briefing#1   January 2010   Feb 6 - the fightback starts here!  

UNISON branches are faced with cuts in funding, exacerbated in local government by artificial restraints on council tax levels. This is likely to get worse in future years. UNISON wants to start the fightback now – with a twin-tracked campaign at Scottish and branch level engaging user groups and communities to lead successful opposition to cuts. It starts with a rally at Scottish Council on Feb 6 and will continue into an important march and rally in mid-March. This briefing is to tell you about the rally, but please also start to build support for the demonstration.  Public Works is UNISON’s Scottish campaign against the storm whipped up by big business, some politicians and the media, to cut public services to pay for the massive loans pumped in to prop up irresponsible private sector bankers. Public Works is part of the UK campaign -a million voices for change - and has been busy challenging these attacks.  February 6 – the day of the next Scottish Council - is a key date in this campaign. UNISON is planning a major rally against the cuts and we need branches to make the day a success.  What you should do before Feb 6  A rally with General Secretary, Dave Prentis will take place at 12.00 noon on Saturday, in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. We need you to be there and to bring along:  -Your activists – stewards and reps who are not necessarily Scottish Council delegates - Branch Banners – to take part in a photo opportunity and to link with your local cuts reports -Any user or community groups who you are working with to fight cuts in your authority. We are sending out a Cuts Impact Assessment. We need you and your Regional Organiser to fill these in jointly, and return to Fiona Montgomery by February the 1st – This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .We need this information to use in the rally to show how cuts affect jobs and services. The form is designed to be updated and will be used to monitor changing situations.   Local action  Branches need to plan their campaigns against the cuts at local level. Advice on running campaigns is contained in the Stop the Cuts toolkit circulated at an earlier Local Government Group. This will soon be on the website at unison-scotland.org.uk/publicworks. A course on running campaigns is available to be run for individual branches as a one or two day course. Contact Chris Bartter This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to arrange. This course will also be run as a  Scottish weekend course planned for 23 – 25 April – but these dates may be brought forward.  Campaigns should be part of the overall Public Works and million voices campaign and general materials for these campaigns are available from the Communications section in London and the P&I team in Scotland. Branches should be:  . collecting and monitoring the position on cuts in their own authority, . planning and carrying out campaigning activities against cuts locally, . contacting other trade unions, user and community groups to brief them on cuts planned, and to build alliances, . lobbying local politicians to challenge both specific cuts, outsourcing and other plans, and to build support for UNISON’s alternative budget (see unison.org.uk/ million/resources/Alternative_Budget.pdf ), . making sure that UNISONScotland is kept informed of the impact in your authority Use the upcoming General Election period – question your candidates, and get members to do so too! Some suggested questions will be circulated.   
 

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Fighting to Protect Jobs                                                                COMMUNICATION 2 

Dear Member

 As you are aware, Stirling Council staff and services are being cut in line with the Diagnostic Pathway Stagegate1 report. Although the Council have said that they hope to carry out this wholesale restructure with minimal compulsory redundancies, there have been no guarantees that this will be the case Work is on-going on the 4 ‘Work Streams’ identified in our previous communication: Organisational Review (Management & Administration Structures); Procurement; Social Care; Property and Facilities Management.Although it does not provide full details of what is planned, you should view The Source under ‘Diagnostic Pathway’ for further information on these ‘Work Streams’. 

Management Review

A report was submitted to Council to consider the deletion of 66 managerial posts on the 2^nd of April 2009 and the Elected Members took the decision to delete these posts from the organisation. Management stated that this decision was taken after individual Heads of Service carried out detailed impact assessments of all the managerial posts in the pool for potential redundancy.UNISON have agreement from the ORCG (Organisational Review Consultation Group“ what a mouthful”) that anyone who has been told that their post is being deleted can meet with their Head of Service and their Unison steward to clarify the reasoning behind the decision.  UNISON’s view is that members should take this opportunity to question Heads of Service about the rational behind these decisions.The information in regard to expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy are now with Services in an attempt to match these with the posts that are being deleted.Management have also identified that it may not be possible to have only a 4 level structure in all areas, so it is our understanding that in some areas there may be 5 or possibly 6 tiers of management.We are still unsure how the structure will work in practice below Team Manager level and, as management continue to tell us that it is still ‘a work in progress’, it appears that they still don’t seem to know any of the answers themselves.It would appear that there will be no decision taken on the structure for Heads of Service and above until the new Chief Executive is in place at the beginning of May. UNISON believes this to be an unacceptable situation.

 Administration & Clerical

The Admin & Clerical review is also currently on-going. It would appear that Management have decided that there will be 9 Admin/Clerical pools across the entire council. Although they have not as yet decided on a definitive structure for the make up of these pools, the current proposals suggest that each pool would contain approximately 30 staff and would be managed by a Team Leader.  It is understood that the 9 admin team leaders posts will be advertised internally in the near future.Management have again indicated that they hope to carry out this part of the restructure without compulsory redundancies, but again without any guarantees. 

Social Care Review

At this stage we have only seen the management structure as available on The Source. We do not as yet have any detail on which posts are “at risk” through workstream 3 but we are actively seeking this information.As the Council has set up a SCRUTINY PANEL ON THE CARE OF OLDER PEOPLE, this stage of the review has been delayed. As soon as we have more information on this area, we will send out a further communication. 

Procurement Review

Very few details have been shared in relation to this area.  We hope to receive information about the changes to the procurement process at the next meeting of the ORCG. Again, as soon as we have more information on this area, we will send out a further communication. 

Finally

It is still the view of the Branch that this flat 4-tier structure will be unworkable in practice.  Management obviously agree with this as they themselves have admitted that in some cases, 4 tiers will not be sufficient.Although we have been informed of many management decisions, often after the fact, there has been very little in the way of constructive consultation. The bulk of the information shared with UNISON is readily available on the source.  

UNISON have a number of FOI’s (freedom of Information requests) in about the cost of this proposed restructure and some of this information has been given to your stewards. We have more information to come and this will be forward to stewards when available.