Congratulations to the North Team in Supported Housing for suggesting the SUN. A prize is on its way.

As a branch we are situated in a UNISON region. For the last two years Closer Working Group have been been meeting to create the new region that will be called South East. This group was formed equally from Southern Region and South East Region members. 

You may wonder how this affects you as members of UNISON. Work dealt within at Regional level helps the branch to work and keep up to date with UNISON policy and views. Meeting with other members from other branches help the officers of the branch by discussing problems the branch may have. Often other branches may have similar problems as we do and talking together often helps and give ideas to assist the officers of the branch. For example there is a group of members who are working towards a campaign for an increase in London Weighting (see below). If this happens then our members will benefit by it. 

Members of the branch who are involved in the Region do this but their priorities are always the members of Slough UNISON branch. If you would like further information about the new Region please contact Linda Richards, Assistant Branch Secretary on 01753 523699.

A campaign was launched on Friday 25th September for a minimum £2000 regional weighting allowance or cost of living supplement for all public service and utility workers in the South East. The campaign involves public service workers who are members of UNISON and some other unions. 

A spokesperson from UNISON said “It is more expensive to live in South East England than anywhere else in the country apart from parts of London. By our calculations full-time employees need at least £2000 a year more in our pay packets to deal with the soaring cost of living. This situation impacts especially on lower paid workers. Union members and other workers in the south east face excessive costs for housing, transport and dependant care to name but three items. The average price of a home in the South East at £194,923 is as much as suburban London. In parts of the South East even an ordinary terraced house costs more than most areas of London. London public employees receive weightings, and some in the South East do, but most get no extra pay to compensate for the higher cost of living — the situation is ludicrous. Most of our employers claim to sympathise with us. They are having to deal with increasing recruitment and retention problems in our public services. Unfortunately, the reality is that they then do nothing except blame the government for not giving them enough money. In turn the Government passes the buck back to service employers. We have launched this campaign because there have been enough excuses. We are no longer content to wait for weighting”.

The Branch Executive, give or take a few, pictured on a training and development day.

Left to right, Suki Chowdhury, Eve Deanus, Gordon Davis, Basharat Nazir, Tony House, Tricia Culshaw, Shirley Mills (of Regional Office), Shirley Paszkowski, John Gunn, Maureen Jarvis, Linda Richards, Janet Moulder, David Turner, Kevin Waller, Andrew Gosling. Linda and Tony have each worked 30 years in local government. 

John's hobbies include running after girls in shorts, entering their details in little books, and whistling at them. Referee!

A 'computer person'. At parties Andrew describes himself as a musician with a daytime job. This avoids being asked to fix the home computer, and keeps the conversation going just that bit longer.