GMB Winter 2013 Winter 2013 (4)

The magazine for GMB members Vision www.gmb.org.uk | Winter 2013 MiliTary MiGhT! Visit our new website: gmb-southern.org.uk GMB Gurkhas come out fighting 230,000 JoBS aT riSk GMB defends teaching assistants from Tory threat “i won a car with GMB! Could you be next?” See p17



In this issue… Paul Maloney GMB Southern regional secretary GMB is GMB fights to save Brighton Get GMB in your pocket with NHS services Page 25 the new mobile app Page 16 proud to Regional National defend our 4 Gove’s bad grade 9 Employer hostility members GMB members are outraged at Michael Anti-union hostility should be against the law In the last issue of Gove’s plans to sack teaching assistants Vision I dealt with the 12 A Living Wage government’s continued 6 Fighting for fighters GMB demands an extra £1 an hour attack on workers’ rights GMB battles for the rights of veteran through the introduction Gurkha soldiers 13 Paul Kenny says of a £1,200 fee for employment tribunals. The latest from your general secretary In this edition I unfortunately have to 7 Tribunal trouble announce the continued attack on the Protest over government plans to force 14 Wealth of the nation legal system that will again deny workers employees to pay for tribunals GMB reveals the UK’s economic and their families the full compensation performance by region they would normally receive as a result 8 Burger of! GMB hands McDonalds an ASBO for its 16 Get online with GMB! of an accident or injury. The way that personal injury claims extensive use of zero hours contracts Get the GMB app for your smartphone! are run and funded will be changed 25 Medical need 17 Win a car! under the banner of killing of the Fighting harsh hospital cutbacks in Croydon Switch to Direct Debit for your chance to supposed ‘compensation culture’. win a Toyota Aygo worth £9,000 Instead of being able to secure 26 Legal services compensation to rebuild their lives, Could you benefit from any of GMB’s 18 Eyes on the NHS millions of people who have been legal services? GMB is fighting for workers’ rights in the NHS injured at work or on the roads now face paying up to 25 per cent of any 27 On the lookout 20 Put Labour in power compensation they win to cover fees. GMB is looking after workers in Wilkinson Why you should vote Labour in 2015 I am pleased to be able to tell you that stores across the region this charge and fee will not apply to GMB 23 Worldwide solidarity members. Whatever our solicitors win 30 Community club How GMB’s International Solidarity Fund is will be paid out, in full, to members. Now GMB joins forces with Reading Town FC winning justice in Latin America there is a good reason for all workers to become members. GMB is proud to defend our members, be it through an employment tribunal, industrial Injury or industrial disease, without you having to GMB regional editor Michelle Gordon: 020 8397 8881 Produced by Future Plus, worry about the cost of your claim or Editorial director Stephen Pierce 30 Monmouth Street, how much will be deducted from your Editor Matt Robinson Bath BA1 2BW compensation. To get this legal cover Art editor Johnny Goddard you must be a GMB member at the time Contributors Victoria Ford, Ed Holden Advertising manager Steve Hulbert We are committed to only using of the accident/incident. Account managers David Parker, Lisa Dunham magazine paper which is derived So please tell your friends and from well managed, certified Production and procurement manager Matt Eglinton forestry and chlorine-free colleagues not to wait until tomorrow to manufacture. Future Publishing Production co-ordinator Tracy Nugent and its paper suppliers have join GMB because that accident may not been independently certified in Art directors Stuart Hobbs, Dermot Rushe accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). Director, Future Plus UK Jayne Caple wait, leaving you at the mercy of an Printed at St Ives Direct expensive legal profession. I would also like to remind members wishing to submit a motion to Congress, that they should contact their GMB Would you like to advertise in GMB Vision magazine? Branch before 31 January 2013. Please contact Steve Hulbert on 01225 442 244 (ex 5205) Accepting of advertising and inserts does not imply GMB endorsement of the product or services. Remember that GMB recommends all services and ofers should always be used to test the cost against other commercial companies. Members are advised to secure at least two quotes on all commercial transactions. www.gmb.org.uk 03

reGionAl UPdATe All the news from GMB 230,000 TA jobs at risk! GMB stands up for teaching assistants facing the sack housands of teaching assistants “Michael Gove is causing a huge amount of stress (TAs) face losing their jobs if and anguish among those who teach some of the education secretary Michael Gove most vulnerable children in our society. Instead of T gets his way. Plans unveiled earlier deriding them as a ‘mums’ army’ Gove should spend this year reveal he wants to sack 230,000 TAs, some times working with teaching assistants so he 120,000 of whom are GMB members. can see their professionalism and the positive GMB fiercely opposes these plans and, to send diference they make day in, day out. the government a clear message, GMB “GMB’s campaign has already secured thousands of members at the Labour Party Conference signatures in support of teaching assistants. The drive presented a Michael Gove lookalike with an F will be continuing over the coming months, obtaining grade for his assault on our classrooms. GMB is support for teaching assistants outside school gates the union for school support staf and hundreds and in town centres across the country.” of members flocked to Brighton to stand up for the teaching assistants. GeT involved Andy Prendergast, GMB senior organiser, said: “GMB’s campaign to promote the role of For more on our TAs campaign visit CLASS WAR teaching assistants began in June 2013. www.gmb-southern.org.uk GMB is fighting for Teaching assistants make a massive diference teaching assistants. to our schools and our children every day. iStock 04 www.gmb.org.uk

SIGN up foR the GMB eNeWSLetteR At www.gmb.org.uk reGionAl SMoKed oUT GMB battles health risk at Bexhill High GMB is fighting for the health of students and staf at Bexhill High in East Sussex due to smoke entering classrooms from the school’s chimney stacks. The school opened in 2010 and there has been a problem with the flues in the biomass boilers ever since. The chimneys are three metres below the building’s highest point so the smoke enters via the ventilation system and is afecting the wellbeing of students and staf at Bexhill High. Reports of illness vary from people feeling dizzy to staf being found to have high levels of carbon monoxide in their blood. One had pulmonary scarring on her lungs and a GMB member has been diagnosed with occupational asthma. The school was taken over by the Prospects Academies Trust in 2012. The group was made aware of this severe health and safety issue and they have taken several measures to resolve it. However, GMB believes it is not providing any long-term solutions to the problem. With an annual turnover of £76m, Prospects Group could bear the financial brunt of resolving the issue once and for all. Recently elected GMB health and safety rep Doug Skelley has increased GMB membership in the school and started a collective More SUPPorT For TAs grievance alongside other unions. leaving no doubt that GMB is the union for school support staf, GMB’s the NeeDS of the fLue campaign to support teaching assistants has engaged members across the Dangerous gases are being region. Earlier this year, members met in Woolwich to demonstrate against kept inside the school. Michael Gove’s plans to sack 230,000 TAs. Many people didn’t know about the threat to TAs and once they heard about it they were keen to sign the petition. As one passer-by with young children said: “This plan is madness. Teachers can’t run a classroom on their own. They need TAs to support those children that are struggling or are disruptive.” Which schools are signing GMB’s TA petition? Bexley Hook Lane Primary 319 Kent Halfway Houses Primary 223 Brighton & Hove West Hove Infants 216 Surrey Boxgrove Primary 176 Southwark Goodrich Primary 169 These schools got the most signatures. Can your school do better? www.gmb.org.uk 05

REGiOnal UPdatE all the news from GMB gurkhas come out fighting Gurkha GMB members make a stand against SERCO job cuts ore than 100 GMB members who voted in favour of industrial action. Fortunately the are former members of the Gurkha company came forward with an improved ofer at regiment staged a demonstration the last minute and after a meeting, the GMB M outside the Ministry of Defence members agreed to accept the ofer. GMB called of (MoD) in London. the strike with just a few days to go. However, GMB The demonstration, supported by their members expressed concerns over employment GMB branch (GMB Southern region’s conditions ofered to other staf working on security branch G36), was over the Contemporary Operating Environment Force actions of their employer, SERCO, (COEFOR) training and support contracts for MoD. which provides training for the GMB will continue to monitor these employment armed forces. SERCO was standards. GMB understands that SERCO employs proposing to cut up to 100 jobs other staf on zero hours from September 2013. This contacts when would have been in breach of a undertaking guarantee given to GMB in this vital work December 2012 following a training army FAIRNESS FIGHTER previous dispute. recruits and Gurkhas have fought for GMB balloted members this is not us and deserve security. working for SERCO and they acceptable. WatCh thE vidEO To see more on the Gurkhas check out www.gmb-southern.org.uk 06 www.gmb.org.uk 06 www.gmb.org.uk

FOLLOw US ON TwITTER @GMBSouthern REGiOnal UNFAIR DEAL We’ve GMB members protest increased fees for tribunals. got your back GMB wins the price of compensation for back injury justice a senior staf nurse who sufered a debilitating back injury because the newly-opened ward she was working on was not suitably equipped, has received compensation after GMB legal service brought her employers to account. Berkshire-based Glynis Orr, who GMB members stage central london worked for Heatherwood and Wexham protest over employment tribunal fees Park trust at Heatherwood hospital, has been a GMB member for more than 20 years. She was injured while working on MB members have shown their time for mass redundancies (over 100 people) a ward that lacked the proper equipment. outrage at new measures from 90 days to 45. She said: “As a nurse, if one of your designed to make wronged Andy Prendergast, GMB senior organiser, patients needs help you can’t just stand G employees pay to take their boss said: “The government has given a green light idly by. Within hours of opening, there to court. More than 100 protestors gathered to bad employers who are exploiting their were medically dependent patients on outside the employment tribunals ofice in staf. While GMB will pay the fees of all cases the ward even though we had no disabled Central London to coincide with the afecting its members, the charging of up to toilet facilities, safety rails or lifting aids. introduction of the government’s new £1,200 efectively means that many workers We were put in an impossible situation employment tribunal fees. will lose any chance they had to seek redress and were just told to ‘get on with it’. The fees were introduced if they are poorly treated. “I was injured when helping a for all employment With these fees in place, distressed patient use the toilet which tribunal applications “GMB will pay they will be denied justice had none of the proper safety provisions registered after 28 July the fees of all if they are discriminated in place. The elderly lady’s legs buckled 2013. Now, to register a against or if they are and I strained my back while trying to tribunal, an individual must cases afecting unfairly dismissed. prevent her from falling. claim at an employment “I had to leave a role I loved “It will become pay a registration fee of its members.” uneconomical to try to because of the injury and either £160 (for a level one recover underpayments, I will depend on pain claim such as an unlawful providing a huge incentive medication for the rest of deduction from wages or a failure to provide for businesses to up profits at their my life. It meant a great a written statement of terms and conditions) employees’ expense. This government needs deal to have the support or £250 (for a level two claim such as to understand that attacks on workers’ rights of GMB, who secured discrimination or unfair dismissal). This initial do nothing but give succour to the business compensation for fee is followed by a hearing fee of either £230 leaders who fund their parties. They do not the pain and (for level one claims) or £850 (for level two lead to job creation, they do not lead to a sufering I had to claims). There is no guarantee that the fee will stronger economy, they lead to exploitation go through. be refunded in the event of a successful claim. and insecurity.” They took my These fees make it more dificult for complaint employees to take their boss to task. seriously when Employment tribunals could now cost more COntaCt my employer than £1,000. The introduction of these fees is GMB didn’t.” the latest government measure to make life If you think you have an easier for bosses and businesses. The employment tribunal claim NOT SUPPORTED Glynis’ workplace lacked the Rob Macey government has already increased the workplace organiser. proper safety equipment. speak to your GMB qualifying period for employment rights from one year to two and reduced the consultation www.gmb.org.uk 07

reGionAl uPDAte All the news from GMB burger off! GMB gives Asbo to McDonald’s over contracts ast food mega-chain McDonald’s The McDonald’s website makes strong flexible wages are not much use to anyone has became the latest employer to claims about work conditions: “At McDonalds except McDonald’s.” receive a GMB ASBO. In September, UK, we pride ourselves on being a flexible Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich F GMB members joined Labour MP employer and for many of our employees East, added: “This is what joint union and Tom Watson to present a GMB ASBO to senior that’s why they have chosen us as their place Labour campaigning looks like in the future.” managers at the McDonald’s head ofice in of work. One of the ways we can ofer a Finchley. The ASBO was given in protest over flexible work schedule is through our zero Get involveD the firm ofering zero hours contracts to hours contracts.” almost 83,000 UK employees. Martin Smith, GMB national organiser, Find out how you can get Last month it was reported that 90 per cent commented: “We can’t rebuild our economy involved in GMB’s political of McDonald’s UK employees are on zero on McJobs. Few people can make ends meet campaigns at hours contracts. The reports indicate that the on a zero hours contract. Many McDonald’s www.gmb.org.uk chain is the largest zero hours employer in the staf have to rely on benefits to survive. Rent UK’s private sector, with 82,800 contracted payments aren’t flexible and neither are staf not guaranteed work or a stable income. energy bills or weekly shopping bills. These unDer PAr GMB takes a swing at £4,000 pay cut MB members employed as a year. In a letter to all Brighton councillors, greenkeepers at two golf courses GMB senior organiser Graham Palmer in Brighton have taken five days’ wrote: “This is either a very badly run G strike action over proposed business or the company put in a loss £4,000 pay cuts. Contractor, Mytime leading bid to gain access to bigger ON COURSE! Active, which took over the courses in contracts in the city… Our members and GMB members closed the golf 2010, claims cuts are essential despite the their families can neither aford this nor do courses in pay protest. fact that when the courses were run by the they feel they should pay for someone council they raked in £436,000 profit a year. else’s gamble.” and conditions it has not negotiated with GMB members are bafled that Mytime Since the company first informed the GMB. GMB members are prepared to take Active has reported losses of £500,000 staf of its intention to change their terms further action if it is needed. 8 www.gmb.org.uk

NATIONAl UPDATE MAG TO lIfE! BrING YOUr All the news from GMB Discover a world of extras when you point your smartphone at the pages of this GMB magazine. To get started, download the Layar app from get.layar.com 1 Download the Layar app for iPhone and Android devices. 2 Point your smartphone at a WHOLE page of the mag where you see this logo. 3 Watch as it comes to life on your screen. Interfering with workers’ union rights should be a SEE YOU IN COURT! GMB activists protest outside Swansea Crown Court. criminal ofence, says GMB he TUC Congress has backed a corporations are GMB call for laws to make it a unafraid to take criminal ofence for hostile this kind of action.” T employers to interfere with the civil Martin’s comments rights of workers who seek the support of a come at a time when trade union when they have problems at work. unions are unhappy that companies who Martin Smith, GMB national organiser, said: Rex Features/iStock “So hostile are employers like workers have still have blacklisted Amazon, Next and Sports Direct not been held that union organisation is accountable. GMB driven underground and union members are forced to adopt wants a Leveson- ArE YOU ON ThE Martin added: “Oppressive activity at work BlACklIsT? the tactics of the French style inquiry into the practice. Resistance or a human rights campaign under a that denies our members their basic human Contact Phil Read, GMB totalitarian regime. The rights should be against the law. GMB calls on blacklisting Liaison Oficer blacklisting of 3,214 the next Labour government to make it a on 07840 897 997 or construction workers criminal ofence for an employer to deny [email protected] across the country workers their basic right to organise shows that themselves and seek the support of a trade union when they have problems at work.” GET ON THE CASE! We need a Leveson-style inquiry into blacklisting. TURN OVER FOR MORE ON EMPLOYER HOSTILITY www.gmb.org.uk 09

national UPDatE all the news from GMB is your boss this Daily Mirror columnist Paul Routledge on how GMB is fighting employer hostility very employee is free to join a right to organise and trade union – and not get the sack seek the support of a just for doing so. trade union when they E That’s the theory. The reality on have problems. the shopfloor can be very diferent. As too The 2013 TUC Congress has endorsed this many workers are finding, employer hostility strategy after GMB national organiser Martin is spreading throughout industry. Smith urged that the next Labour Two hundred years after the Tolpuddle government must do more than repeal old Martyrs were transported to Australia for anti-union laws. They must deliver protection daring to organise themselves against from bully bosses who strike fear into starving wages, history is repeating itself. workers who join a union. Employers are targetting workers who seek to bring the benefits of trade unionism GMB in aMazon to their place of work. They might not be clapped in leg-irons and shipped of to This corporate bullying is widespread. Take Botany Bay, but they do face discrimination Amazon, the hugely successful online and even dismissal. shopping firm. It takes billions of pounds in It takes a brave man or women to stand up sales every year – on which they pay as little for our rights tax as possible. supposedly “Left to their GMB is committed to guaranteed by law. organising and brave men and women own devices representing Thankfully, there are workpeople at willing to take up the employers spy Amazon. Two thirds of in every workplace the company’s 15,000 shouldn’t be left to fight and they lie.” workers in this country challenge. But they are agency workers. alone. They need legal And the agency isn’t protection from employers like Next, Amazon even a UK operation. It’s a Dutch agency, so and Sports Direct who actively prevent they’re not protected by even the inadequate employees turning to unions when they have regulations applying to agencies here. They problems in the workplace. need a union, but they live in fear of what Working people have a theoretical right might happen if they dare let Amazon know under international law to free association they have joined and are organising support and combination with whoever they choose. to resist a bullying management. Being a But hostile employers deny this right by trade unionist at Amazon is like being in an intimidating or victimising anyone who turns underground movement, like the French to a union for help. It’s time such intimidation wartime resistance. was outlawed by making it a criminal ofence It’s as bad as that. I can’t even tell you interfere with workers exercising their civil where these brave GMB members work 10 www.gmb.org.uk

BRinG thEsE PaGEs to lifE! national because they might be identified and their traditional industries like coal jobs put in jeopardy. and steel, employment has Or take Next, another shopping chain that shifted to retail, distribution, makes handsome profits. Earlier this year, information technology, call GMB members employed in their stores centres and similar workplaces. fought and won a campaign to stop the They almost always lack company from imposing a cut in hours representation, because worked for all workers to less than twelve and business bosses are hostile a half hours a week. The aim of this and resistant to unions. management trick was to avoid the company They don’t want workers to paying the employer’s share of National exercise their legal rights, iStock x 3 Insurance contributions, saving money and meagre as they are. They hate the very idea of collective diminishing workers’ rights. bargaining. They want to hire What WE nEED and fire without restraint. But NEXT UP that’s where trade unionism Next workers vote for That battle was won, but at a cost. There is a is most needed, and where it the right to have a union. constant anxiety that Next will exact revenge must go, to help those who and find pretexts to force them out of need it most. into workplaces to deal work because they forced the The demand is there. When GMB asked with problems they face at work – if need be employer to back down Asda distribution depot workers across the with sanctions against recalcitrant companies – and that some of them UK what they want in recognition ballots an who refuse to toe the line. have no protection from overwhelming majority per cent voted in It can be done. A Labour government in unfair dismissal. favour. Even workers who didn’t want to join Wales has taken action to halt the scourge of Since April this year, if themselves voted for the right for everyone blacklisting by threatening to withhold you want to challenge to have representation. contracts from firms proven to be engaged in your employer for This basic civil right should be enshrined in this obscene practise. Nothing persuades the unfairly sacking you, you a new legal framework, within which private sector faster than a possible ban on have to have worked for workpeople can feel confident of getting bidding for lucrative public contracts. the company for two together for the common good without The blacklisting scandal shows that left to years – double the time looking over their shoulder for the boss their own devices employers spy and they lie. under Labour. You have bearing down on them with a P45. What the companies say and what the no rights if you’ve been companies do are two diferent things. there a year and 364 laBoUR sUPPoRt For any worker to be represented by a trade days. How many workers union in their workplace is a civil right that must in retail are given jobs that That’s why GMB took the issue of employer be protected to the highest level, with new last as long as that? hostility and the coalition attack on trade legislation backed by imprisonment and What’s more, if you go to an union rights to the Labour conference. unlimited fines for anyone who interferes with it. industrial tribunal, you’ll be Delegates backed a call for the party For the Labour Party, these should be bread required to pay as much as leadership to convene “as a matter of and butter manifesto commitments right now. £1,200 – 200 hours working at urgency” a commission on employment And if it can be done, it should be done. As the national minimum wage - rights. The purpose of this body will not just Maria Ludkin, GMB’s legal oficer, told the 2013 up front before they will hear be to redress new anti-trade union policies Labour Conference : “We live in a country your case. That’s the price of brought in by this government, but to give an with one of the most flexible Labour markets justice under the ConDem active right for workers to be able to turn to in Europe. But at the same time some of the government. unions when they have problems at work. weakest employment rights in the western It must be nerve- This is vital to winning the war for job world. But this government is not content wracking to try to organise security. As of now, firms like Amazon can just with that. They have mounted a sustained under such conditions. slam the door in the face of anyone seeking to attack on the rights of working people, with a But it shouldn’t be like organise a union presence. They can – and do systematic casualisation of labour, and that. The shadow of fear – put a Chinese wall around the workplace, comprehensive destruction of legal aid. must be lifted from the sealing of their employees from help. “This is about millions of working people exercise of this basic A Labour government must change that, having the protection from a Labour freedom to turn to a legislating to give employees total freedom to government that they will never get from the union for support turn to unions when they need help. Nobody Tories or the Liberal Democrats. No more when you have a is forced to join a union. The closed shop was prevarication – but protection for the workers. problem at work. ended years ago. Instead, we have closed “After all, how much more protection do With the minds – on the other side. employers need from working people?” demise of Ed Miliband has shown a willingness to take Hear, hear! Ed Miliband has shown he on the big battalions in the energy industry. is willing to take on the might of the energy He’s ready to force firms to employ barons with a gas and electricity price INTIMIDATED AT WORK? apprentices. He should bring the same freeze. Now, he should listen to the voices GMB is tackling bosses who courage to the issue of employment and of ordinary workers who demand the right victimise union members. trade union membership rights, compelling to join and organise without fear of employers to enable workers to bring unions employer intimidation. www.gmb.org.uk 11

nationaL Move to uPDate WWW.GMB.orG.uk Direct all the news from GMB DeBit £1 an hour pay rise to achieve Living Which councils pay Wage for local government workers a Living Wage? MB is seeking a minimum pay All 32 councils in Scotland are currently paying increase of £1 an hour for local the Living Wage or will be within a year. • Ashfield • Barking and council workers in England, Wales Brian Strutton, GMB national secretary for Dagenham • Barnsley G and Northern Ireland to raise their public services, said: “One and a half million • Bassetlaw • Blackpool pay level to a Living Wage hourly rate. GMB council workers have seen their living • Birmingham • Braintree believe the same £1 an hour increase should standards cut by 18 per cent and 400,000 of • Brent • Brighton and Hove also apply to all pay points above the bottom their colleagues have lost their jobs. I don’t • Bristol • Bromsgrove rate as well. Local council workers in Scotland believe any section of the economy has taken • Burnley, • Caerphilly are currently considering an ofer for a Living such an austerity hit as local authority staf. • Calderdale • Camden Wage of £7.58 an hour from April 2014. Street cleaners, school dinner staf, social • Cambridge • Cardif • Carlisle 200,000 GMB members are covered by workers, gravediggers, classroom assistants • Cherwell • Chorley these agreements. and all the other unsung heroes serving their It is a scandal that 500,000 local local communities deserve a decent pay rise. • City of London • Coventry government workers are paid below the GMB’s claim for £1 an hour is not a king’s • Crawley • Croydon current Living Wage of £7.45 (£8.55 in London) ransom but it will go some way towards • Dartford • Deal • Ealing an hour. This rate will increase in November. restoring the real pay cuts that council staf • Enfield • Exeter • Gedling Politicians from all parties have recently called have endured. Politicians have been right to • Gloucester • Greenwich for action to deal with low pay and are call for action on low pay to end the hardship • Haringey • Harlow • Harrow encouraging individual local authorities to pay facing those on poverty wages and boost • Hastings • Hessle Town a Living Wage. demand in the economy. Low pay and poverty • Hounslow • Hyndburn 85 councils in England and Wales are pay are endemic in local government • Ipswich • Islington now paying or are with too many members • North Kesteven • Lambeth committed to paying now reliant on tax • Lancaster • Leicester a Living Wage. We credits and pay • Lewisham • Malvern Hills demand • Newham • Newcastle under day loans.” • Mansfield • Manchester • Melton Mowbray • Merton • Newark and Sherwood An extrA Lyme • Newcastle upon Tyne • Newport • Norwich • Nottingham • Oldham • Oxford • Plymouth • Preston • Redcar and Cleveland • Rossendale • Salford • Sandwell • Scarborough • Shefield • Slough • South Gloucestershire • South Hams • Southwark • Stroud • Surrey • Swindon • Swansea • Tamworth • Thurrock • Tower Hamlets • South Tyneside • Walsall • Winchester • Wirral • Worcester An hour to begin paying a Living Wage. • Wolverhampton • Wyre Forest • York • All 32 councils in Scotland now pay or are soon iStock 12 www.gmb.org.uk

SIGN uP FOR THE GMB eNEWSLETTER AT www.gmb.org.uk reGionaL PauL kenny says a word from your GMB general secretary the determination to fight blacklisting is among our finest achievements he recent startling conspired to interfere with and destroy the enough to stop this all happening again. revelations that the police right of working people to organise. New tough laws to protect the rights of and other state controlled What has also shocked many is the workers trying to organise a union in their bodies have been found to extent of the blacklisting: lawyers, workplace or in their community must t have provided information to journalists, peace campaigners, have protection from discrimination and the anti trade union blacklisting company environmentalists and the latest victim to victimisation. The work done in exposing “The Consulting Association” may have be uncovered – the comedian and this evil conspiracy will all count for come as a shock to MPs, journalists and campaigner for freedom Mark Thomas. nothing if the law continues to fail ordinary some others in the world. But for many of The whole story of this disgraceful people exercising their civil rights. us this was just confirmation of what we episode would take more column inches always knew but could never prove. than I am allowed but thousands of DeLetinG the List This company, now defunct, was funded ordinary men and women were blacklisted and controlled by a large number of and 2,768 still don’t know they are on the In the coming months, GMB will continue private sector companies whose intent list because the government department to campaign for a public inquiry into the was to discriminate and thereby victimise responsible for dealing with this has failed collusion between the state and certain trade union members whose only crime to contact them! employers which not only allowed this was to ask about health and safety or This in itself raises huge questions about blacklisting to exist but actually attend meetings. the role government has played in seeking encouraged and supported it. Many victims of this evil intrusion into to cover this up. GMB has done many things of which we the most basic of our civil rights were The so-called Information commission can be proud during our history but I denied employment and sufered huge seems to be anything but when it comes to believe the determination shown to fight damage to their personal lives and that of giving people information relating to and expose blacklisting will rank among their families. behaviour from employers and the state. our finest achievements. In recent days, eight of the largest The right of people to exercise their civil the truth WiLL out companies involved in organising, funding freedoms to organise, demonstrate or just and controlling this blacklisting operation question those who govern us at work or GMB has been fighting to uncover the truth have admitted their involvement and in society is such a basic right that it for years and now, working with the ofered an apology and a compensation cannot be given away by apathy. Blacklist Support Group and others, we are scheme for afected victims. On page 9 of this magazine you will find beginning to see the layers of lies and GMB’s position has been that tough details of GMB’s campaign and how to find corruption peeled back to expose the measures must be taken with these out if you or anyone you know is on the list rotten core of how employers and state companies, though these may be far from and may be liable for compensation. www.gmb.org.uk 13

nAtIonAl UPDAtE All the news from GMB Have you won the Regional lotteRy? GMB map reveals economic activity across the UK and Ireland Northern Ireland 86% Border, Midland and Western 85% POWER HOUSES London’s financial districts host the wealth of the nation. Southern and Eastern 145% key map (opposite) sums up economic success story, how much economic activity there are areas below the there is per resident in all the 39 average. The latest figures A sub regions of the UK and are for 2010 but there has Gross domestic Ireland where GMB members live. The result been little or no recovery product (GDP) in an for each area is shown as a percentage of since then. Few will realise that area is made up of all the average across all 27 countries in the the economies of the North East economic activity including European Union (EU). of Scotland, Southern and Eastern farming and fishing, mining, oil and gas It will come as no surprise that inner Ireland and Cheshire or those areas of the extraction, manufacturing, construction, London has the highest level of economic M4 corridor are stronger than Essex or Kent. utilities, transport and commercial and output per resident at nearly three times In fact in 26 of the 39 sub regions in the public services. that of the European average. UK and Ireland, regional gross domestic GDP is a key measure of an area’s Rex Features x 2 It will be a surprise that for the South East product per resident is below the average economic development and is often used as of England, far from all of it being an per resident in the EU. an indicator of living standards. 14 www.gmb.org.uk www.gmb.org.uk

nAtIonAl SIGN UP fOR tHE GMB eNEWSlEttER At www.gmb.org.ukSIGN UP fOR tHE GMB eNEWSlEttER At www.gmb.org.uk UP fOR tHE GMB eNEWSlEttER At www.gmb.org.uk SIGN nAtIonAl UPDAtE yoUr GMB ProfIlE www.GMB.orG.UK North Highlands and Islands Eastern 87% Scotland 162% Eastern Scotland “This GMB map 109% should sound a clarion call for INDUStRIAl HEARt Fossil fuel extraction props investment.” up regional economies. The map confirms that Mrs Thatcher’s South Western Northumberland Scotland and Tyne and Wear legacy to the old industrial heartlands in 109% 88% the UK is that they have fallen far behind the EU average in terms of output and living standards. Tess Valley and Durham In West Wales and the Valleys gross Cumbria 77% domestic product per resident is the 94% lowest of the 39 areas in these islands West Yorkshire at 70 per cent of the EU average. North The next ten lowest are: Cornwall Lancashire Yorkshire East Yorkshire and and Isles of Scilly (72 per cent), 93% Northern Lincolnshire Tees Valley and Durham (77 Greater Manchester per cent), Lincolnshire (78 per 83% 81% Merseyside 95% South Yorkshire cent), Merseyside, East Yorkshire and Northern 96% Leicestershire, Rutland Lincolnshire, South 81% 81% and Northamptonshire Yorkshire and Shropshire Lincolnshire Cheshire Derbyshire 78% Bedfordshire and and Stafordshire (all on 81 118% and Notts Hertfordshire per cent), Lancashire (83 92% per cent), Border, Midland Shropshire and and Western in Ireland (85 Stafordshire per cent) and Northern Ireland West Midlands 81% (86 per cent). Herefordshire, 95% 104% East Anglia This GMB map should sound a Worcestershire 100% clarion call for investment that and Warwickshire 94% East will bring jobs and prosperity to West Wales Wales the old industrial heartlands and the and The 100% 113% rural areas that desperately need it. Valleys Berkshire, Essex 70% Bucks and 89% Politicians must heed that call with Oxfordshire regional policies. The devolution of Gloucestershire, 115% 143% economic powers to local and regional Wiltshire and level is essential. GMB will lead the calls Bristol/Bath Kent for action. Dorset and 109% 114% 90% New jobs and investment has to be Cornwall and Somerset the top priority for national and Isles of Scilly Devon 92% local governments and the EU. The 87% Inner London public and private sectors must 72% 328% co-operate to achieve this growth Hampshire and Surrey, East and Outer London and development as neither can Isle of Wight West Sussex 95% do it on their own. www.gmb.org.uk 15

natIonal uPDate all the news from GMB Get online with GMB www.gmb.org.uk GMB’s website lets you manage your membership and keep up to date f you’re not registered online, it’s easy to sign up. Go to www.gmb.org.uk and click GMB ‘member login’. You’ll just I need your GMB membership number. Visit www. gmb.org.uk • Update your GMB profile • Switch to Direct Debit • Access the latest news • Download exclusive extras • Get support for your workplace Get the GMB App Download it now to: Get the latest from GMB wherever you are with the new GMB app. Since the app was launched a few • Update your GMB profile months ago, thousands of members have • Get the latest news from GMB downloaded it to their smartphones. It’s available to • Switch to Direct Debit download now from www.gmb.org.uk/app or • Find your nearest GMB ofice from iTunes and Google Play for Android. • Find your nearest GMB post holder • Become a workplace organiser case stuDy Gavin Palmer “I’m really glad I have it. It’s so convenient and easy to use – it puts all your membership information at your fingertips. I talk to a lot of members and I always recommend the GMB app.” Gavin Palmer is a GMB workplace organiser at Barking and Daggenham Local Authority. Representing members across the borough, he doens’t always have access to a computer, so getting the GMB app on his smartphone has proved invaluable. Site UpdAte! Fresh tools online! are you looking to up-skill or organise your workplace? We’re updating the GMB@Work resources online so GMB post holders will be able to download everything they need. From training information to health and safety regulations, you’re just a couple of clicks away from making your workplace stronger and safer. Go to www.gmb.org.uk/gmb-at-work 16 www.gmb.org.uk