You are invited to the Annual General Meeting of Leeds UNISON. To encourage attendance the AGM will be held over four meetings and members can attend whichever is the most convenient, please make every effort to attend. Members can only vote at one of these meetings.

TUESDAY 15th MARCH 2011, 12.30 p.m. LEEDS ART GALLERY, Henry Moore Room, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AA
WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH,12.30 p.m. Belle Isle WMC, Belle Isle Road, Leeds LS10 3PE
TUESDAY 22 MARCH 4.30 p.m. Hough Top Court, Hough Top, Bramley Leeds LS13 4QP
THURSDAY 24 MARCH 5.30 p.m. UNISON Branch Office, 160a Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9EN

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Across the region people are coming together to oppose the unfair cuts to public services. Check out these two events.

• Northern Towns Against Cuts (Saturday 12th Feb 2011)
• Bradford People's Coalition Against the Cuts (Friday 11th February 2011)

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On 26 March 2011, thousands of people will join the TUC march in London, to tell the government that savage spending cuts are unnecessary and unfair. We don't believe the coalition when they say we are all in this together – their public service cuts will hit the most vulnerable the hardest. Members and their family go free - book your place and leave a £5 deposit (refunded on the coach). Book you places by calling the Branch on 0113 245 8442.

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UNISON calls for public campaign to save crisis centre

The number of suicides in Leeds will soar if the pioneering mental health service -Leeds Crisis Centre - is closed down because of budget cuts.

Public services union UNISON says that, on average, some 2,000 desperate people every year are helped to combat serious mental health crises. Many of those would have killed themselves without the expert help of the Crisis Centre workers who warn that the suicide rates in Leeds will soar if the service is axed.

Now UNISON is calling for an open meeting with users of the service and their families to campaign to protect the life-saving service from the Government’s local authority spending cuts. At the same time UNISON fears that two of the city’s three mental health day care centres could also be closed in cuts to mental health services.

Leading mental health professionals are warning that closure of the service would inevitably lead to an increase in the number of suicides in Leeds and are vigorously backing UNISON’s campaign to save the service. The 17 mental health specialists who run Leeds Crisis Centre – which was established in 1989 and is based in Headingley – helps people recover from a crisis quickly and prevents them committing suicide or serious self-harm. It also prevents development of long-term mental health problems. After the intervention of the crisis centre, long –term support is provided by staff in the day centres.

Public anger at the closure plan is being expressed in hundreds of internet blogs and in the local media. UNISON Regional Organiser Tony Pearson, said: “ For more than twenty years, the Leeds Crisis Centre has saved thousands of lives and spared thousands of families from the tragedy of a suicide among their closest relatives.

“ If this service closes down, some of the most desperate and vulnerable people in our communities will not have the support they need to survive a crisis. What can be more important than a front-line service that keeps people alive and gives them a future in terms of their relationships with their families and their ability get back into employment?

“I have spoken to our members who provide these services and they are in no doubt that more people will die if they are cut. Apart from saving lives, these services also have huge economic benefits for Leeds, helping people to become well enough to return to employment and lead a full and productive life.

“I have been told that one service user has already attempted suicide since becoming aware of the threat to the crisis centre because it is their only lifeline. There is no duplication of mental health services in Leeds. The Crisis Centre and the community mental health teams complement each other’s work but they have different roles to play in helping people cope with mental health problems.

“We are building a campaign to save lives and prevent mental health becoming a Cinderella service at a time when increasing economic pressures on people will undoubtedly cause a rise in mental health problems and make the service even more vital to the general health and well-being of the whole city.”

(Press release by UNISON Yorkshire & Humberside Region)

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Leeds Rally Against the Cuts:
Saturday 11 Dec @ 12 noon: Victoria Gardens in front of City Art Gallery

The Tory-LibDem coalition wants to cut billions in public spending, with day centres for the elderly, NHS beds, teachers, youth centres all up for the chop, and another 1.5 million unemployed. Millionaire Tory ministers say spending has to be cut since “we” have been living beyond our means. They say the cuts are fair.

They’re lying. Board room pay and bank bonuses have shot up, while workers have had to tighten our belts, students face huge education fees and millions are on the dole. The gap between rich and poor is the biggest for decades. The ConDem government wants to make us pay for the crisis and bank bailout. Let’s follow the students’ example and unite in mass protests to stop the cuts agenda in its tracks.

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On 20th October, the ConDem government will announce the next round of cuts, including an extra £4bn off housing benefits and the specifics of the 25-40% that almost all government departments are facing. Public and private sector workers alike face hundreds of thousands of job cuts and we will all suffer from cuts to schools, hospitals and the privatisation of Royal Mail. If we’re going to stop the cuts then we need to get organised, with trade unions, youth, unemployed workers, communities and Labour standing together against theausterity measures.

Rally on Wed 20th October: Find out where the Tory Chancellor’s axe has fallen in the comprehensive review and take a stand against austerity 5pm, City Square, Leeds.

Protest on Sat 23rd October: Sheffield Town Hall, Saturday 23rd October, 12.30 – 15.00. UNISON coach departing 11.30 a.m. free to UNISON members. Contact branch office to book your place Tel 0113 2458442

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Council workers, Voluntary Sector workers, College workers are in the front line. The Conservative / Liberal Democrat Coalition Government Budget - delivered a couple of weeks ago - was every bit as bad as had been forecast.

UNISON immediately accused the Government of declaring war on public services and public service workers with the most draconian budget in decades. Local Government workers and other public sector workers are going to be the innocent victims of job-cuts and pay freezes.

Freezing public sector pay for two years, when inflation is running at 5.1% and VAT is going up, will mean a real cut in living standards for millions of ordinary workers and their families – already struggling to pay rising bills, fuel, travelling and housing expenses.

For us in Local Government this comes on top of this year’s pay freeze. It means that in two years time we will have suffered a pay cut of 15% in real terms. The 25% cut in Government departmental public spending will decimate public services, and will without doubt hit “front-line services”. The budget will do nothing to restore confidence or kick-start the recovery.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said “They haven’t even bothered to consider any other option but slash and burn. What of the bankers who caused the recession and the super-rich who evade tax? They must be breathing a sigh of relief that they got away so lightly. The bank tax levy is a poor substitute for a serious ‘Robin Hood’ tax on financial transactions. It is a missed opportunity to raise £30bn which would have made a significant dent in the country’s deficit”.

Throwing tens of thousands of public sector workers on the dole will cost billions in lost tax revenue as well as piling billions on to the benefits’ bill. The local economy – shops, businesses – will go to the wall as spending dries up.

The millionaires in the Con-Dem cabinet have ensured that the vital services that the poor, the sick and the vulnerable rely on are in the firing line. There is no compassion in this coalition.

• Freezing Council Tax is a useless gesture, saving people pennies but cutting tens of millions from Council budgets, threatening jobs, losing services and undermining the local economy.
• Raising VAT affects the poor most as they spend a higher proportion of their meagre incomes on goods and services. It is a regressive tax.
• Adding the estimated 500,000 public sector jobs to the dole between now and 2015 will cost around £10 billion in lost tax and increased benefit payments.

This Con-Dem Government has no democratic legitimacy for this draconian budget. The Country did not vote for it. It is an outrage. The Trade Unions have a duty and a responsibility to fight back to protect our members and the millions of ordinary people who depend on our services.

On the pay freeze, national, indeed international, joint union action across the whole of the public sector is needed. In Yorkshire and Humberside, UNISON has called an emergency meeting of its Regional Council in July. Leeds Branch delegates will attend and will push for the organisation of a national co-ordinated fight-back in the autumn months.

On jobs, here in Leeds we have a glimmer of hope in that we have got rid of the dreadful Con-Dem coalition Council, just as we were getting the Con-Dem Government. We are seeking urgent talks with the new leader of the Labour Council to seek to work with the Council to avoid compulsory redundancies. But here in Leeds, as everywhere, we must be prepared to resist any cuts, big or small. We must recruit, build the union, organise stewards and prepare for a long hard “war”.

For those who argue that the pay freeze and job cuts are inevitable and “we have no alternative”, have a look at what they could have done.

UNISON’s Save Our Services alternative budget:

• £4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000.
• £10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporate and ‘non-domiciled’ residents
• £14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used disproportionately to subsidise incomes over £100,000
• £30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on UK financial institutions – the Robin Hood Tax
• At least £1.5bn could be raised this year by bringing back the windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses
• £4bn could be saved this year by cancelling Trident; the project could cost as much as £100bn
• £1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, as has been achieved by high performing Councils
• £5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings. This only exaggerates housing shortages and harms neighbourhoods
• £2.8bn could be saved every year by ending the central government use of private consultants who bring little discernable benefit
• £3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total £76.9bn

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Following legal advice from our solicitors, our Regional Official Tony Pearson has issued the advice contained in the letter below.

Please circulate a copy of this document and information to your members especially those who have worked or will work on a Bank Holiday Tuesday this year. This issue is still the subject of discussions with the Council and an outcome from a test case at Tribunal. It is important members continue to notify the Council that they are dissatisfied with the unilateral variation to their contracts and the advice allows members to this. The claim for overtime should be submitted even if members feel it will be rejected. It is the act of making the claim that needs to take place and this is why it is important to keep a copy of the claim submitted. The claim form will need to be submitted on each Bank Holiday Tuesday a member works this year until the dispute is resolved with the Council. Should you require further copies of this form, please contact the branch office.

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This document is a national stewards briefing document on this years pay claim. The employers side have offered no pay increase in this years negotiations. In effect this means that the current publicity about public sector pay being frozen after the election is already a fact for workers in Local Government. Please circulate and discuss this document with your members.

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Members may have heard about DECATS (Delivering Efficient Corporate and Transactional Services), which is a project to look at a fundamental change to Council Processes with a view to making “efficiencies”. There has been a lot of discussion amongst Unison Stewards and at Branch level because there are particular concerns about the DECATS programme. This primarily focuses around the appointment of the private sector accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to be involved in the project. PwC have famously said that if they can’t make significant “savings” (read cuts), they will waive their fee. They are obviously not going to go without their fee and therefore they have already decided on the outcome without even looking at a single process. It seems as though, from a PwC perspective, the cuts are coming whether justified by efficiency or not. The DECATS information itself makes this clear when it says:

'Salami-slicing' cuts won’t now deliver
UNISON has cooperated with literally hundreds of reviews and reorganisations of council services over many decades but this time it is different. The appointment of a private sector consultant to oversee the process is a sinister development.

Many members have already been asked for information to feed into the review and UNISON has been asked frequently for advice about this. The branch has decided that it is not in members interest to cooperate with the DECATS project whilst ever it is being driven by private sector consultants whose fees are based on delivering cuts. Therefore, if members are asked to participate in the project or provide information they should immediately seek advice from their steward. Information should not be provided until a meeting has been held with those seeking the information and appropriate union representation.

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