I was at the UNISON National Delegate Conference in Bournemouth last week. The highlight for me was when Paul Kenny, General Secretary of the GMB Union urged all health workers to join Unison. Ambulance Workers take note.
Mr Kenny was invited to address the conference in his role as the new Trade Union Congress (TUC) President. He spoke from the heart and he spoke the truth.
He spoke about our Unions’ working together. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that aspiration, but, there is a world of difference between a GMB General Secretary’s call for solidarity and what happens on the ground in many places.
From my seat on the NEC (National Executive Council) table I could see the wry smiles on the UNISON delegates faces and the words ‘Yea right! Seeing is believing!’ being mouthed.
Pay and austerity dominated a packed and important agenda. The ongoing pay freeze was condemned over and over again.
Pay and austerity! Cause and affect if you listen to the Coalition Government. That is not true of course. Never has been true and never will be true.
Increased pay leads to increased spending which leads to increased growth.
UNISON has pledged to break the pay freeze. Pay is back on the agenda!
At the TUC General Council UNISON proposed a national demonstration against the austerity measures being pushed through by the Government. Measures which target working people and their family and friends. Measures which completely bypass the wealthy but crush the vulnerable, old, young and working people.
There will now be a massive demonstration in London on 20th October 2012. We will march against austerity measures, march against job losses, march against privatisation of the public sector and march in support of the National Health Service.
Our Branch, of course, will play our part on the day.
Come and join us on the 20th. Put it in your diary now!
More information will be sent out soon.
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 The Church of England used to be called the Conservative Party at prayer, so when the Archbishop of Canterbury attacks a Conservative Prime Minister in public, you know something is wrong!
The Archbishop, Rowan Williams, has finally said something I agree with. In a forthcoming book he attacks David Cameron’s private sector, privatisation jamboree ‘Big Society’ as “aspirational waffle designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the State from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable.”
Of course he may be saying this because he fears the Church of England will be forced to put its hands into its own coffers when the Big Society comes knocking, and is not best pleased with his near neighbour.
I can see him sitting and fretting in Lambeth Palace, just an Ecclesiastical Mace throw away from Downing Street, worrying himself sick with the prospect of the Church’s hypocrisy about poverty and poor people being exposed.
Hell hath no fury like a man in a dress and mitre scorned (with apologies to William Congreve* and scorned women everywhere!).
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With the Olympics upon us the following story should make everyone rethink their views on what makes a superstar. The modern Olympics is a mix of sport, money and global advertising sponsors. To win a Gold medal is to win a life time of comfort and luxury.
Is it sport or is it business?
Teofilo Stevenson (Teo) 1952-2012, a Cuban boxer died aged 60 on the 11th June.
Teo was an amateur, as all Cuban sportspeople are, and was the first Cuban to become three-time Olympic champion.
He won his three Gold medals in a row: Munich 1972: Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980.
By the way he also won three World Amateur Championship Golds (1974, 1978 & 1986).
No wonder the BBC called him Cuba’s greatest boxer.
He had 322 fights of which he won 307 and only lost 15.
The United States of America, of course, are always on the look out to lure Cuban sportspeople away with financial bribes for them to turn professional and defect from Cuba to the US.
They do it now and they did it then.
Unfortunately for them Teo didn’t fall for it.
He was offered a million dollars to defect and this is what he said: “What is a million dollars set against the love of 8 million people”.
He stayed, lived and died in Cuba. He is a true sporting hero.
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 Partnership House, the huge religious missionary building opposite London Ambulance Service Headquarters on Waterloo Road, is being demolished, or I should say, has been demolished!
In just under a few months the huge building has been dismantled from the top down, floor by floor until now, all that remains, is the imposing portico with the immortal words: ‘Go Forth To Every Part Of The World And Proclaim The Good News To The Whole Creation’.
Not exactly telling you to ‘go forth and multiply’ as such, but sometimes walking out of Waterloo Headquarters and glancing across at these words, it certainly felt like it!
It has been closed and boarded up for a good few years now but, when it was a going concern, the Service used to rent meeting rooms in it. We mainly held our joint consultative committee meetings there between the unions and management.
At one unforgettable meeting Phil Thompson (UNISON Regional Organiser and Lead Officer responsible for London Ambulance Service) was reading out our local pay claim for that year (pre Agenda for Change).
It was a tense meeting and the pay claim ran to many pages. As Phil was reading it out I looked around the big heavy wooden table that we were sat around. Everyone, managers and union stewards, sat listening with stern faces.
I then looked around the walls of the room. Victorian oil paintings hung on thick chains on each wall. They were portraits of very dour, strict looking old bishops and missionaries, who looked as if they were staring down on us with sheer contempt.
My mind then returned to listening to Phil reading the pay claim but it wasn’t Phil I could hear! From out of nowhere a choir had started singing!
They were singing a well known hymn! It started quietly at first but got louder and louder. Phil raised his voice to be heard. The choir got louder. Phil raised his voice. The choir got louder. Phil raised his voice. The oil paintings stared down at us. The choir got louder. Phil raised his voice!
Onward Christian Soldiers marching to war filled the room from singers practising in the next room! We all fell about laughing!
To this day no other pay claim, ever, anywhere, has been presented with the backing of a choir! It felt inspiring in a funny sort of way!
However, Partnership House has gone. We shall miss it. A Hilton Hotel is to be built on the site. I hope they keep the oil paintings. That will scare the tourists!
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* The full phrase written by William Congreve (1670-1728) in a play (The Mourning Bride) is: Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
So now you know.
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Information of all issues can be found elsewhere on our website.
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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!
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We are stronger together.
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary.
