REGIONAL COUNCIL

The Regional Council is the policy making body of UNISON regionally and consists of delegates from all UNISON branches in the Greater London area. UCL UNISON Branch is entitled to 2 delegates who are Ms Wendy Biggin and Mr Oliver Thomas.

For report of AGM 2003 from the outgoing delegate Ms Stevie Russell click here

For report of Regional Council on 5 June 2003:-

Hackney UNISON Three:

One of the 3 persecuted UNISON officials has now been reinstated; Jon Page is at a disciplinary hearing today (June 4th), and the other official is on a lesser charge later this week.

London Weighting:

Local Government are intending to take extended action: 2 weeks in June, and 1 week at the end of June. The focus will be on action at schools. After that, further extended selective strike action is to take place. The Industrial Action Committee can authorise strike pay for such action, e.g. extended selective strike action.

There are legal issues re: taking indefinite industrial action - members would have to be balloted again on this matter.

LG Branches intend to maximise extended action in July (possibly starting 15th).Many Branches have already sent proposals for length of action and what dates are the optimum time to do this.LG Employees made an offer of £201 extra per year, but only for those on spinal column 10 or below (not sure how much that is). The offer was rejected as derisory.

Regional Secretary Report:

- It has been agreed that there is a need for more publicity on the LW campaign - nationally as well as within the region;
- Recruitment: London has a 3-4% higher turnover rate than anywhere else in the UK.the region has to recruit 16.5% to remain static; in fact we recruited 3.3% lower than this over the year.
- There has been a 12% membership increase in under 27’s - the highest in the UK. This may be due to LW campaign.
- There is money available to Branches who have recruitment/retention ideas for their Branch.
- It was agreed that there needs to be a LW campaign strategy - it should be mde a priority within the region.
- The region continues to support the FBU industrial dispute; 6 Branches are twinned with fire stations.
- Branch rules (ie those agreed locally) should be reviewed by regional council.
- East London Health Service Workers: Homerton have accepted an offer of £5 an hour minimum for staff on new contracts and an eventual complete harmonisation of staff on old and new contracts.They have increased membership from 60 -260 over the 2 year dispute.
- Mile End have had an offer of £5.17 minimum.
- Whipp’s X are holding out - further industrial action to take place. Picket lines have been very well attended. Regional Council is donating £1000 to the Whipp’s X Branch.There is also to be a national appeal to Branches.

Congestion Charge:

There are many complex issues:

i) There was no consultation with unions about the congestion charge and its affect on members
ii) Disabled members need exemptions
iii) Westminster Council reported that their Council have blamed the congestion charge on huge financial losses re: revenue from parking fines, etc. They have, along with Oxford St. Traders Assn, John Lewis and NCP, organised a scheme where they offer to pay people’s congestion charge if they park with NCP for the day. This means that those who can afford to shop all day don’t have to pay the congestion charge!

iv) It was reported that Government have cut down expenditre on Public Transport and are using congestion charge revenue to replace the money rather than (as promised) supplement it.

Mayoral Elections

Aslef has recently voted to support Ken Livingstone in the next Mayoral elections; this is in spite of their political affiliation to Labour. Aslef has been swiftly followed by RMT, FBU, with T&G and UNISON strong possibilities. At the previous mayoral election, NEC voted to support F. Dobson because it was deemed inconsistent to support someone standing against Labour. With the Aslef decision, this now seems to have created a precedent on the matter.

Respect Festival

There had been disquiet bout the event being held in the Dome; the mayor was approached oon the matter of an American businessman who has links with right-wing, anti union organizations in US - it was feared he may be part owner of Dome. Ken Livingstone confirmed he is not connected to Dome at present, although later on in the year (after Respect Festival), the US businessman wants to buy the Dome. Mr Livingston has stated the bid shall be strongly resisted. Respect Festival is on 17th July.

Motions
There was a motion to demand the reinstatement of Candy Udwin and Dave Carr and to have an inquiry into the whole procedure that took place - Candy and Dave were not permitted to attend their own disciplinary hearings! Motion supported.

Emergency Motion to support reinstatement of George Galloway in to Labour Party. George came and gave an excellent talk on the matter. Main points:

a) Labour Executive are meeting on Tuesday, and have not even approached George Galloway in their “investigation” into allegations against him. The next time the Labour Exec will be able to discuss the issue will be in october - 1 month after the Glasgow Elections where Mr Galloway was voted in as MP. Therefore Labour Exec must deal with it on Tuedsday. There is to be a lobby of the Labour HQ on Tuesday about this issue.
b) His campaign is being supported by Michael Foot and Glenda Jackson, amongst many others. He said it is a trade union issue; UNISON has the capability of making a difference in his campaign due to Political/Financial Affiliation to Labour.
c) Even the USA have accepted documents claiming Iraq bought large quantities of uranium from Niger are false (some incredible errors in document including mention of a region of Niger which hadn’t existed for 8 years!) . Tony Blair still stands by the documents…..
d) His suspension from Labour was due to comments made in 2 TV interviews, both on Middle Eastern TV. There were a number of attempts to sell the transcripts to newspapers - the Sun finally bought them.
e) George Galloway had information which meant he had predicted last September that war would break out on March 20th - he stated that Tony Blair DID agree to go to war last autumn when he was meeting with George Bush.

Motion supported unanimously - Regional Council to write a letter to Labour Exec.