Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

 

Playgrounds Protest Part 2

Another joyous & noisy protest against withdrawing funding from Leicester's adventure playgrounds is taking place in Town Hall Square. 

 

CSCS Ballot

Support the NEC recommendation to oppose cuts to redundancy pay by voting yes. 

It's no coincidence that the list of office closures is due out in January. 

Send a message by registering your vote. 

 

Playgrounds Protest

A sizeable, noisy protest to try & save Leicester's adventure playgrounds which are facing a halving in their funding. The protest has the support of the Trades Council & Leicestershire Against Cuts. PCS DWP Leicestershire Branch is affiliated to both. 

 

Leicester Pride Parade

Well we all got drenched at Leicester Pride but it was a good turnout with lots of support from the general public. I carried the Trades Council banner to a soggy Vicky Park. LGBT issues are still trade union issues.  

NHS Issues

Leicester & District Trades Union Council (L&DTUC) were campaigning to retain the Glenfield heart unit & a properly funded & publically owned and run NHS. 

 

Save Glenfield Heart Unit

I'm out campaigning with Leicestershire Againt Cuts (LAC) at the clock tower. 

 

Save the Vaughan Centre

Leicester University are trying to close the Vaughan Centre, an adult education centre founded to give working people an education. It still does this. It's really well attended.

  

Education March

The NUT representing schools and the UCU representing universities are on strike today. The whole education system from pre-school through all the age groups up to and including university education is under attack. It's up to all of us to defend it.  

Jo Cox Vigil

Members of the branch attended the vigil for Jo Cox MP at the clock tower in Leicester. It seems she was murdered by a far right terrorist. PCS will continue to fight against racism & fascism & will defend our members & the wider labour movement as far as we are able. An injury to one is an injury to all. 

 

Homophobic Terrorist Attack in Orlando

I just managed to catch the very end of the Orlando vigil in Leicester. There were several hundred there half an hour before. Rainbow flags were at half mast on the town hall and the cathedral. 

There was still a healthy mix of ages, genders, ethnicities, faiths and sexual orientations when I got there. Leicester united against hate in solidarity with LGBT people everywhere.

Standing up for equalities and opposing discrimination is a trade union issue, not just in the workplace but wherever it happens in the world. We either encourage fairness, respect and tolerance or we let hatred and bigotry flourish. I know which side I choose. 

 

Pay 2016

If you are AA to HEO you should have your ballot paper. 

PCS STRONGLY recommends a YES vote. You can, of course, vote however you choose. 

However you vote please make sure that you do vote. Post you ballot paper today. 

If you have not received your ballot paper please contact your rep ASAP. 

 

Trades Council Conference 4

More PCS reps at the conference. Annette Wright from Greater Manchester in support of the Welfare Charter which is PCS and Leicester Trades Council policy. 

 

Trades Council Conference 3

Another motion to support the PCS BIS dispute about moving Northern Powerhouse jobs from Sheffield to London. This was moved by Maion Lloyd, President of PCS BIS Group.  

Trades Council Conference 2

An Emergency Motion to support the PCS National Museum of Wales strike was moved by Katrine Williams, PCS DWP Vice President and seconded by Clara Paillard, PCS NEC member for the culture sector.  

 

Trades Council Conference

I'm representing Leicester & District Trades Union Council at the Trades Council Conference in Sheffield. The conference is chaired by Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.  

PCS Conference Thursday Morning

It's goodbye to Brighton from us but first we have a packed agenda to get through.  

Firstly we discussed the other big contentious issue of National Conference, affiliation to TU Momentum. 

The motion was lost. 

We voted to oppose military intervention in Syria & support migrants & refugees. 

We agreed to step up our campaigning on green issues. 

We agreed to campaign to make pension contributions fairer for Classic scheme members, to campaign on workplace stress and to oppose performance management policies.

We agreed to fully support the junior doctors in their dispute. 

We voted to try & stop privatisation of current services in devolved governments and opposed forced academisation of state schools (supported by Tony Church)

 

We agreed to campaign against cuts, closures & privatisation, to support neurodiverse members, to use the legal judgement on check off in DWP to continue our campaign and to oppose bullying. 

That's it for this year. 

PCS Conference Wednesday afternoon

It's one of the two big debates this afternoon. 

We voted to carry out a review of our political work rather than vote to affiliate to the Labour Party. 

We also voted to review our finances. 

We agreed that any changes because of the strategic review would be subject to agreement of conference, that differences in Welsh & Scottish parliaments are taken into account, that the make up of groups is reviewed, that electronic voting for NEC is introduced, that branch structures are reviewed, that conference is reviewed and relaunch our organisation for HEO & above (the PMA). 

Conference is over for the day so I've just got time for an okey. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 3

We agreed to continue to campaign against benefit sanctions and welfae reforms. 

We agreed to campaign to improve equalities in employment policies and in PCS. 

And now it's time for lunch. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 2

Our second guest speaker is John McDonnell, the Shadow Cancellor. 

 

PCS Conference Wednesday Morning 1

Our delegation are concentrating hard.  

We agreed to put the facts about the EU Referendum but not campaign to leave or remain. 

We agreed to develop a mental health strategy, to better support members who have suffered domestic abuse, to have a mechanism to challenge a decision to not support an ET case, to produce material early enough to get it out to members and to raise trans awareness.

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 4

We returned to debating motions. 

We agreed to oppose the Trade Union Act. 

We endorsed the organising strategy, agreed to start implementing the conclusions of the strategic review and to improve access to the PCS membership computer system.

That ends today's business. Back to the hotel. 

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 3

Our speaker is Jeremy Corbyn!

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 2

We debated motions. 

 

We agreed to oppose office closures but to consider timings of any ballot against closures or compulsory redundancies. With the help of Tony Church. 

We agreed campaigns to break the 1% pay cap & for national pay, against reductions in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme and against privatisation of Land Registry. 

PCS Conference Tuesday Afternoon 1

 

We are ready to go. 

We've had really inspiring speeches from Janice Godrich, Mark Serwotka and Hannah Lawson, Chair of Museums of Wales branch who are on all-out strike. 

PCS Conference Late Tuesday Morning

We now have the guillotine section where we pick up motions that we didn't have time to hear earlier in the conference. 

We called for UC calls to be free, opposition to local variations of attendance management policies, for disability trigger points to not be increased in the review period and for complex case advisors not to advise on medical issues. 

We paid tribute to longstanding GEC member & Group Assistant Secretary Dave Richards (NOT our Dave Richards) who died recently. 

DWP Conference closed. 

I'll be back for National Conference after lunch. 

 

PCS Conference Tuesday Morning

We supported AOs in Jobcentres & will fight compulsory redundancies, argue to remove staff names from letters, changes to WCDM and to campaign against increases in MELs. 

We carried our branch motion, moved by Alan Groves, which calls for a review of the grading of the CMG caseworker role. 

 

We adopted a strategy to protect members where sites close or move as a result of the end of the PRIME contract or People & Locations Programme. 

We agreed to campaign for better pay equality, publicise equality data, improve guidance for equality act transfers, end discrimination against neurodiverse members and improve assistive software. 

PCS Conference Day 2

It's dawned a nice day again today. We took a sensible decision on the way ahead for pay & I'm optimistic for today. 

There's a quick dash through the leafleters & paper sellers & we are ready to go. 

It's the end of DWP conference this morning and the start of National conference this afternoon. 

 

PCS Conference Monday Late Afternoon.

We supported a staffing campaign, a grading review, safeguards for staff in benefit & UC service centres and to measure call quality by outcomes rather than call recording.

We agreed to negotiate a co-location framework, improve safe levels of CCOs, get better support for workplace stress and an end to hot desking.

We called for a stop to FDA poaching our manager members. 

The conference day was closed by our own Bash Chilwan moving the DWP Group accounts. 

 

We'll be back tomorrow. 

PCS Conference DWP Pay Debate

This is the most important debate of the DWP part of conference week. The debate was long, passionate & involved. 

Conference voted to recommend acceptance of the Employee Deal. 

 

Alan Groves won it for us. 

Conference Monday Morning

A busy first morning of DWP issues. 

Our own Noel Corry has been appointed as a teller. 

We have opposed sanctions & supported members who use their discretion, opposed the third party deductions of up to 40% of UC as it's too high & opposed discrimination in the appraisal system against older workers. 

We voted to ask for the appraisal system to be scrapped, supported consistent conditions of service across all of DWP, agreed guidelines to transfer HMRC staff to DWP and encouraging members to complete the survey with safeguards as it is useful to PCS. 

We called for compliance with deadlines for HR decision making and introducing a QAF for HR decision making.

We called for awareness of bad attendance management (AM) practices and to publicise ET wins, guidance on when to refer AM decisions.

We also agreed to campaign against privatising Access To Work.

We had an inspiring speech from Mark Serwotka & we're now on lunch. 

 

Our reps take our conference responsibilities very seriously. 

PCS Conference 2016

The sun is shining in Brighton as we assemble for this year's conference. This year I propose to report on conference session by session. There will be updates at lunchtime and after conference ends. There may also be extra posts if anything particularly crucial or interesting happens. 

Follow #pcsadc on Twitter for more detailed nonsense.

 

Conscientious Objectors Memorial

Leicester now has a memorial to those that refused to fight and kill in WW1. It is on Peace Walk. 

Whatever your views, I think it is right that we honour those who took a stand for peace. Whether you believe it is right or wrong to have taken part in the various wars that this country has fought, the aim is surely lasting peace. 

  

Midlands Trades Council Conference

I'm in Derby with delegates from all over the East and West Midlands. Key note speakers include Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT. 

 

Pay Meetings

Please look out for your pay meeting. All members get an hour of paid time to attend. Here's Bash in full flow. 

 

May Day 2

The march has arrived for speeches & a rally.  

May Day

The Red Leicester Choir are warming people up prior to the May Day March.  

International Workers Memorial Day

Leicester's event is organised by Leicester & District Trades Union Council. The event was chaired by me and Martin Foreman spoke. The event closed with a song and 9 balloons being released to commemorate the 9 people who have died in work related accidents in the East Midlands in the last year. 

Remember the dead - fight for the living. 

 

Support The Junior Doctors

A meeting to support junior doctors fighting the imposition of contracts took place at the clock tower today.

The meeting was organised by Leicestershire Against Cuts (LAC) who are supported by the branch and Leicester & District Trades Union Council (L&DTUC).

There were a number of branch activists there including Noel and me.

NUT Dispute

Not content with introducing a Trade Union Bill to a country that already has one of the most restrictive TU laws in Western Europe, the government tried to seek an injunction against the NUT taking strike action. The government lost.

They don't seem to understand anyone wanting to take action for something other than money.

Our members understand that providing a good service is beneficial to both staff & the people who use our service alike.

DEFEND OUR SIXTH FORM COLLEGES & SUPPORT THE NUT.

In spite of the cold weather & most members going to a strike rally in London there were still pickets at my old sixth form when I went past this morning. It's Wyggy Boys' (now colloquially known as QE) for those of you who are interested.

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Branch AGM

That's another AGM successfully completed. Full details will follow in the weekly e-mails.


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