UNISON is a fucking joke - ALMOs and strike ballots

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#1
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lucy82
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Mar 18 2005 19:55
UNISON is a fucking joke - ALMOs and strike ballots

UNISON "forgot" or chose not to ballot the arms length management organisation i work for because although we ex-city council employees are still members of the original pension scheme and were tuped over when the ALMO were created, because we work for an ALMO now, we weren't balloted and we have been told by UNISON and management, we cannot strike.

This is disgusting and myself and other paid up members of UNISON who work for the ALMO and who will be affected by the proposed changes to pensions are seriously angry with UNISON about it. I am thinking of cancelling my subs to UNISON. After all, if we are not treated as full members of the union then why should they take our money?

I'd be happy to ensure maximum support for the action from colleagues in the workplace but UNISON have effectively ruled that one out. How crap is that when city council employees and ALMO employees work together in some buildings that will be picketed. Both the union and the management are telling us we cannot strike and so effectively, union members are being told by UNISON to cross picket lines.

#2
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lucy82
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Mar 18 2005 20:53

sorry. its just that i am really angry about it. i'm not saying don't support the strike or anything like that. but given the level of disilliusonment with UNISON after the last pay settlement I don't think they have done themselves any favours at all. apparently the decision not to include ALMO employees was taken at national level. we didn't even know we'd been excluded until someone said whats happening with the pension strike ballot.

we've not even had an apology. not that it would make any difference. i just think its disgusting.

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Rob Ray
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Mar 18 2005 22:18

That's absolutely ridiculous.

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Rob Ray
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Mar 18 2005 22:44

NB// Unison have reported that Prescott is appointing a 'negotiating group' to find an alternative solution. Does it seem likely that a) he'll try and persuade the union leadership to cut a deal behind members backs, or b) he'll prevaricate until after the election and then take the gloves off?

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lucy82
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Mar 19 2005 06:17

as of yesterday the strike was still on but it looks like it will be called off now. However, like Saii says, it depends what the purpose is of the 'negotiating group'. i'm tempted to think its a delaying tactic until after the elections.

in terms of how it affects me, it doesn't really because i've only been working for the city-council and then the almo for three years. its people with longer service who are most affected. ironically one of the proposed changes would be possibly beneficial to us, something to do with tupeing the pension over again if we are taken over by a private company as the outcome of the stock appraisal currently being undertaken.

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Steve
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Mar 19 2005 10:24

Seems like UNISON have got even worse since I was a shop steward with them in the 1990s. I remember at the time there was a campaign around pay parity between Residentail Social Workers across ther country coupled with a local campaign about grading. UNISON stalled and stalled and in Manchester we didn't have a local ballot because they claimed they didn't have an up-to-date list of members! This after myself and another shop steward spent months organising and collecting information.

I've always believed in workplace organisation and have been a member of a trade union of one sort or another ever since left school. Having experienced their decline it pains me to say it but they are now next to useless. I'm even questioning my current membership of the T&G.

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lucy82
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Mar 19 2005 23:47

had this long discussion in london after todays demo with unison guy (sorry i'm shit at remembering names).

and now ive just got back to manchester and i'm very tired but basically it seems like UNISON cocked up administratively and they know it and having cocked up, they could only take the course of action they took because otherwise it would compromise the legality of the strike if it took place. but the course of action (because they fucked up) was excluding unballoted members from the strike. so they should at least apologise to their members who are at the receiving end of what is to UNISON, an administrative error.

but what it is to members of UNISON, a message which says you aren't a full union member cause you've been tuped over from a city council to an almo (a sensitive enough issue anyway without your union cocking it up for you). does anyone involved with the adminstration of UNISON at national level have any idea of how scared we feel having been "restructured" twice already and more massive restructuring to come following the stock appraisal?

apologies mean nothing maybe but i think an apology from national level which goes out to all unballoted members and an explaination of why this has happened would help the situation at local level (if UNISON wishes to keep its members in Salford anyway). its not enough to say that people should stay with a union because its a union. personally, i think it is important that UNISON treats its members with respect and i will continue to raise this issue here and elsewhere until UNISON does that.

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OldGit
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Mar 20 2005 00:52

You've got three options:

1. Ring in sick

2. Take a day off and say you daren't cross the picket line. If they ask were you threatened? Say no, but you're the nervous type.

3. Take a day off and tell them you DON'T cross picket lines. What are they going to do, sack you for gross misconduct? Take a verbal warning and feel like a martyr for the cause of working class emancipation.

And don't leave your shitty union.The anarcho-syndicalists have been working on them since the days of Guy Bowman and the ISEL. Any day now they're going to turn into revolutionary unions.

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Steve
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Mar 20 2005 00:59
OldGit wrote:
And don't leave your shitty union.The anarcho-syndicalists have been working on them since the days of Guy Bowman and the ISEL. Any day now they're going to turn into revolutionary unions.

No we haven't and no they're not.

#10
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dash-of-lime
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Mar 20 2005 13:51

Lucy- the same thing happened to us!

We're in the T+G where I work and we've got the Local Government pension scheme but don't work directly for the council. We didn't get balloted either. Don't know if this is a cock up or what.

#11
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lucy82
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Mar 21 2005 06:17

i've since found out it is no simple cock up. Bolton ALMO workers were not balloted by UNISON either. i don't know how many other almos were not balloted by UNISON. also as well as the T & G not balloting as dash-of-lime says, GMB decided there was not enough grass roots interest to ballot its members.

wtf is going on? can we all have our money back please?

#12
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Vaneigemappreci...
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Mar 21 2005 12:38

Apparently an IWW member was speaking to a unison boss at the demo and the unison boss says 'capitalists have a right to make a profit', someone write that one down!

#13
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Steve
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Mar 21 2005 14:31

The stikes been called off with the Government offering fresh talks. Time will tell if this is just a ploy to put things off until after the election.

#14
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Vaneigemappreci...
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Mar 21 2005 16:52

What? the civil service and teacher strike schechuled for this wednesday? Theyve called it off?

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lucy82
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Mar 21 2005 17:04

yes. we have entered a period of negotiation because the government compromised which has been welcomed by UNISON who my shop steward told me today were more than a little worried about the embarrassment should the strike go ahead, minus its ALMO members.

#16
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Vaneigemappreci...
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Mar 21 2005 17:06

Fucking joking? So the PCS arent striking either, no one is? All the pickets and rallies have been organised for wednesday, come to think of it theres been fuck all up in our work place even mentioning the strike, did they ever intend for it to go ahead?

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lucy82
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Mar 21 2005 17:19

the rally organised on wednesday in salford is still happening but it'll be toothless now more or less, i reckon.

the whole strike is off. thats what i've heard anyway. whether they intended it to go ahead i don't know. its getting near election time, strange games get played. but then i'm a cynic.

don't intend to let this ALMO business rest though..

#18
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Vaneigemappreci...
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Mar 21 2005 17:28

yeah your right, the tuc says its off, all off, the pcs post quite a few things on the board here, never any mention of a strike amongst all those adverts forB&Q and tescos discounts, spinless lackey bastards, just looks like i'll have to skive wednesday instead.

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Caiman del Barrio
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Mar 21 2005 18:33
lucy82 wrote:
had this long discussion in london after todays demo with unison guy (sorry i'm shit at remembering names).

His name was Simon. My ears are still ringing as a result of this conversation.

Sounds pretty fuckin shite though.

#20
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lucy82
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Mar 21 2005 18:47

i liked simon and its not his fault UNISON are political idiots. i am infamously really shit at remembering names.

I also have an unfortunate habit of arguing passionately when somethings important to me. wink Sorry alan, you were in the crossfire (but got your own back with the CCTV to some degree)

and yeah it is pretty fuckin shite.

#21
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Steven.
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Apr 21 2011 10:53

Just a minor bump on this, because I happen to find this via a Google search by chance, but I ran into a libcom poster during our 2008 pay strike on the strike demonstration who worked for an ALMO, and Unison didn't ballot them either (he took the day off anyway).

#22
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Spikymike
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Apr 21 2011 12:52

This kind of divide and rule has been going on in Manchester UNISON for a decade now.

As it happens some of the 'privatised' housing companies and the ALMO there got transferred workers a better deal initially than retained council staff, but now workers in both sectors are being hammered, and more easily, precisely because of the different employers and the unions acceptance of this division even when the issues affecting workers are the same.

I'd be interersted in understanding more of the detail of this particular dispute as although retired now I still have some connections with colleagues in both Manchester and Salford.

By the way 'lucy82' have you considered writing something up about all this for the online MULE magazine.

#23
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Steven.
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Apr 21 2011 13:13

Mike: this thread was six years old, I just bumped it having seen it by chance

#24
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Spikymike
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Apr 21 2011 15:52

Thanks Steven and sorry for that - saw the other more up-to-date thread and foolishly thought they were connected. I should pay more attention.