Inside
EU workers and Brexit: Our workmates are not bargaining chips
No to racism and fascism: TUC-backed national demonstration
Plastic & the planet: from 'throwaway living' to world menace
City and County of Swansea
Review UNISON Conference calls for:
An end to the privatisation of public services UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis, opening a debate at September’s UNISON conference on privatisation, said:
said was too big to fail. Carillion, a private company that was praised by the Tories and lauded by New Labour, has now left a trail of destruction in its wake.
works not for the rich but for the cleaners, the carers, the cooks, the teaching assistants, nurses, and all other public sector workers.
“UNISON has always led the fight against privatisation, in the past all too frequently against the New Labour leadership. Year after year, I stood at this rostrum, and was heckled and hissed at by New Labour ministers for opposing their privatisation plans.
Grenfell
They need our party preparing for power, looking outwards, moving upwards and standing united. That’s what our country needs. That’s what the children sleeping rough on the streets of cities like this need. And what the dozens of Birmingham care workers who travelled here yesterday need.
Gullible
Workers were unpaid and apprentices were sacked, and this great city has been left without its promised new hospital. An epic monument to failure. And just as Grenfell will forever be associated with neglect, so Carillion will always be associated with greed.
Strike Gullible ministers, who’d been seduced by the promises of vulture capitalism, sucked in by G4S, Capita and Carillion, and bedazzled by the chief executives of multinational companies who promised so much, yet delivered so little. But much has changed thanks to the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell. Those dark days are gone.
But at long last the Labour Party is led by those who oppose privatisation of all our public services. I’ve waited all my life for this. Our party, led by Jeremy Corbyn – a proud UNISON member, has always stood with us on protests. Council cuts
They’ve taken 21 days of strike action, fighting pay cuts, and a cut in their hours. We need unity now more than ever, to be united behind radical policies, not outdated dogmas of the past, united behind a leadership that is no longer timid.
The country must never go back to the time when it was beholden to the profiteers, seduced by their false promises, and by the mantra that private was good and public bad.
“Campaigning against hospital closures, council cuts and privatisation. He’s the kind of Member of Parliament our party needs, who stands with you when times are tough, and not just when they want something.
For the first time in a generation, we have the opportunity to be bold and bring public sector workers who’ve been privatised back into local government, and back into the health service where they belong.
A mile from here stands the Royal Liverpool Hospital – a shell of a hospital, that’s half built, effectively a £300m building site. It’s been abandoned by Carillion, the company that everyone
So everyone in this hall, and every MP must get behind our leader, get behind the policies, and get behind the party to campaign for the best manifesto ever put to the British people. It’s a party that
An end to privatisation must be a year one priority for a Labour government, not an aspiration. A day one commitment to end the scourge of privatisation and bring all services back in house.”
www.ccsunison.org.uk
'Swansea Unison'
Public Service Not Private Profit
November 2018
UNISON & Equality at work Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. The ability to live and work without prejudice is a fundamental right, regardless of your background, colour or sexual orientation. One of UNISON’s main aims is to help workers fight for fairness and equality in the workplace and beyond. Challenging discrimination and winning equality is at the heart of everything UNISON does. Besides the right not to be discriminated against or bullied, fair treatment also includes equal working conditions and pay. Our branch Equality Officers are here to advise. Michelle Pow, Curtis Evans & Jayne Harries can be contacted on 01792 635271 or unison@swansea.gov.uk The right to fairness and equality Employees are protected against discrimination and unfair treatment by the Equality Act and relevant regulations. The Equality Act contains something called the public sector equality duty, which requires public sector organisations to encourage diversity in the workplace. If a member has been discriminated against or treated unfairly at work, UNISON negotiates with employers on a member’s behalf, attends tribunals, offers legal help and makes employers aware of the law. The Equality Act makes it unlawful for employers to treat you unfairly because of your: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. It is also unlawful for employers to have a rule, policy or practice that someone is less likely to be able to fulfil than other employees because of one of the reasons above. There is more information about UNISON's policies on equality here: https://www.unison.org.uk/about/what-we-do/fairness-equality/lgbt/
Tory cuts are rubbish The Tory Government is forcing Welsh Councils to make unreasonable choices. Conwy is the first council in England or Wales to switch to monthly bin collections The council has also warned it might be raising council tax by an inflationbusting 11%. Cash-strapped Conwy council faces a £15m budget shortfall and is also considering a 6.54% cut to all services. Harsher cuts are possible if schools and social services are protected. Councillor Sam Rowlands, responsible for finance, said services for the most vulnerable people had to be protected. He said he was expecting another "gloomy" settlement from the Welsh Government in October, when ministers tell councils how much they will get from central funds for 2019/20.
Plastic cho
A plastic revolution is upon us, over the past few w media have been highlighting the fight to curb plas this is a highly important subject area as it is grea damaging our eco-system.
Statistics from The International Environmental Techn shows that 400 million tons of plastic is produced ever largest proportion of this being single use plastic desig immediate disposal. Plastic, ‘the miracle material’ as it has been called has is said to have saved lives in the health sector, facilitated the growth of green energy through wind turbines and solar panels and revolutionised safe food storage. It dominates our daily lives but what makes plastic so convenient? Cheap It’s cheap – it’s everywhere in our day to day life, this has resulted in one of our planets biggest environmental challenges to date. Our oceans have become a dumping ground for plastic waste, chocking marine life, some to a level of near extinction and turning some marine areas into a form of plastic soup. In some cities around the worldwide, plastic has blocked drainage systems causing floods and breeding disease, it has been consumed by livestock and even found its way into the food chain.
Plastic packaging Then and now: Life m accounts for around half of 'throwaway living'; 50 the world’s plastic waste, the majority of which is disposed of within minutes, the reason being it is singl plastic. Single use plastic is not always easy to dispos recycling methods and some types which ends up in la can take hundreds of years to break down and decom Pollution
"We will be faced with a significant gap in our finances," he said, claiming that cuts alone would not be enough to tackle the deficit. "The majority of our budget goes to schools and social care and we need to ensure we can deliver the best possible services for these groups in the current, challenging financial climate." Swansea UNISON Branch Secretary: Chris Cooze states “This will not go unnoticed; with many other authorities who are all facing further austerity cuts.”
Plastic pollution also contributes to air pollution and cl change by way of fossil fuels, through the energy it tak plastic and then dispose of it. For every pound of plas produced, three pounds of carbon pollution is produce Considering the amount of plastic produced globally p the amount of pollution released into the air through fo simply staggering.
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So how are we combating this growing problem? Countries around the world have joined together in reducing the waste in various ways. Some countries such as Rwanda and Kenya have placed a ban on single use plastic, some have adopted the use of surcharges on plastic carriers, some are using innovative ideas to use plastic in new ways such as buildings, research is underway in our very own university in Swansea to find ways of using the emissions from plastic waste decomposing to harness fuel energy such as hydrogen for cars. However, this is a long way off from being used on a large scale. Eco-system The world has recognised and acknowledge the issue and is acting to remedy it. Our own government introduced the 5p surcharge back in 2015, within two years the turn-over of carrier bags in circulation went from 14 billion to 1 billion, a huge decrease that has benefited our environment and our eco-system. How can we help? Well, by adopting new ideas in our day to day life we too could be making a difference. By changing the amount of plastic items we use, we will decrease the demand which in turn reduces the amount of production and the amount of waste. By adopting different methods such as using personal drinks bottles instead of single use bottles, by using travel mugs instead of takeaway cups with plastic lids when we visit fast-food vendors, by refusing the use of straws in soft drinks, these methods all help to combat the amount of plastic waste. Footprint
magazine in 1955 celebrates plastic as 0 years later plastic clogs our planet
le use se of through andfill sites mpose.
There is so much we can all do to help reduce plastic waste and reduce our carbon footprint further. Our planet needs our help, whether you’re at home or in the workplace, just take a look around to see if you can find ways to reduce it further. Unison have already been influential this year by distributing personal drink bottles to members.
imate kes to create stic ed. per annum, ossil fuels is
Representatives have been trying to influence departments to follow in this approach, and this was all going on prior to the media highlighting the issue further recently. Representatives care about the environment, as well as their members, a healthy environment helps to maintain healthy members. Talk to your union representative with your ideas or contact the branch, we are only too happy to help. Help save our planet from being over-whelmed by plastic waste.
At their recent conference, the TUC unanimously backed a national demonstration against racism and facism. It is therefore backed by all TUC-affiliated unions. The motion, moved by the UCU and the PCS, is here: http://bit.ly/2pQnDP7 We are facing the biggest rise in support for fascism, racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism since the 1930s. The scapegoating by mainstream politicians of migrants, refugees and the Muslim community is seeming to make racist ideas more acceptable. In many European countries racist and fascist parties have moved from the margins of politics into the corridors of power. Trump In Britain the campaign to “free Tommy Robinson”, the fascist ex-leader of the English Defence League, has galvanised the racist and fascist right. They are organising with political and financial support from the US Alt-right, including Trump’s former chief of staff Steve Bannon and far right figures across Europe. Increasingly we’ve seen fascist mobilisations, coupled with violent attacks by fascists against anti-racists and trade unionists (including Steve Hedley, the Assistant General Secretary of the RMT - http://bit.ly/2OejD8z ) and also on the TUC’s official bookshop Bookmarks. Principle The TUC, many senior figures in the Labour Party and other organisations have recognised the threat the farright can pose if they are allowed to grow without opposition. This is a basic trade-union issue that threatens black and Asian people, LGBT members and trade unions as organisations themselves. If you are interested in going on the demonstration please contact the branch office or go to Stand Up To Racism Swansea on Facebook.
the UK, regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, they have instead introduced a new immigration category called ‘Settled Status’. If you’re an EU citizen currently living and working in the UK at the moment, please note that your rights have not changed yet. EU citizens should be free from discrimination and xenophobia in the workplace and outside it.
Since the 2016 EU referendum, UNISON has been campaigning to protect the rights of EU citizens living and working in the UK. We have done this through:
♦ lobbies of parliament, ♦ working with other campaign groups,
♦ and organising and supporting members to get active in their branch, workplace and community.
YOUR UNION
Though we have been calling on the government to agree to the rights of over 3 million Europeans who live in
EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU have been the bargaining chips of the Brexit negotiations since 24 June 2016. Time is running out as March 2019 draws closer. On 5 November, UNISON members will join the third and final mass lobby of Parliament to speak up for the rights of EU nationals.
If you are in UNISON, or want to join (01792 635271), and want to know your rights or need support:
Despite the general belief that EU citizens’ rights are dealt with, the negotiations so far have failed to secure EU citizens’ existing rights – leading to massive uncertainty for UNISON members and their families. They deserve better.
Contact Normunds Mednis, our International Officer, on 07504 900048 Join Unison’s EU members page to be kept up to date on the campaign https://www.facebook.com/groups/ UNISONEUMembers/
Workers from across Europe play a vital role in our public services, especially the NHS and local government. They have built their lives here. They have settled and integrated into British society.
Are you an EU worker employed by Swansea Council? Do you need to know your rights in the lead-up to Brexit? Download our poster here, please display in your workplace and get in touch: http:// bit.ly/2pyp84h
This is an important issue and we need your support. If you can come along please contact your MP in advance and request a meeting so you can share your story and concerns with them on the day. We will send out detailed information nearer the time which will have everything you need to successfully lobby your MP. UNISON has reserved rooms in Parliament from 2pm to 6pm so your MP can come and meet you. And there will be plenty of UNISON stewards there to help you on the day.
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.