In the Chinese community 2011 is the year of the Rabbit. In Britain 2011 is the year of the Cull!
It has been reported that 100,000 jobs in the public services will go before spring 2011.
35,000 jobs are at risk within the National Health Service at this very moment with more to follow.
This is a cull by a vindictive anti-public sector government who are ideologically opposed to the welfare state; ideologically opposed to the strong helping the weak; ideologically opposed to the  ideas and values of working people.
When a job is lost it is a human tragedy that affects not only the person, but their family, friends and community.
Job losses on the scale being predicted by ministers (with a ‘liberal’ smile on their faces) are an obscenity.
The government does not have a mandate to do this. These are our public services, our welfare state. They are not a millionaires’ monopoly set.
Stand by your union through these difficult times. We are stronger together.
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If the government doesn’t care about job losses, they know that we do. They also know that the Trade Union is the only organisation that working people have to protect and support them.
That is why they are holding a gun to our heads!
As we report on our website, there is a proposal by the NHS Employers to broker a deal regarding pay versus jobs.
If NHS staff will give up their contractual right to progress up the incremental Agenda for Change pay spines (Bands 1 to 6) then there may be a deal on a ‘no compulsory redundancy’ agreement.
This is on top of the two year pay freeze already announced.
I have only given a simple outline of the proposal. Please read the full facts for yourself to understand the complexities and caveats.
Should we negotiate with hostage takers? Should we become appeasers? Should we be made responsible for job losses and the financial resources of the National Health Service?
No decisions have been taken, and will not be taken nationally until the middle of January when the Union’s Executive will meet. Any proposals to enter negotiations will come to the membership who will have the final say in a vote.
These are tough choices.
More information will follow.
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On Wednesday last week the Health Secretary announced the abolition of the 19 minute response time. The 8 minute Category A response stays in place (although a slight but important change is imminent).
This has been expected. London Ambulance Service has played a major role in convincing politicians that the 19 minute target had to go in its current form.
The GMB union have been in the press opposing this, which has come as a surprise to me. I thought every union supported this and were in agreement that the ‘blunt instrument’ of time targets that put pressure and stress on ambulance staff and fail to deliver patient care that can be measured had to go.
I know that every ambulance member who knows what they are talking about, supports the abolition of the ‘B’ target. Ambulance staff from all unions and from all Services support this announcement.
The important thing is not the 19 minutes it takes from A to B, but what happens to the patient when we arrive. Not the ‘beat the clock’ farce, but the patient outcome reality.Â
Unison will carry on lobbying (and will be part of the consultation)Â for the introduction of more sophisticated measures which take patient outcomes into account.
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In the midst of the student demonstrations the best headline in all the national newspaper’s front pages was simply “Duchess poked with a stick!”
This was about the Duchess of Cornwall who was, as the newspaper correctly reported, poked with a stick!
This stick was pushed through the open back window of the Rolls Royce that she was travelling in, alongside Prince Charles, on her way to The Royal Variety Show.
Being poked with a stick on Regent Street was a bit of variety she didn’t expect I should imagine!
Once again the Royal Family take a hit for the Tory Party, making sure that it is them, and the stick waving idiots, that dominate the headlines and not the thirty thousand odd peaceful demonstrators (school children, students, teachers, lecturers and families) who took to the streets because of the Coalition’s lies.
But the Duchess colliding with the business end of a stick was not the only collision that night.
Two worlds collided! Two worlds that normally are a million miles apart.
Wealth and privilege crashed head on with some of the people who are being forced to pay for the upkeep of lifestyles like hers.
A humble stick, unintentionally acting as a symbolic wooden bridge, linked hundreds of years of exploitation and greed. Two worlds collided in an instant, and nobody really noticed the significance.
The Royal Variety Show was a hit I am told, and no, before you ask, Twiggy didn’t make an appearance!
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Merry Christmas and a Healthy & Happy New Year.
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If you are reading this, work for the London Ambulance Service or are eligible to join, and are not yet a member of UNISON Join Today!
 I Am Frontline You Are Frontline We Are All Frontline
We are stronger together.
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary.
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