Message to Branch Members 24 February 2011

Yesterday's lobby of the Council

UNISON members yesterday participated in a peaceful and orderly occupation of the Council chamber which made an effective statement of the level of local opposition to the cuts being imposed upon the borough by the Tory-led Coalition Government. Here are some links to media reports about the event;

Coverage in Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/23/protesters-occupy-lambeth-hall-cuts

BBC Coverage http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12564264

Standard Coverage http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23926171-angry-clashes-force-lambeth-to-pass-budget-cuts-in-private.do

And from the Save Our Services website http://lambethsaveourservices.org/2011/02/24/hundreds-protest-council-budget-and-storm-the-council-chamber/

Today's announcement of proposed job losses

Today the Council has written to UNISON in purported compliance with Section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 to notify us of job losses arising from the budget set last night by the Council (in closed session). At this stage we have been notified of the likely loss of 637 full time equivalent jobs (approximately one fifth of the Council workforce) and that 84 staff who were offered severance or early retirement following the recent "trawl" have accepted their offers and will be leaving shortly. (The 84 leaving will reduce by 84 the number of redundancies which are being threatened).

The provisional distribution of these (full time equivalent) job losses by Council Directorate is as follows;
ACS 104
CYPS 260
F&R 64
HRE 149
OCE 60

These figures should be taken with a pinch of salt. They are approximate figures and neither these figures nor the letter to which they are attached meet, in UNISON's opinion, the statutory requirements for the provision of information to trade unions in a redundancy situation.

What next?

UNISON will be calling a Branch Meeting for all our members in the near future. Watch for details (which I hope to be in a position to confirm before the weekend). At the Branch Meeting we will have the most up to date information about what is happening in the Council.

UNISON will respond to the Council tomorrow challenging the adequacy of the redundancy notification which we have received. We will point out that the 90 day consultation period cannot commence until adequate information is provided.

UNISON will demand a guarantee of "no compulsory redundancies". Although the Government is responsible for savage cuts to Council funding - and must remain the main focus of our campaign against these cuts - we believe that the Council could utilise unallocated reserves to mitigate the impact of the cuts and could reschedule repayments into the pension fund to release additional funds in the current year. I attach, as a reminder, the detailed proposals which we put to the Council Leader making these arguments, which we will continue to make as we argue to defend jobs and services.

I hope that you will make every effort to attend the important Branch Meeting when it is convened, at which we will discuss every aspect of our campaign to save jobs and services.

I will recommend that we fight to defend jobs and services, job by job. We must be prepared to negotiate, to take legal action as we can, to lobby politicians and campaign in public and to make the sacrifice of industrial action. If the Council do not provide the guarantee which we will request tomorrow, I will recommend to the Branch Meeting that we declare a dispute and consider balloting for industrial action if necessary.

Two things you can do tomorrow to help strengthen UNISON's defence of jobs and services are, first, to recruit a non-member to our trade union. Together we are strong and the more workers are in the union the more we can achieve. Secondly, if you do not already have a shop steward in your section consider whether you would be willing to help. Contact myself or our Assistant Branch Secretaries Ruth Cashman (RCashman@lambeth.gov.uk) or Dan Jeffery (DJeffery@lambethliving.org.uk) to find out more.

Please also attend the TUC National Demonstration against the cuts on Saturday 26 March - and put that date in your diary now! (for further details see http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?theme=alltogetherlanding ).The source of these cuts is the economic policy of the Coalition Government and we need to show massive opposition to force a U-turn from the Government. Come to the demonstration and bring your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.

Locally the Save Our Services meetings will continue on the first and third Thursday of each month at 6.30pm at the Vida Walsh Centre. All UNISON members are very welcome.

Pensions

As well as attacking our jobs, the Government is threatening our pensions and our pension funds - and trying to make us pay more just for working in the public sector. I attach the first edition of UNISON's new Campaign News bulletin which sets out the various attacks which we face upon the value of our pensions. A change in the basis of uprating our pensions from 1 April will reduce the lifetime value of our pensions by a massive 15%. Proposals to increase pension contributions by an average 3% of our salary will mean a 3% pay cut at a time when we face a national pay freeze - and the £900 Million extra which the Government want to raise from members of the Local Government Pension Scheme will not go into our pension scheme but will be siphoned off by the Treasury to reduce the public sector deficit that was created by bailing out the bankers who are once again rewarding themselves with lavish bonuses.

Please take the time to read the attached Campaign News. Our pensions are important because they represent a promise that was made to us when we came to work in public service. Past generations fought for decent pensions for public servants and we owe it to future public service workers to defend what those who came before us fought to establish. Your pension is also a very important asset - it is your deferred pay and your guarantee of some dignity in old age.

Pensions are also important because they are an issue that impact upon many millions of workers - and therefore if we can mobilise effective opposition to what the Tories are doing to our pensions we will stand the best chance of inflicting a defeat upon the Government and turning the tide of attacks upon our jobs and services. Our Branch Committee has agreed to put a proposal to UNISON National Conference that there should be coordinated national action across all public service trade unions to defeat the Government's attack upon our pensions. For further information about UNISON's national campaign to defend our pensions visit http://www.unison.org.uk/pensions/index.asp.