A Day On The Front-Line

Yesterday, I had my day all planned. Branch Officers Group in the morning and an afternoon at the fortnightly corporate trade union consultation meeting.

Then events intervened.

First there was a crisis at the Priory Rooms where management are holding dismissal appeal hearings for staff losing pay from the removal of allowances in the new 'Martini' contract. They have erected little booths in the meeting rooms at the Priory so that 8 - 10 dismisal appeal hearings can be held simultaneously. Most of the staff are UNISON members and they all need a UNISON representative. Up until recently we have been able to cope but the number pushed through by management have increased and we were short-handed.

So we cancelled Branch Officers Group and I went to help.

This is the third time our members have been through these one-to-one meetings, first a consultation on the new contract proposals, then a dismissal (and re-engagement) hearing and now an appeal against dismissal. The people we represent are in a heartbreaking situation. One person I represented was losing £3,800 out of around £16,000. She had children and a mortgage. Another is feeling forced to go for voluntary redundancy. He's lost the same, and another £80 per month because of loss of essential car use allowance.

It is always good just to be there for people. I hope we can make the process a bit more tolerable. And I hope our members know that we understand they are being treated like they just don't matter. Three times our members have gone through explaining just how devastating these pay cuts are. And three times, the council has just ploughed on regardless. Still we were there.

I could see just how deeply upset our UNISON reps are, who have been doing this day after day, sometimes for weeks at a time. I can only marvel at how dedicated they are and how caring they are. Without them, our members would have suffered so much more. But this takes a huge toll on our UNISON reps.

Then in the afternoon, I was covering for a colleague who has finally gone down with the bug she's been fighting off for weeks. I went to a staff briefing and UNISON members meeting for members working in the Older People's Access Service, which handles all calls and contacts for adult services,  providing advice, assessment and support to meet care needs. Management is consulting on a decision already made to transfer them to be employed by Capita on 12 April 2012. There will also be a move of 8 or so miles from Perry Barr to the Capita call centre at Fort Dunlop.

Members are understandably worried about whether their council salaries, terms and conditions will be preserved by Capita. And what will happen to their pensions if the Government gets its way to end the 'Fair Deal' under which privatising firms like Capita have to have 'admitted status' to the LGPS. And what guarantees are there that Capita will not suddenly announce a re-location to some remote part of the country where new regionalised pay rates are lower.

These and many other issues will have to be examined in the next three months of consultation. But what really matters is that the OPAS workforce stands together, and bargains together, with the assistance of the union and the branch. The best route to a reasonably secure future is to have a high union membership, a number of active stewards, and members who clearly show they are working together and become a force that commands respect.

If I was moving into a private employer like Capita, I'd want to be in an organised workplace.

This is just a small snap shot of what our UNISON branch and section officers and convenors are doing every day. Every day is a day on the front line.