{"id":966,"date":"2012-05-01T01:16:56","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T00:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsb.lasunison.com\/?p=966"},"modified":"2012-05-01T01:16:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T00:16:56","slug":"may-day-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/?p=966","title":{"rendered":"May Day Greetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is International Workers’ Day<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A day celebrated in over 80 countries all over the world. It is a public holiday in many other\u00c2\u00a0countries. Workers, their unions and their political parties, stand together to show that there is a better world, a better way and a better future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dream and imagine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

May 1st<\/sup> was chosen as International Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Day<\/em> at the first congress of the Second International<\/em>, meeting in Paris (1889), to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket Square Massacre<\/em> in Chicago where workers were fired on, and\u00c2\u00a0killed,\u00c2\u00a0by police during a general strike for the eight-hour workday. <\/strong><\/p>\n

America surprisingly (or not)\u00c2\u00a0does not celebrate May Day but has a Labor Day<\/em> in September. Our Tory led Coalition has also mooted plans to move the May Day Bank Holiday to October. <\/strong><\/p>\n

May Day\u00c2\u00a0is about\u00c2\u00a0solidarity and\u00c2\u00a0governments want to put as much distance between\u00c2\u00a0organised workers and their history as possible. It will not work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Pension Ballot result was announced yesterday afternoon. I attended the Unison Health Service Group Executive\u00c2\u00a0where the \u00c2\u00a0result was first confirmed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a disappointingly\u00c2\u00a0low turnout of 14.8%. With everything else going on it is understandable to a point, but having 85.2% of members nationally not even bothering returning their papers doesn’t give the union much options to carry on. This does not look like members up for a fight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of those that voted, 49.53% accepted the proposals and 50.4% rejected. Nearly 50-50!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will\u00c2\u00a0 now be a specially convened National Staff Council Trade Union Side to decide on the way forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe our members are up for a fight – but this is not it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Pay freezes, local and regional pay, threats to Agenda for Change, privatisation, Health and Social Care Act: that’s where the real\u00c2\u00a0struggle lies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

Annual leave throughout the Olympic period is now restored as per agreements with no ‘cap’. This was after UNISON met with management yesterday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We will continue to work with management regarding\u00c2\u00a0enhancements for staff in what will be a busy historical time. All we want is recognition for staff that this will not be ‘business as normal’.<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

The austerity measures have gone too far!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read that new five pence (5p)\u00c2\u00a0and ten pence (10p)\u00c2\u00a0coins are to be made with cheaper materials. Coins are now being introduced that are made from steel, but plated in nickel. These are replacing\u00c2\u00a0 current cupro-nickel\u00c2\u00a0coins\u00c2\u00a0 that are made from 75% copper and 25% nickel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is because, we are told, a sharp rise in the price of copper.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How will the Royal Mint pay for the new materials? In the old coins or the new coins?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This certainly adds a twist to Labour Prime Minister\u00c2\u00a0Harold Wilson’s famous 1967 defence of devaluation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It does not mean that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well\u00c2\u00a0 now the coins in your pocket, purse and bank, really have been devalued – literally!<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

Information of all issues can be found elsewhere on our website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

___________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

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!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>I Am Frontline You Are Frontline We Are All Frontline<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

We are stronger together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Branch Secretary.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is International Workers’ Day.\u00c2\u00a0 A day celebrated in over 80 countries all over the world. It is a public holiday in many other\u00c2\u00a0countries. Workers, their unions and their political parties, stand together to show that there is a better world, a better way and a better future. Dream and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":970,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}