jobs or access to higher education is storing up a huge social problem for us all – as well as the pure waste of talent that mass youth unemployment brings.

ATTACKING RIGHTS Everyone knows that attacking the basic protection rights of working people leads to abuse, fear, bullying, stress and unfairness in the world of work. What’s more this spills over into family life.

Everyone who relies on the NHS knows it is in danger of being sold off to profitmaking spivs in the name of progress.

Just like the disasters of rail and water privatisations before, our NHS is in real danger of becoming a cash machine for private companies first, and a service to the public second.

It seems that everybody knows these things except George Osborne and his millionaire mates. Well, when you have just been handed a £40,000 wage increase, life under Osborne and the Conservatives must seem a little more rosy than for the rest of us ‘plebs’. www.gmb.org.uk 13

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from GMB All the news

ON THE UP Help stop rising prices with GMB.

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he UK is facing an energy bill crisis.

One in every four households can’t afford to heat their homes, and this is expected to rise to one in three by 2016. Cold homes damage the health of our most vulnerable citizens, including children, older people, those on low incomes and people with disabilities.

The main reasons for the crisis are that gas, oil and coal prices are high, and the UK’s homes are some of the most energy inefficient in Europe – badly insulated and with old-fashioned boilers. This means they cost much more than they should to heat and power, and they contribute to climate change, too.

But there is a fair and permanent solution.

We can have warm homes, reduce our fuel bills, and help the environment at the same time!

The government currently taxes big companies on their carbon emissions, which are harmful to the environment. If the government used the money it gets from those taxes to fund an energy efficency drive across the UK, it would keep people warm while cutting their fuel bills, cut harmful carbon emissions and create jobs!

Over the next 15 years, the government will raise an average of £4 billion every year in carbon taxes. The companies eventually pass these taxes on to consumers in the form of higher bills, so it

“GMB is calling for super-energy efficient homes.”

join the 14 www.gmb.org.uk

is only fair that the government recycles the revenue back into households by paying towards better insulation, modern boilers and renewable energy.

GMB is part of the Energy Bill Revolution, a campaign calling on the government to do just this, making our homes super-energy efficient and driving down our energy bills forever.

Hundreds of charities, consumer groups, businesses and politicians are already behind the campaign, but there is still more to do. By taking two minutes to go online and sign the petition, you can add your voice to this vital cause. You can also help by writing to your MP, and by sending the link to your family and friends. Together we can end the energy bill crisis forever.

Join the revolution by signing the petition at www.energybillrevolution.org

SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk Bring these pages to life!

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PENSIONS FOR ALL! New rules guarantee a workplace pension for millions of workers

I

s your boss ready for automatic enrolment? October saw the start of a new pension system which requires employers to include their workers in workplace pension schemes by 2017 at the latest – but many bosses still claim to be unaware of the changes.

Known as automatic enrolment, the new system is the first time employers have been obliged to put their staff into pensions, and to make contributions towards them. It has been introduced to tackle a pensions crisis caused by very low state pensions combined with a lack of individual saving.

Workers will be auto-enrolled if they are aged between 22 and the state pension age, and earn at least £8,105 a year. You also have the right to be enrolled if you are outside this age group but earn more than £5,564 a year.

Workers have the right to opt out of the system, but they must not be pressured or encouraged to do so by their employer.

If this happens to you or anyone you know, tell your GMB workplace organiser and your local GMB office (see p31).

The government has already written to employers explaining the new system, so bosses have no excuse for not knowing what to do. Many large employers have already started enrolling employees, and even the very smallest must do so by April 2017.

Though GMB welcomes automatic

enrolment as a step in the right direction, the union is disappointed that the standard of pension scheme required by the new system is not very good. Currently, the minimum employer and employee contributions stand at just one per cent of pay, which is nowhere near enough to secure a decent income in retirement. However, it is a start, and GMB will continue to argue for higher employer contributions.

“Workers must not be pressured to opt out.”

dukes of hazard

iStock

GMB health and safety representative Dave Carter reports from the National Hazards Conference This year’s National Hazards Conference took place at the University of Keele, bringing together health and safety activists from around the UK. High on the agenda was the problem of asbestos, which remains a deadly danger after all these years. I was amazed to discover that the British Commonwealth is a major part of the problem, as Canada continues to mine and produce the fatal fibres with seemingly no regard to the dreadful implications.

Meanwhile, in UK schools, government policy is not even to remove asbestos – simply to seal it off and make it ‘safe’. Yet that same government has approved £1.2 billion to remove all traces of asbestos from the Houses of Parliament! How much clearer could they be that they only care about themselves?

Another major issue to emerge from the weekend was workplace stress. This has huge

financial implications for many companies, but more important is the cost to the health and wellbeing of affected workers. Stress levels are rising as budgets are falling, yet government responses have been atrocious at best.

executive stress Health and Safety Executive (HSE) budgets have been slashed by 35 per cent; many industries have been reclassified as low-risk; and vital inspections are no longer being carried out. So not only are workplaces suffering from HSE cuts – the flagship body of health and safety itself is becoming a hotbed of stressed and overworked employees!

One of the highlights of the conference was a wonderful speech from Louise Adamson, a young woman whose brother was tragically killed while working as an electrician.

Louise has turned her bereavement into positive action, becoming involved with a group called FACK, or Families Against Corporate Killers, and her evocative speech lambasted big business for trying to shirk its responsibilities when it comes to deaths caused as a result of work, and she went on to receive a standing ovation.

If the conference taught me anything, it’s that – no matter who you are or where you work – health and safety must be the paramount concern for all of us, all the time.

This government simply doesn’t care, so we – as workers, managers, companies and GMB members – must look out for our colleagues, our loved ones and, of course, ourselves.

Work safe. Go home safe.

Dave Carter is a GMB health and safety rep at Harsco Metals in Scunthorpe. www.gmb.org.uk 15

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from GMB All the news

cooking with

H

ow many of you remember the catchy jingle “Cook, Cook, Cookability – That’s the Beauty of Gas!” that went out on TV as long ago as 1978?

Written by award-winning Roger Greenaway – author of “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” and other hits - it was timed to coincide with the flow of North Sea gas into people’s homes.

The ad ran for years, and even featured a very young Noel Edmonds bopping with teenagers in a kitchen.

The industry was still publicly-owned in those days. How things have changed since!

But the reality behind the slogan is as true now as it was then. Gas is still the cook’s friend, and a versatile fuel that remains the nation’s favourite for central heating.

It doesn’t make sense to burn this vital primary energy source in power station

IT’S A GAS Noel was always warm in the 1970s.

16 www.gmb.org.uk

furnaces to produce electricity.

But that’s precisely what the Coalition government threatens to do - up to and beyond 2030, probably in contravention of Labour’s 2008 Climate Change Act and certainly with greater risk of global warming.

Gas is needed in the home and in industry to supply clean, efficient power, not the ovens of privatised power stations looking for a quick buck.

However, ministers in what David Cameron once called “the greenest government ever” are trying to rat on their pledge to de-carbonise the electricity generation market.

In particular, Chancellor George Osborne, under intense ideological pressure from anti-wind farm Right-wing Tory MPs, wants to get round policy commitments put into law by the Labour government. In private, he sneers at legal curbs on toxic emissions and panders to the gas lobby.

As the union for energy workers, with 40,000 members working in the industry (and more than half a million members with gas in their homes), GMB takes a close interest in developments in this field. And recently, top scientists on the government’s Climate Change Committee intervened to undermine GMB’s case. They want to see gas phased out and be replaced by electricity for home heating and cooking.

This reckless and extremist policy could lead to a four-fold increase in your energy bills if households are forced to use electricity to cook and heat their homes. Thousands more would have to be spent on new appliances.

They wrote to Energy Secretary Ed Davey

FRIED ED The heat is on for energy secretary Ed Davey.

expressing “great concern” that the government plans to favour imported gas over nuclear generation and renewable forms of electricity generation.

The Thatcher government’s “dash for gas” of the 1980’s is in danger of becoming a permanent feature of energy policy under Cameron’s Tory-led Coalition. But there are huge financial penalties in store for consumers, warns GMB’s national officer for energy and utilities, Gary Smith.

“Our union has never been a supporter of burning gas to produce electricity,” he explained. “Even with the development of shale gas GMB do not think it is the best use of what is a finite resource.

“We recognise that while gas-fired stations are easy to turn on to meet peak demand, the UK needs investment in low-carbon ways of producing electricity including nuclear.

“The view that gas should not be burned to meet base load electricity is right.”

GMB agrees with the scientists that

Rex Features x 3

Plans to phase out gas for home use will inflate your bills says Daily Mirror political correspondent Paul Routledge

SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk Bring these pages to life!

of energy. A unit of electricity is about FOUR TIMES as expensive as the equivalent unit of gas.

“Given the fact that around 80 per cent of British homes use gas for heating and cooking there is no way they will easily or cheaply move from gas to electricity.

“Nobody in their right mind would suggest that people will have to fork out thousands of pounds to replace their gas boilers and gas cookers with electric units – and then have to endure a fourfold increase in fuel bills.

“The experts need to face the fact that the suggestion of forced conversion to electricity is bonkers and will not be accepted by households.”

Energy Secretary Davey – one of the Lib Dems in the Torydominated Cabinet – defends his policy with a weasel-worded statement, offering only “significant” de-carbonisation of the industry. No dates, no promises.

One fifth of the nation’s power stations are due to close over the next decade, he HOB-NOB Chancellor George Osborne says, adding : “We have always said that this will isn’t out of the frying pan. include gas-fired plant which is quick to build and flexible. After 2030 we expect that gas will be increasingly used as back up…. but gas has an important role to play.” government ministers In plain English, the Coalition are sending out “mixed intends to keep as much gas-fired messages” about energy policy that will capacity for as long as possible, damage investment in low-carbon and certainly beyond the date technologies. There is already evidence of a when it should be phased out. That’s bad “very poor” investment climate in the industry. news for climate change and very possibly These new electricity generating methods for consumers. are needed to tackle long-term climate change.

And Davey isn’t the But there is an even worst of them. more pressing Cameron’s demand to bring appointment of home to politicians hard-liner Owen the impact on Patterson to be families of switching Environment Secretary from gas to in his autumn Cabinet electricity for reshuffle is seen as a cooking and snub to the greenhome heating says tinged Lib Dems. A Gary Smith. dedicated opponent of “There is a need wind turbines, with the for a reality check by OLD FLAME ear of the Prime some of these experts Even tellies ran on Minister and the about the economics gas in those days.

NATional

NO DEAL Even Noel couldn’t foresee the problems of modern energy policy.

Chancellor, he’ll be hostile to GMB policy.

But Gary Smith is clear that the union will continue to campaign for a rapid transition to nuclear and renewable power supply, to stave off the imposition of totally electricity-dependent cooking and heating.

All this is a far cry from yesteryear’s “The Beauty of Gas” commercial.

Adverts today stress the ease of switching from one supplier to another, rather than “cookability” or the versatility of gas.

The industry is mired in an ideologicallydriven, profit-based dispute about the best way forward for consumers and energy generators alike. GMB stands four-square with households and the champions of climate change through conversion to low-carbon technology.

“This reckless policy will mean a four-fold rise in energy bills.”

There is a role for gas in electricity production, Gary Smith agrees. But it has to be back-up, rather than supplying the base load.

“We also have to think about carbon capture and storage for coal-fired generating stations, but the reality is that in the long term, electricity has to come from renewable sources, which in practice means nuclear.”

Gary also criticised ministers and the energy companies for failing to spend the £1.3 billion already taken from customers to help insulate their homes and bring down bills for poorer people. “This is a scandal,” he added. “This is an obligation from government. We are all paying for this but the energy companies can’t find the people whose homes need insulating.”

That’s the beauty of consistent energy policy. www.gmb.org.uk 17

national

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

! l a i c i f of

you’re better off with GMB W orking people who are trade union members earn an average of 18.1 per cent more than those who aren’t. That’s a big increase on last year’s figure of 16.7 per cent, so it’s more worthwhile to join GMB now than ever before.

It’s not just GMB saying this, either, but official figures from the annual labour force survey, published by the Office of National Statistics.

We’ll fight for your rights Collective agreements – how unions make a difference to your workplace

A

collective agreement is an understanding between employers, which regulates terms and conditions for all employees. These collective agreements affect your pay, working hours and duties and even have a bearing on the duties of your employer.

They usually follow long bargaining sessions between unions and employers and this is a fundamental way in which

18 www.gmb.org.uk

GMB improves conditions in workplaces all over the UK. The trade union membership report 2011 shows just how important collective bargaining is. A whopping 73.2 per cent of members are covered by a collective agreement. Almost a third (31.2 per cent) of employees said their conditions were affected by collective agreement.

In the private sector, collective agreements cover just 16.9 per cent of

The report shows that the hourly earnings of UK union members average £14.18, an impressive 18.1 per cent above the hourly rate for nonunion members, which comes in at just £12.01 an hour.

you’re in good

company Between Septe mber 2011 and Septem ber 2012, GMB mem bership grew by 1.6 per ce nt, making GMB on e of the fastest growing unions .

employees, while in the public sector they account for a much healthier 67.8 per cent of employees.

The highest sector for collective agreements is public administration and defence, with 71.1 per cent, while the lowest rate is in accommodation and foodservice, which has just 4.6 per cent.

NATional

Bring these pages to life!

gmb nation

We’ve got your number! Stats from the trade union membership report 2011 give us a detailed view of the UK’s union members. This information is helpful to GMB members, workplace organisers and officers for planning recruitment, supporting existing members, and recognising areas that need improvement.

+18.1%

£14.18

average hourly wage for union members

£12.01

average hourly wa ge for non-union members

amount that union members earn above nonunion members

of GMB members are women

2.5m 6.4m

48%

union members in the private sector

21.6%

of asian and british asian workers are union members

people in work who are union members

+£3.23

56.5%

hourly extra earned by women in unions over non-members

of public sector workers are trade union members

34.5% of people aged 50+ are union members

87.1%

of public sector workers have a union in their workplace

n. ireland

wales

scotland

England

33.6% 34.9% 29.8% 24.8% percentage of workers who are union members (by country) www.gmb.org.uk 19

national

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

FLIGHT CREW John (far left) with his winning darts team.

the best you

can be!

My life with Parkinson’s, by GMB Sellafield branch president, John Kane

champion, Phil ‘The Pow

20 www.gmb.org.uk

testing times I saw my GP, who arranged an appointment with a neurologist. I was also a keen runner, and my trainer could not explain why my right arm and leg suddenly lacked the speed and rotation I still had on my left side, so I was really starting to worry. But when the specialist put me through tests including nerve conduction, a lumbar puncture and an MRI scan, they all showed up nothing, so I carried on with my life.

When I started dragging my right leg in 2007, I thought I might have suffered a stroke, with the worst of it masked by my youth and my general fitness (I was only just in my 50s). I went to see the doctor at Sellafield, where I worked, and he put me in touch with a Professor Bates in Newcastle. Within 20 seconds of meeting me, and after seeing me walk along the corridor, the professor told me he was 99 per cent certain I had Parkinson’s.

He said the only way to be sure was with a DAT scan, which shows up a lack of dopamine

Rex Features x 2

I

first knew I had a problem in 2005.

My social life had always revolved around darts and for 25 years I had played at the highest levels – captaining the Cumbria county team, winning national and international titles, even winning the old ITV game show Bullseye! But now, at a national team competition final in Blackpool, I found I was not the darts player my teammates had come to rely on.

Together, we won the competition, but amid the celebrations that followed, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong. There had been something up with my handeye coordination that I had never experienced before.

Little did I know that in two WE’VE GOT THE POWER years I would never be able John with 15-times darts world to play darts again. er’ Taylor.

NATional

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– the chemical in the body that helps to control movement. My earlier doctors had not considered such a test because they simply aren’t looking out for Parkinson’s in anyone my age.

keeping active After the scan confirmed the professor’s diagnosis, I decided to give up the job I loved and do all the things I had planned to do when I eventually retired naturally.

Parkinson’s isn’t fatal, but it is progressive, and worsening symptoms relating to lack of movement control and balance often lead people to become housebound – or the victims of tragic accidents. My wife and I always wanted to travel the world. Now I wanted us to do it together while we still could.

I also decided to stay as active as I could in the wider community. I had many years experience with GMB, first as a shop steward and then as convenor, so I knew I could deal calmly and confidently with other people’s problems and concerns.

In the same year I was diagnosed, I was elected as Labour councillor for Copeland. At first, I didn’t tell anyone about my Parkinson’s, but when I did, nobody treated me any differently, or expressed any doubts about my ability to do the job.

I also got involved with the charity Parkinson’s UK, working hard to raise the profile of the condition, which most people know so very little about, and organising days out and other activities for people with Parkinson’s and their families.

compulsive behaviour – and for a while I became obsessed with gambling, keeping it secret from my family while my debts and my shame grew.

I am on a different drug now, that suits me much better, but the experience has only spurred me on to spread the word. I’m lucky to have such a loving and understanding family (and a daughter who’s a nurse!), but many people with Parkinson’s risk becoming isolated and some even become suicidal.

That’s where my work with Parkinson’s UK comes in. I go into care homes around the North West running awareness courses for staff who might not spot the signs of Parkinson’s, or might simply mistake them as the signs of old age.

I talk about diagnosis, about the drugs, about the way the condition affects every individual differently. I share my own experiences, using humour and all the invaluable skills that I learned standing up and talking in front of people during 30 years representing members in GMB.

“The tests showed up nothing, so I carried on with my life”

side effects My work for Parkinson’s UK is what really motivates me now. I’ve had some very hard times since I was diagnosed – not just with the symptoms, but with the drugs I have been prescribed to control them.

Among the many things people don’t know about Parkinson’s are the extreme sideeffects that the drugs can cause, including

you can help I have always believed in fighting for what’s right, whether as GMB steward, a Labour councillor or as a campaigner for Parkinson’s UK. In every job I have done, I have also believed in being the best you can be, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that I make a real difference.

Last year I was elected chair of the West Cumbria branch of Parkinson’s UK and I am still GMB branch president at Sellafield.

I’m 57 now, with two wonderful grown-up children, and my wife and I have just returned from trips to Borneo and Kuala Lumpur. So it’s not all doom and gloom!

I have made it my ambition to raise the profile of this condition, because Parkinson’s is often forgotten when it comes to charity donations. Without money for research, a cure will never be found. If you want to help, go to www.parkinsons.org.uk and please give whatever you can.

The life and times of John Kane

1970s

• Started work at Sellafield and joined GMB on his first day.

• Became a shop steward while

working for BNFL in the Magnox reprocessing plant.

1980s

• Voted onto the Sellafield shop stewards committee.

• Elected GMB convenor at Sellafield.

• Married Dot, now his wife of 30 years.

• Together they have two children, Laureen and Jenna.

1990s

• Lead the national campaign for

the licensing of THORP (Thermal oxide reprocessing plant).

• Negotiated new company contract raising basic and pensionable pay by 40 per cent.

• Stepped down as convenor after seeing members through the MOX data falsification scandal.

2000s • Elected Labour councillor for Copeland.

• Awarded honorary life membership of GMB while still at Sellafield.

• Elected chair of the West Cumbria branch of Parkinson’s UK.

• Remains president of the GMB Sellafield branch.

PARKINSON’S FACTS • P arkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition • T here is currently no cure and doctors don’t know

what causes it • O ne person in every 500 has Parkinson’s • Most people with Parkinson’s are aged 50 or over but younger people get it, too • B oth Mohamed Ali and Michael J Fox were diagnosed with Parkinson’s in their 30s

PLANT LIFE John dedicated his working life to GMB members at Sellafield. www.gmb.org.uk 21

national

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

watch

your

Government proposals for regional pay spell disaster

wag s

LOOK OUT! The government wants to slash your pay.

22 www.gmb.org.uk

regional NATional

SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk Bring these pages to life!

% of workers employed in the pu

blic sector

££££££££££££££££££ ££££££££ 30 ££ ££££££££££££££££££ ££££ 28 ££ .8£ North East ££££££££££££££££££ ££28 ££ Scotland ££ ££££££££££££££££ 27££ .1 North West ££££££££££££25 ££.3£ Yorkshire & The Humber ££££££££££ 24 ££ .5£ Unit d South West Ki n g d e ££££££££ 23££ .4 o m as a whole West Midlands ££££££ ££.2£ 23 24 % East Midlands ££££££ 22££ .9 East ££££ ££ 22 .3£ South East ££££22 ££ Wales

Area by % rank

Northern Ireland

London

££ 21££ .3 20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

% of people

iStock x 2

T

he pay of millions of public sector workers would be cut if the ConDem government goes ahead with its plans to scrap national agreements and introduce regional pay.

These agreements are negotiated with GMB and other unions to ensure a fair rate of pay for workers, and scrapping them could lead to harsh salary cuts.

Public sector workers make up 24 per cent of the total UK workforce – and as much as 30 per cent in some regions. A pay cut for them would mean less money going into their local economies.

The areas that would be hit

hardest are in Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East and Scotland.

Eilean Siar in the Western Isles, has the highest percentage of public sector workers with 42.7 per cent facing a pay cut. Many other areas would be badly affected too. See the full list at www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom GMB general secretary, Paul Kenny said “GMB negotiators have built up the pay of public service workers over many years and now the government wants to cut the pay of millions of public services workers by getting rid of the national agreement that is so successful.

“If they succeed it would be a further devastating blow for local economies, where previous Tory governments have devastated the mining and manufacturing industry.

“The Tories have a problem with workers in the regions. They just don’t like to see them doing well.”

29

30

DEEP CUTS Nearly a quarter of UK workers would be affected.

The general secretary warned that pay cuts would be a harsh blow to British workers, and affect all local businesses. He continued: “To reduce their pay further would not only be iniquitous, it would also reduce consumer spending and choke-off business confidence.

The result would be local economies suffering a further drop in demand and private sector jobs being lost in their thousands.”

GMB membership is the best defence in the face of the government’s reckless plans to cut wages across the country in the public sector. Paul Kenny concluded: “GMB is proud of its record in raising pay in the regions and cutting it back is in no one’s interest. As well as a regional policy to promote good, wellpaid jobs we need to see the levelling up of the poor pay in the shops and other commercial services, not a levelling down of public sector pay.”

“Regional pay will choke-off business confidence.”

www.gmb.org.uk 23

national

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

The Full Monti

EU drops plans opposed by GMB that would have restricted workers’ rights

I

s the European Union a social project, designed to improve people’s lives, or a purely economic one, designed simply to make money?

That was the question at stake back in September, as GMB and other unions fought against proposals that would have undermined the fundamental rights of workers, including the right to go on strike.

The proposed Monti II regulations, which have now been abandoned in the face of overwhelming opposition, were meant to safeguard the right to collective action (including strike action) in the face

of pressure from regulations allowing the free movement of goods across EU borders.

“From the day these proposals were launched, trade unions across Europe told the European Commission that they were not going to solve the problems they set out to resolve,” says GMB European officer Kathleen Walker Shaw. “In fact, they actually posed further threats to trade union rights.

“GMB welcomed the decision to withdraw these very damaging proposals, but the Commission still needs to find a workable solution to make sure fundamental trade union rights and freedoms are not restricted or undermined by economic freedoms.”

The need for clarity comes from two judgments in the European Court of Justice in 2007. While the freedom to take collective action is a fundamental workers’ right,

WELCOME NEWS Kathleen Walker Shaw led GMB’s opposition to the dropped plans.

protected by the European Union charter, the court judgments raised questions about what happens when that right comes into conflict with regulations on the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital.

“There are huge legal uncertainties left by the EU Court of Justice rulings regarding the rights of workers,” says Labour MEP Stephen Hughes. “The problem is not going away and the European Commission has the responsibility to act.”

European social policy includes commitments to improved living and working conditions, proper social protection, and dialogue between management and labour.

GMB believes the European Union should put those commitments first and foremost.

EUROPE MUST ACT Labour MEP Stephen Hughes says workers’ rights must be clearer.

“Fundamental trade union rights and freedoms must not be undermined.”

24 www.gmb.org.uk

regional

UPDATE

regional

from GMB All the news

g n i l a e t S your ! s t h g i r

Iain Birrell of GMB’s legal experts Thompsons Solicitors reveals how the government is ransacking your rights at work

T

he government has already made changes to employment law this year. On 6 April they launched plans make it easier for your boss to sack you; now they’re going even further take a bite out of your rights.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill represents another nail in the coffin of effective employment rights and is as damaging as anything ever done by the Thatcher government.

unfair dismissal Unfair dismissal awards are to be capped at between a year and three year’s national annual median earnings (to a maximum of 52 weeks). Assuming the government goes for a year’s cap, then someone paid the national median of £26,000 a year will have their compensation capped at that.

And if you are low-paid and only earn £13,000, it will be capped at £13,000. This ignores any pension loss, which can often be very significant, and is deeply unjust.

Rex Features/iStock

hushed up The Bill will also bring in “settlement agreements”. These will enable an employer to have a confidential or “protected” conversation with an employee they want to get rid of and offer them a pay-off.

This new right could equip unscrupulous employers to ambush a worker, even bully and cajole them into agreeing to go and the fact of the conversation won’t be able to be offered as evidence in any subsequent unfair dismissal tribunal case. Legally, it will be as

if the conversation never happened (discrimination claims will not be affected).

you’re fired Among the changes that came in on 6 April was the extension of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal rights from one to two years. This will increase job insecurity for millions and lead to a hire and fire culture.

Employment judges can also now order that a party in an employment tribunal hearing pays their own witness expenses (such as travel and accommodation), which were previously payable out of public funds.

This will have a far greater impact on workers than it will on employers, who can more easily afford the extra expenses.

Employers could use the threat of claiming expenses as a deterrent to pursuing their claims or to force workers into accepting an unreasonable settlement.

More to come Around the corner are further assaults on working people’s rights including charging up to £1,200 to bring an employment tribunal claim. The Equality Act is being watered down and the amount of time employers must consult with their workforce over collective redundancies is likely to be reduced to just 30 days. Ministers also appear intent on reducing the protection that the TUPE regulations provide employees who are transferred to different employers.

These changes to your rights at work mean there are more reasons than ever to have the benefit of GMB membership.

IT’S CRIMINAL! The government are leaving working people with nothing.

www.gmb.org.uk 25

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young members GET

festival fever

BONE IDOL Kasabian’s Tom Meighan whipped up the crowds.

GMB members go to Reading and Leeds with Workers Beer Company GMB continued its successful partnership with Workers’ Beer Company this year as 10 young members pulled pints at Reading and Leeds Festivals. Six GMB Young Members attended Reading Festival and four attended the Leeds Festival.

Workers’ Beer Company gives the opportunity to young trade unionists to volunteer for festivals in exchange for a free ticket.

Volunteers also get an exclusive camping area, food and drink vouchers, showers and toilets (at a festival!). In return they work three shifts on the bars provided by Workers’ Beer Company.

After returning from the Leeds festival the leader of the group, Ellis Platt, said: "It was a great experience for my first festival, we worked on three days and still we were able to see all the major bands! I would definitely

FROCK ON! GMB members got to enjoy the festival highlights. recommend it to anyone who would want to attend a festival.”

To be part of GMB Young Members and get the opportunity to volunteer for these events, please contact Dayne Weir at dayne.weir@gmb.org.uk.

G

MB members at Eastman Chemicals in Workington have celebrated a resounding victory after stopping their employer’s plans to cut pensions. Managers faced fierce opposition from the 115 GMB members at the chemical plant when they announced plans to replace the final salary pension scheme with a less valuable career average scheme, which would have devastated members’ pensions packets.

The final salary scheme has been in place since the ’70s, when it was introduced as compensation for a pay freeze. Despite this heritage the local site management team in Workington took the decision to change it with no instruction to do so from Eastman’s parent company in America.

GMB members were immediately balloted for strike action, but just three days into the ballot, managers withdrew their new pension proposal in its entirety. This victory shows the power of GMB and the strength of unity at work.

GMB Regional Organiser, Kevin Young, said: “This is a fantastic victory for GMB and our members, who have not only proved that unity is strength but also that we will not shirk from any fight with the employers.”

“We will not shirk from any fight with employers.”

26 www.gmb.org.uk

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regional

The cost of

JUSTICE Act now before new laws reduce access to justice for injured workers

got a claim?

Call GM

B Northern’s free personal injury legal service now on 0808 100 9119

T

he government has pushed through a devastating attack on access to justice for injured people, despite opposition from GMB, the Labour Party, victim support groups and civil rights organisations.

As a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act, which became law on 1 May, people injured in accidents at work, or who develop industrial diseases, will find it harder to get a lawyer to take on their compensation claim, unless they are a GMB member or can afford to pay lawyers’ fees.

Rex Features x 2

Covering the cost From next April, the way that personal injury cases are funded will change. No win no fee arrangements will effectively end. This is because the guilty party won’t have to pay the insurance premium that the injured person takes out to cover the cost of things like medical reports should the case lose.

So unless a case is going to be very straightforward and won’t require lots of investigation and experts’ reports, most solicitors are unlikely to take the risk of running the case and not getting paid.

Lawyers will also be allowed to take money from their clients’ compensation to cover some of their costs. The government’s changes could mean getting 100% compensation may become a thing of the past.

GMB is working closely with its solicitors to find ways in which member’s claims can still be supported and will keep members informed. But if you or a member of your family have been injured through no fault of your own or diagnosed with an industrial disease in the last three years, don’t delay in contacting GMB’s legal service. Claiming now before the new rules come in could make a big difference.

Why use the GMB Northern legal service?

• A member who suffered a

severe hand injury in an accident at work was awarded compensation of £166,000 with assistance from GMB’s lawyers at Thompsons Solicitors. His injuries would have been prevented had the employer properly maintained the work equipment he was using at the time.

• A member who developed painful dermatitis from working with detergents received £14,000. His bosses should have supplied the proper protective equipment.

• The family of a member who died from asbestos disease was awarded over £200,000

compensation with support from GMB and Thompsons’ specialist asbestos lawyers.

• A GMB Northern member who suffered a back injury at work when she tripped on split rubber matting received over £4,000 compensation.

If her employer had repaired or replaced the damaged matting the accident would not have happened.

• GMB’s legal service supports members injured outside of work too. Thompsons secured over £3,000 for a member who suffered a neck and back injury when a reckless driver ploughed into the back of her car as she waited at a junction.

www.gmb.org.uk 27

regional

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

get more from your GMB

membership With so many benefits and services, GMB membership really does pay for itself!

eat out

more Calling all foodies! The Gourmet Society now offers a discounted membership rate to all GMB Northern region members. You will save around 50 per cent on the normal membership fee and even more in restaurants and bars around the region. For more information go to:

www.thegourmetsociety .co.uk/gmb

For textphone call 18001. Lines open Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat 8am-5pm, Sun 9am-5pm. For pet Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat 9am-5pm. Calls may be recorded.

GMB acts as an introducer appointed representative to the Liverpool Victoria group of companies for General Insurance, LV= and Liverpool Victoria are registered trade marks of Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Limited and LV= and LV= Liverpool Victoria are trading styles of the Liverpool Victoria Group of companies. Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited, registered in England and Wales number 3232514 is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, register number 202965. Registered address: County Gates, Bournemouth BH1 2NF. Tel: 01202 292 333.

Get cashback on your mortgage ÂŁ100 cashback for GMB members completing a mortgage with Leeds Building Society GMB Northern region is proud to introduce another exclusive member benefit, working in conjunction with Leeds Building Society.

Identify yourself as a GMB Northern region member when you complete a mortgage with Leeds Building Society before the end of December to receive a ÂŁ100 cashback payment on completion of their mortgage.

With some of the best rates on the market and each case taken on its own merit, we believe that Leeds Building Society will give

members the service they deserve.

This offer is open to all GMB Northern region members, with free mortgage advice, and a friendly, helpful service.

For more details, contact Leeds Building Society on 08451 960 782, call into any of the 12 branches in the North (no appointment necessary), or visit the website at leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/gmb

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your moRtgage. Applicants must be aged 18 years or over. Mortgages are subject to eligibility, status and financial standing. We may monitor and/or record your telephone conversations with the Society to ensure consistent service levels (including staff training).

GMB endorsement of this service does not guarantee acceptance of your application.

28 www.gmb.org.uk

SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk

regional

Book cheaper refund holidays

Get a tax GMB Northern region has a special arrangement with the Tax Refund Company so you can find out if you are due a refund. If you’ve been employed at any time in the last six years and haven’t checked whether you are owed a refund, here’s your chance!

GMB has teamed up with independent specialist Travel Club Services Ltd to create the GMB Travel Club.

You can join FREE to get money off your holidays.

Whether you’re booking from a brochure or arranging a bespoke trip, you can enjoy discounts on flights, accommodation, ferries, cruises, car hire, attractions, travel insurance and even airport parking.

• N early one in three members using the service receives a tax refund.

Join online at www.mytravelclub.co.uk

• 9 7 per cent of members do not think

they are due a refund when they apply

When you fill in the registration form, make sure to answer the question ‘How did you hear about us?’ by putting ‘GMB Northern region’.

• U nless you receive a refund, it’s FREE • ON LY if you receive a refund, will

a fee of 41p in the pound be deducted from your refund.

To find out more, go to www.taxrebates.com/ref/gmbnrthn or call the application information line on

0845 058 2288

Alternatively, call

0845 60 60 910 and ask to join.

Terms and conditions All holidays provided by the Travel Club are protected by the relevant ABTA/ATOL/IATA licenses and bonds.

Free will writing Working with local solicitors, GMB offers a FREE basic will writing service.

This can save you up to £175 on some high street prices.

Call the GMB legal helpline on 0808 100 9119

extra services w

If you pay a little extra you can get a lot more with these great-value benefits!

Better sick pay

drivers’ cover

If you’re unable to work due to sickness, the sick and accident society provides peace of mind for just 10p per week on top of your GMB membership costs.

It will pay you after 13 weeks off work, or on returning to work before the 13 weeks expiry (conditions apply).

Do you drive as part of your work? For an extra 10p per week on top of your GMB contributions, the road traffic fund provides a variety of benefits, including payment of speeding fines (conditions apply).

0191 233 3930 or e-mail northern@gmb.org.uk You can also download the information/application booklet from www.gmbnorthern.org.uk To join, or for further information, call

www.gmb.org.uk 29

regional

UPDATE

from GMB All the news

Get elected to regional council GMB Northern regional council is an elected body that oversees the regional committee and meets twice a year to make decisions on the things that matter to members in the region.

If you have been a GMB member for more than one year, you are entitled to stand for election to the council and influence the decisions that affect your fellow GMB members in the region.

You can seek nomination by contacting your GMB branch (shown on your IT COULD BE YOU GMB membership card).

Stan d for election and Nominations close on make a difference.

28 February 2013. The newly elected regional council will take office on 15 April. For more information, contact your GMB regional office.

GMB

ION NORTHERN REG

Contact Gmb Please feel free to contact your regional or local GMB office with any questions that you may have.

GMB northern Region 1 Mosley Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 1YE T: 0191 233 3930 F: 0191 233 3931 Email: northern@gmb.org.uk

GMB barrow Office

Noticeboard ● KEEP YOUR MEMBERSHIP If your employment circumstances change, please let us know as soon as possible. If you are paying by Direct Debit, most updates can be completed in one free phone call to 0800 731 7017.

● UNEMPLOYED, ON SICK LEAVE OR MATERNITY LEAVE? We offer a reduced rate of just 22p per month if you become unemployed for any reason or if you

30 www.gmb.org.uk

are on sick or maternity leave with substantially reduced pay. To be eligible, all we ask that you have paid 12 months’ continuous contributions at a standard rate.

● RETIRING? Upon retirement, if you have been a member for at least five years, we can offer you a Retired Life Membership Scheme which requires a one-off payment of £25. This lets you go on using the excellent benefits and services that membership provides. If you need

to update your details or are unsure of the rate you should be paying, contact us free on 0800 731 7017.

● GMB RATES Grade 1 – full-time (working 20+ hrs/wk) £2.70 per week or £11.70 per month.

Grade 2 – part-time (working 10-20 hrs/wk) £1.55 per week or £6.72 per month.

Promotional rate* (working up to 10 hrs/wk) 85p per week or £3.69 per month. *Subject to rule.

17 Hartington Street, Barrow, Cumbria LA14 5SL T: 01229 822 506 F: 01229 835 282

GMB CARLISLE Office Unit 6A, Clifford Court, Parkhouse Business Centre, Cooper Way, Carlisle CA3 0JG T: 01228 521 657

GMB Middlesbrough Office 202-206 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough TS1 3QW T: 01642 241 751 F: 01642 253 920 Email: middlesbrough@gmb.org.uk

GMB sunderland Office Lynas House, Frederick Street, Sunderland SR1 1NA T: 0191 514 2634 F: 0191 510 0167 Email: sunderland@gmb.org.uk

GMB whitehaven Office 4 Scotch Street, Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 7BJ T: 01946 672 45 F: 01946 635 12 Email: whitehaven@gmb.org.uk

GMB regional website www.gmbnorthern.org.uk

Keep your contact details up to date

SIGN up for the GMB eNEWSletter AT www.gmb.org.uk

regional

GMB joining and update form As part of GMB's continued efforts to improve member communication and to make sure you are kept up to date with everything affecting your membership, please take a moment to complete the form below. You can also use this form to join or to recruit a friend or colleague.

1 Your details Title Initials

Surname

Membership No.

Date of Birth

New Address

Old Address

Postcode

Telephone

Mobile

Home Email

Work Email

Postcode

2 Employment details Job title

Employer

Hours a week

Work Address Postcode Work Telephone

3 Direct Debit instructions Name and full postal address of your Bank or Building Society branch

Service User Number 9 7 4 3 3 0

To the Manager of Bank/Building Society Address

This is not part of the instruction to your Bank/Building Society. If your A/C number is not available, fill in your address below.

Postcode Name(s) of Account holder(s) Bank/Building Society Account Number Bank/Building Society Sort Code Reference Number (office use only) Signature(s)

Instructions to Bank or Building Society Please pay GMB Direct Debits from the account detailed in this Instruction subject to the safeguards assured by the Direct Debt Guarantee. I understand that this Instruction may remain with GMB and, if so, details will be passed electronically to my Bank/ Building Society.

Date Banks or Building Societies may not accept instructions for some types of account

PLEASE FORWARD THE COMPLETED FORM TO: Membership Department, GMB Northern Region, 1 Mosley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1YE. If you have any questions, queries or require this form in an alternative format please contact the Membership Department at Regional Office on 0191 233 3930 or e-mail: northern@gmb.org.uk www.gmb.org.uk 31