Inside
UNISON Campaigns: news about terms and conditions and our AGM's
Stop Climate Chaos!: Our planet, our workplaces and the world
After Christchurch: No to racism and fascism
City and County of Swansea
Review May 4th:
UNISON supports Pride 2019 Swansea Unison Branch is one of the main partners for Pride on May 4th and we are looking for volunteers in the lead-up to Pride and on the day.
Swansea Pride on Facebook is also here: http://bit.ly/2TsdND7 Information for LGBT+ members in UNISON is also here: https://www.unison.org.uk/about/whatwe-do/fairness-equality/lgbt/
We have a stall on the day as well as being a part of the events and would like to encourage as many of our members as possible to support our efforts in standing up for equality and diversity. The Parade starts at 11am on the day at Castle Square, all stalls are open from midday for a full day ending late afternoon. The events are open to everyone. Volunteer Branch Secretary Chris Cooze and Chair David White both volunteer on a regular basis and endorse volunteering with Unison Swansea as it also provides a number of benefits. Unison members with busy lives may find it hard to volunteer. However as well as supporting a fantastic cause and endorsing what Unison stands for, you can make new friends, connect with the community, learn new skills, and even advance your career.
If you are facing any issues relating to your identity or sexuality in work, or any other concerns, please contact the branch office or a union rep. you to get to know organisations in the community and find resources and activities for your children and family.Our retired Unison members are also helping our branch connect with the local community and are also a self-organised group and a vibrant part of our branch. Unison Swansea Branch has members throughout Swansea in many different work environments and nobody is excluded from participation in Pride. Our main contacts on this promotion are lead officers Curtis Evans, James Macgregor & Michelle Pow. We are asking our members to contact the Unison branch office on 01792 635271 if they would like to join our volunteer team or join us on the day.
Community Giving to others is also beneficial for your mental and physical health. By giving back to the community, you’ll show them first-hand how volunteering makes a difference. It’s also a valuable way for
www.ccsunison.org.uk Public Service Not Private Profit
Please also promote the event via your own social media. Full details of all the events leading up to the main Pride parade can be found on the Swansea Pride website here: https:// www.swanseapride.co.uk
Success on Professional Fees
UNISON negotiations with the employer has successfully retained the Professional Fees for our members at Swansea Council. Support Strong support from our members across the council in the Legal Section, Surveyors, Engineers, Accountants, Teaching Assistants, Home Carers, Facilities and Social Services gave us a strong mandate to tell the employer that the removal of the required Professional Fee payments was a step to far.
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'Swansea Unison' April 2019
A Campaigning and Organisin Once again, we face another year of continued Tory cut's in funding for local government. We have seen hundreds of jobs lost through Voluntary Redundancies, Voluntary Early retirements and non-filling of vacancies. Strain This has placed considerable strain on the remaining workforce. This branch has been instrumental in being able to protect our terms and conditions over the years., however we must be prepared for the next round of policy reviews that could affect our current working practices. The threats from the Welsh Assembly to reduce the number of councils in Wales from 22 to 8 unless there is real evidence of shared cross authority working must not be overlooked by us. We must at every opportunity put Swansea Councils in-house services at the forefront of all negotiations as the benchmark. We expect the employers to return to this issue this year. Lobbies We have supported and organised a number of lobbies and demonstrations against the Tory austerity agenda, both locally and nationally. We have taken every opportunity to talk to and challenge Councillors, MP's and AM's that Swansea Council services need increased investment in jobs and services not continual cuts. We have been proactive in raising issues with Senior Management and the Elected Members as well playing a role at a national level to try and ensure that UNISON takes a firm line against all cuts. We have been able to represent the branch at nearly all the national conferences this last year and hope to carry on this vital endeavour in 2019
Professional Fees (Continued from p1) As more of our authority services are being regulated the registration, certification, licensing or other reason for paying the fee becomes a condition of employment. This must be met before our members may practise the profession, therefore the removal of the required payments from the employer would have affected wide numbers of members, many of them low-paid as registration spreads across some sectors of the workforce. Peer pressure We are hoping that the authority's negotiators saw the need to continue paying theses fees as an occupational, operational necessity and not from peer pressure from our elected members. Well done to our branch negotiation team, Chris Cooze, Rob Thomas & David White.
Building our UNION
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Our Branch Officers and Stewards are all volunteers, doing UNISON work day in day out supporting members in managing absence meetings, grievances, disciplinary and appeals. They are the backbone of our organisation and deserve a huge round of applause for a lot of the great work they do that goes on under the radar.
Your re of reorg across continu membe advice
Many members will not be aware that all of our stewards and officers meet and organise their support in their own time, in the evenings and on weekends giving up their free time to endorse and support Unison. We also want to thank the support we have had from UNISON staff for their input, knowledge and ideas.
The bra historic The aut forced represe incorpo change
This year aggregated meetings were well attended and quorum was more than met. All branch business was ratified with two motions being approved and the agreed actions of the motions are below; if you would like the full text of the motions raised at the AGM’s please contact us. Motion 1 as amended 1. Proposal to National AGM, that branch officers are elected for a twoyear term of office as opposed to the current one year, as a conference motion. 2. Proposal to AGM, that we forge greater links through our Labour Link officer and our CLP members to put pressure upon our elected members on branch issues for the betterment of our members. 3. Proposal to AGM, that as a branch we forge a greater working link
with the Authorities representative concerning joint council collaborative working with an aim of retaining our services in house and possible offering our services to other councils. 4. Proposal to AGM, should continue putting pressure on the Welsh Government stating that the proposed level of funding for 2019-2020 is neither acceptable nor sufficient to meet the demands on our local services. Motion 2 as amended 1. That our branch should call on the Council to set a legal 'no cuts' budget like other UNISON branches based on prudential borrowing and use of reserves. The branch should make urgent representations to Welsh Government stating that the proposed level of funding for 2019-2020 is neither acceptable nor sufficient to meet the demands on our local services and workforce. The branch
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ng UNISON Climate Chaos must be stopped! 2019 is the year of the environment. This year among others looks like it could yield far more truths about human's impact on the planet.
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eps have also been heavily involved in the whole range ganisations and reviews that have been taking place the authority and the public sector. We strive to ually improve how we communicate and support ers and will always welcome constructive criticisms, or support on how we can do things better.
anch structure has improved considerable given that cally many roles had become blurred and antiquated. thorities HR change in contactable working practices a change in how we communicate and deliver entation in compliance with GDPR, we have orated a number of compliance changes and also ed our working practices.
d lead a campaign with other government unions to lobby the h Government with as many bers involved as possible.
That the branch needs to make stent, concerted and public sition to the Councils cuts ding public campaigning in the s, in the workplaces, in union city and by lobbying the council. e event of compulsory ndancies in any section of the cil emergency meetings of all bers should be called with a osal for a campaign of strike n, following the necessary es and procedures for orising industrial action, as per ON rules
That the Branch will actively call embers to take action over cuts develop a plan for members to me more directly involved with union to ensure that their voices opinions are considered.
We at the UNISON branch here in Swansea feel it is time to fight back and save what we have left of our beautiful planet. We have had several major setbacks here over the past year that we feel are a snub against the people of our city. The most recent of these being the failed investment by the UK government to electrify the rail line to Swansea and the rejection of the Tidal Lagoon. Both of these could have helped the environment in the local area as well as providing employment to the local population. In December 2018 a magnificent Giant Redwood tree believed to be
well over 100 years old that was supposed to be protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), has been destroyed on a building site at Penllergaer in Swansea. We urgently need to ensure the council acts and prosecutes the people responsible. Given their history we cannot be sure they will do this As a union we ask that the council take immediate action to prosecute the vandals responsible for the destruction of the magnificent and legally protected Giant Redwood tree in Penllergaer. We ask that the council should seek to prosecute the actual individuals who destroyed it, the company or companies they worked for, and the directors of those companies. www.actionnetwork.org/petitions/ prosecute-vandals-who-destroyed-aprotected-giant-redwood-tree?
UNISON has a newly established Environment Officer post. If you have any suggestions or ideas about campaigning about environmental issues please contact James MacGregor on 07468451764
UNISON Branch Meet the TEAM 2019
UNISON 2019: Meet the Team Branch Position Secretary
Name Christopher Cooze
Assistant Secretary Chairperson
Rob Thomas David White
Convenor Health & Safety Membership Environment Equalities Welfare International Lifelong learning
Patrick McCormack Christopher Cooze Susan Huggleston James Macgregor Curtis Evans Janet Murray Norman Mednis Shona Richards & Jayne Harries Michelle Pow Scott McKenzie Berry Roger Beynon Mathew Shephard Vacant David White Sian Fisher Kevin Joevenant
Education Treasurer Sports & Social Communications Young Members Labour Link Non-Elected Admin Non-Elected Auditor
Representation & Additional Duties Manager/Main Contact, News Editor, Lay Tutor & H&S Officer Representation Facilitator Chairs Meetings, Representation Facilitator Allocation Facilitator Main Contact all H&S Issues Main Contact on Membership Representation Facilitator Representation Representation Representation Facilitator Representation Facilitator Representation Facilitator Representation Facilitator Non-Representative Role Representation / Producing news Links Main Contact to Young Members Main Contact Labour Link General Enquiries Treasure & Secretary Contact Only
No Nukes in Swansea
Swansea Council has passed a motion unanimously objecting to nuclear waste being dumped in Swansea. The consultation by RWM due to be held in Swansea has since been cancelled. While this is a good first step we need to ensure we send the strongest possible message that nuclear waste is not welcome here or anywhere in Wales!
March 16th was UN Anti-Racism Day and simultaneous demonstrations against racism and fascism took place in Cardiff, Glasgow and London on the day, as well as many other demonstrations around the world. Supported by UNISON, UNITE, the GMB, TSSA, PCS, the TSSA, CWU, the NASUWT and the Welsh TUC the Cardiff demonstration was a great success.
The reaction of councillors, our local residents and businesses is clear – nuclear waste is not and never will be welcome here and we will not allow it.
Hot-desking In implications for wider groups of staff, 86% of social workers don’t believe hotdesking is compatible with their jobs, a survey by Community Care has revealed.
The full results can be found here http:// bit.ly/2WiyVtj and if you feel the impact of the changes are too much then contact Unison.
More photo's, reports and full video's of events can be found at Stand Up To Racism Swansea on Facebook.
YOUR UNION
When asked for their reasons why they felt it wasn’t compatible, one social worker said: “It can waste your time. It also means that you are not sat with your team on occasion especially as an are a huge source of support both with the job itself and emotional wellbeing,” . Overall more than 60% of social workers who took Community Care’s survey said their experience of hotdesking had been ‘entirely’ or ‘largely’ negative.
In Swansea there were a series of exciting events that built March 16th. (Pictured from top and anti-clockwise: March 16th demonstration in Cardiff; a Love Music Hate Racism event at Creature Sounds in Swansea; a tradeunion forum at EYST in Swansea with Roger MacKenzie (Asst. General Secretary of UNISON) and a vigil at Castle Square in solidarity with the Muslim worshippers massacred by a fascist in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Contact us: Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea SA1 4PE
01792 635271
unison@swansea.gov.uk Branch Secretary: Chris Cooze
Unison has many trained union reps throughout the council, schools and FE colleges. We will advise, support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legal matters inside and outside the workplace. If you need advice or representation please contact the Senior Steward(s) or Contact for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact the branch office.
www.ccsunison.org.uk
Office Landline: Office Mobile:
01792 635271 07468451764
Chris Cooze: Rob Thomas: Patrick McCormack: Mark Otten: David White: Mathew Shephard:
07754324238 07900702815 07771922985 07554425841 07870465697 07584198885
www.unison.co.uk
This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch address or emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.