UNISON members have voted Yes to industrial action to defend pensions in the biggest trade union ballot ever held, by 245,358 votes to 70,253.

Commenting on the result, general secretary Dave Prentis said: "The decisive Yes vote in the ballot, reflects the deep concern that our members have over government ministers’ proposals for their pensions.

"Yesterday's statement in Parliament was a marked improvement on earlier proposals.

"But, it is important to understand that the statement has to be translated into offers in the scheme-specific talks. 

"We still have had no offer in those negotiations, where such an offer can legitimately be made.

"We support the TUC day of action on 30 November," added Mr Prentis, "but will be negotiating right up to then and beyond to get a fair deal for our members."

Senior lay officials of the union are meeting throughout this afternoon to discuss the latest government statement on pensions and to decide what action to take as a result of the strike ballot.

The union balloted members including nurses, teaching assistants, social workers, care assistants, paramedics, police staff, school dinner ladies, probation workers and cleaners.

The turn-out was 30% in local government, 25% in health and 48% among members covered by the Civil Service scheme.

In local government, the votes were: Yes 171,428, No 54,500 - 76% in favour. In health, the figures were: Yes 73,930, No 15,753 - 82% in favour. The civil service scheme ballot saw an 87% Yes vote. 

Seven separate ballots were held for the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the NHS Pension Scheme in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

To all Stewards in Leeds City Council, Schools, ALMOs and certain “Voluntary” organisations

Dear Steward,

You will be aware of Government proposals to attack our Pension Scheme – making us pay more, work longer, to get a reduced pension. National negotiations are taking place, but UNISON is committed to Joint Public Sector Trade Union Industrial Action before the end of the year.

The Branch is going to be running Stewards Briefings on the forthcoming Local Government Pension Scheme Dispute. Tony Pearson, UNISON Regional Organiser will deliver the briefings. Handouts will be available for use with your members too.

The briefings are taking place on Wednesday 7th September, Monday 12th September, and Tuesday 13th September 2011 all from 12.30pm – 1.30pm at the UNISON Branch Office, 160a Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9EN.  More dates may be available.

Please ring the branch office on (0113) 245 8442 or email us and get yourself booked onto one of the sessions. You are entitled to time off from work as it is joint business.  It is vitally important that you attend one of the sessions and that we build for a successful dispute as this will affect everybody including those earning less than £18,000 a year.

Pay 2012 - 13
Please find attached a circular on the 2012 – 2013 NJC Pay Claim.  This details the critical position we have reached on pay. Please pass the information on to your members. The Branch Service Conditions Committee has discussed the claim and decided the branch should indicate support, but argue for a Flat Rate claim and settlement. If you have any comments please contact Brian Mulvey, Branch Secretary before Wednesday 7 September.

In addition, if stewards are able to organise workplace meetings to discuss pensions or pay, branch officers and convenors will try to attend.

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(28/07/11) You should have received a letter or an email from your employer – Leeds City Council – serving you with 90 days notice of a variation to your employment contract. This relates to changes to the Managing Workforce Change procedures and is part of the Council’s response to the Governments massive cuts to Local Authority funding that requires Leeds City Council to reduce its workforce by about 3000 f.t.e. staff by 2014.

The changes, relating to the amount of time that displaced workers will spend in the
redeployment process before being made redundant and the length of any Pay Protection
period, were put out for ballot by the Council’s unions. UNISON members voted by a very
large majority to reject the proposals. The other unions – GMB, Unite and UCATT – voted to
accept the changes. This has meant that the Council and the unions cannot enter into a
Collective Agreement and agree to the changes being made.

The Council, in the absence of a unanimous decision by the unions, is therefore making the
changes, and is doing so by issuing 90 days notice (a legal requirement) that the changes
will be made with effect from 1st November 2011.

Leeds UNISON is seeking legal advice regarding the legality of these changes.

The branch will continue to work with the other unions and the employer to seek to deal with
the Government onslaught on public services to avoid our members being made compulsory
redundant. That is the challenge we face.

Please see here information about our campaign to defend Pensions.

• July 2011 Pensions Bulletin
• Busting the Pensions Myths
  

We will be able to protect ourselves from the threats to our jobs, pensions, pay and the services we provide if more workers are in the union, so try to recruit a non-union member to join UNISON - together we are stronger!

Brian Mulvey
Branch Secretary

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(12/07/11) This is a very exciting time to get involved with union learning. Leeds City Council has just signed a learning agreement with the joint trade unions.

This agreement states on the first page.

'We believe that the best public services in the city will be provided by a
confident, motivated and highly skilled workforce where every individual has
the opportunity to develop to their full potential'

Unison is a full partner in the scheme and shares this commitment to providing learning opportunities for our members. This gives us an excellent opportunity to support our members in accessing lifelong learning so that they can improve their quality of life as well as their skills for life and for work.

Glen Pickersgill and Ian Burton are Unison's Lifelong Learning Officers and we have a number of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs), myself included, scattered around the authority.

In time there will be a lead Unison ULR in each directorate. Until then Ian and I are sharing the lead role with Glen's support.

There is also a full time Union Learning Coordinator who is John Clark from GMB. ULRs will be provided with support in the form of regular meetings within Unison learning and the wider joint trade union forum.

We need more Union Learning Reps!

I was told in my ULR training that PCS, the civil service union, like to have a ULR for every 10 or 20 members. That may be a little ambitious to start with, but we can definitely aim for more than we have at the moment.

This is how you can help

It is not necessary for a ULR to be involved in Unison already - as long as they are a member. In fact it is a great way for us to get more members involved with Unison. It's a really positive and interesting role and the training is excellent and very fulfilling. The right to time off for ULR training is enshrined in law and has been agreed by Leeds City Council so it's really easy to get the time off for training too. It's a good role for someone who wants to get more involved with Unison but doesn't want the confrontation involved with being a workplace rep or steward.

So if you know of any Unison member who would like to become a ULR drop me an email.

As a steward you are also welcome to become a ULR - you just need to remember to keep the roles separate as they are completely different This is covered in the training so don't worry about it at this stage.

If you're interested in becoming a ULR please send me an email.

Finally if any of your members have learning needs please ask them to contact me by email and I will arrange for a ULR to meet them and try to get some training organised. All enquiries are in strictest confidence and most learning is free of charge.

Please share this with all your members.

Anne Robinson
Unison Learning Representative
Tel: 0113 3760179
anne.robinson@leeds.gov.uk

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The Ballot on the Council’s proposals relating to Workforce Change and Pay Protection has been completed. The “return rate” was 31.3%. The outcome was 85% voting NO and 14.5% voting YES.

The other three unions voted to accept the Council proposals.

Leeds UNISON will not therefore sign a Collective Agreement to make changes to Service Conditions. Leeds City Council have been informed. The Branch is committed to seek to ballot for strike action if the Council seeks to impose the changes to Service Conditions on our members.

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See the walking club page here.

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Leeds UNISON is running several training courses this year and there are currently places available for stewards. Legislation states that training must be undertaken to enable you to fulfil your role as a steward and you also need to undergo training to become a fully accredited UNISON steward. If you haven’t already attended the courses please do consider attending – they are free and we can apply for your paid time off.

Find out all the details here...

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