Build real lay control and local organisation, not power-play at the top

With the division, and what looks like organising stagnation, in UNISON’s lay national executive (NEC) following the election of a majority running under the Time for Real Change (TFRC) ticket, it is a good time to look at what exactly lay control is, its history and how that works in partnership with the full-time structures. (see also UNISONActive blog)

It certainly wasn’t intended to centre on paying for various legal opinions to try to justify TFRC attempts to meddle with National Conference rule decisions. There may be legal loopholes but there’s also the spirit of what the supreme lay Conference intended – and Conference is the place to address that.

Do Holyrood’s claims about a National Care Service add up?

COVID-19 exposed just how undervalued the adult care workforce is. Demoralised workers are leaving in droves. The recruitment crisis is so bad that the Integrated Joint Board (IJB) responsible for social care in Edinburgh has taken the unprecedented step of warning service users they might have to rely on family and friends for support. Other areas have issued similar warnings. First published in the Morning Star 2 Nov 2021 https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/s/do-holyroods-claims-about-national-care-service-add

Action to bring dignity to the workforce and those who rely on it is therefore long overdue. That makes some aspects of the plans for a National Care Service (NCS) in Scotland very tempting.

The view from Gorgie - Raith Rovers

For the Raith Rovers v Hearts match programme 30 April 2021

The danger of quoting figures, as I did in the programme for 26 January when Hearts edged a 0-4 win against 10-man Rovers, is that they soon go out of date.

The 60 players I said played for both Hearts and Rovers have since been enhanced by Rovers’ shrewd acquisition of Dario Zanatta, currently playing for the ‘Honest Men’ (and ‘bonnie lassies’ to be accurate to the Burns origin of the Ayr nickname). Not to mention Christophe Berra which, unfortunately, I have.

Hearts recall of Canadian Zanatta during his loan spell at the San Starko in 2017/2018 was controversial with some saying it affected Rovers’ promotion battle with Ayr United – well, with current league placings, what goes around…

It's harder than you think to count months back from December

One thing I’ve learned from a few hospitalisations over the last year is that it is harder than you think to count the months backwards from December.

I could see nursing staff getting worried as I hesitated around February 2020 but that was just me having a flashback to when pubs were open. As an explanation, it seemed to work and – along with my refusal to believe that Boris Johnson was prime minister – they deemed me to be semi-compos mentis.

The other thing I learned was that no matter how many failed tries any staff member has to insert a cannula, there is always a genius on the ward who can be summoned to do it first time.

But the major lesson was that nurses appear to have no workload management system whatsoever and are constantly run off their feet. 

Ubuntu and the power of being kind

Today (16 March) is World Social Work Day. Its theme is Ubuntu, which Nelson Mandela explained as: “The profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others.” Desmond Tutu defined it simply as: “My humanity is inextricably bound up in yours.” (First published in Morning Star 16 March 2021)

One of my social work bosses, though never mentioning Ubuntu, encapsulated the humanity aspect in one word. Amidst the restorative practice he championed, genuinely involving children and families in decisions in real life, not just in policies, he conceded that social workers must sometimes take action that overrides that to protect a child.  

His view, however, was that, no matter what we had to do, there was no excuse for not being ‘kind’. 

Do the Tories really have it in for council staff? (rhetorical).

Edinburgh’s Evening News runs a story today that Tory councillor Susan Webber backed the public sector pay freeze (as did her party) but took an even more punitive lunge by saying of public service workers on WhatsApp: “I was thinking of a vote-winning policy called salary sacrifice where they only get 80 per cent and have to struggle like the others on furlough. Then they might want this sorry state to get resolved faster.” https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/edinburgh-tory-candidates-whatsapp-messages-spark-concerns-over-suitability-to-become-msp-3161957

I’m not sure many Edinburgh council workers will actually see that as a vote-winner.

A committee system fit for purpose?

Despite myself, and in the knowledge that there are no good guys here, I've been watching the Salmond evidence session to the Parliametary Committee.

With the media focussing on a personalised Salmond/Sturgeon spat, you'd be forgiven for missing the astonishing allegations of arrogance and abuse of power, legal processes, and Parliament itself (along with denying information to the committee) at the heart of the Scottish government establishment, some of which will of course be challenged in future evidence.

Neverthless it might chime with what we already know about this government's woeful record on Freedom of Information. 

A view from Gorgie, at Starks Park

For the Raith Rovers v Hearts match programme 26 January 2021

According to the wonderful London Hearts Supporters’ website, 60 players have played for both Raith Rovers and Hearts (at different times of course) since 1913.

And it goes beyond players to managers too. For almost 17 years from 1951, Hearts knew only one manager, Tommy Walker. He presided over two league titles and four runner-up spots along with four League Cups and a Scottish Cup final win that wouldn’t be repeated for 42 years.  

'22' get it wrong in gen sec election complaint

Rant alert! I note from the Returning Officer’s report on the UNISON general secretary election that ‘22 individual members’ wrongly blamed UNISON Scotland staff in their (not upheld) complaint about the Scotland in UNISON newspaper. As retired editor, I am happy to enlighten the ‘22’ that SiU is in fact proudly LAY edited and LAY produced and has been for 27 years.

A lay organisation that involves activists across Scotland in their own union’s communications may not be something familiar to their local organising but since UNISON’s inception in 1993, Scotland in UNISON has been published by a lay team six times a year and sent to every activist in Scotland. It has also been published online since 1998. 

Given the content of the complaint, it may also be important to point out that since at least 1998, the words "Use these stories in your branch newsletter or circulate the pdf version to members” had always appeared under the masthead as part of the normal strategy to cascade UNISON Scotland’s news to its broader membership in Scotland.

Corbyn's suspension is a disservice to anti-semitism report

As a UNISON member it is not usual for me to compliment my comrades in Unite very often. But Len McLuskey hit the nail on the head when he said: "This was a day for our party to move forward as one to defeat the evil of anti-semitism. However, the decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn has threatened that opportunity.”

I wish my own union had made such a principled statement. Maybe it will follow.

It is also worth pointing out at the beginning that amidst many of the criticisms in the EHRC report, there is also a recognition that the problem had been recognised and attempts were being made under Corbyn’s leadership to improve disciplinary processes. See at least pages 36, 41, 71, 73 and 82. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/investigation-antisemitism-labour-party

UNISON general secretary election - change but what kind?

Oh to be a fly on the wall of UNISON national executive’s various cabals following the local government service group executive’s decision to nominate lay member Paul Holmes for general secretary of the union.

The backing of the leadership of the union’s largest occupational group must be a major boost for Paul’s campaign and one that, I suspect, will not be universally welcomed on the lay NEC (along with associated officers) as they approach decision time on their own nomination.

It would be foolish to just put the nomination down to the varying influences of the usual factions on the 40+ strong committee or a vote split between the two full-time officer candidates. That would ignore the disaffection many have felt over recent years due to the growing gulf between front line activists (of all politics and none) and the Euston Road bubble.

Denis Goldberg: Making life better for people. Is that not what the revolution was about?

Tributes poured in across the world last month on the news of the death of veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and honorary UNISON member Denis Goldberg.

UNISON Scotland had a long friendship with Denis and we were continually inspired by him.

A new resource to keep Rodney Bickerstaffe’s legacy alive for current and future generations

First published (edited) in the Morning Star April 2020: Legendary Scottish miner’s leader Michael McGahey famously and often reminded us that, "We are a movement not a monument".

It was a quote that the late Rodney Bickerstaffe, ex UNISON general secretary and president of the National Pensioners Convention, kept returning to in his wonderfully crafted speech at the unveiling of a memorial to McGahey in Bonnyrigg at the 2006 Midlothian TUC Workers’ Memorial Day.

The colours of edinburgh

A few years ago I published a booklet of my photos of Edinburgh to support the UNISON Edinburgh Welfare Fund and Community HEART. There are some left at only £3 a shot. Contact me for details via twitter .

Reviewed in Scotland in UNISON (by Kate Ramsden) "In its pages John's passion for the city of his birth and his life shines through, from the beautifully crafted photographs, to the quirky "interesting facts" to go with them, set out with John's usual humour and lightness of touch."

Socialist ideals must be nurtured, not allowed to dissipate

First published in the Morning Star on 24 December 2019: 
Labour has a job on its hands to claw back from the toxic image it seems to have with many voters in Scotland.

That’s not all Labour’s fault. For the Scottish National Party to deliver on its raison d’etre of independence it had to destroy what had been the dominant force in Scottish politics. Any other issue was secondary.

If you are being asked to ditch Labour for Tories and Lib-Dems, you should surely be asking questions of the people asking.

It is an indictment of the depths today’s politics have sunk to that people can bizarrely display banners and t-shirts claiming Jeremy Corbyn is a racist despite 40 years of hard evidence - publicly available - that he is not.

It is even more bizarre that the same people appear to be telling us that the positive alternative is Johnson - someone who has amassed a host of publicly available evidence over the years of racially charged sound-bites drooling off his tongue at will.

What to think about the ‘named person’ scheme?

(First published in the Morning Star on 3 Sept 2019)
In a 40 year social work career, I don’t think I’ve come across legislation more controversial than the Named Person scheme in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act. 

 You know it’s controversial when it is attacked jointly by a Christian group that’s anti-abortion, the Manifesto Club, and a left wing social work writer, all under same NO2NP banner.

To be fair, part of the controversy is the complexity of sharing information about a child, a key criticism in most inquiries into the deaths of children.

Inequality is the most pressing issue of our time

First published in the Morning Star on 21 May 2019. I am of an age when younger comrades (and indeed offspring) feel free to berate me about the mess my generation is leaving them in. While it makes for lively conversation, I have to quietly, and often silently, admit they might be right.

They have a case when it comes to “levels of inequality that disfigure our society” cited by the Institute of Employment Rights at the launch of a consultation on a Charter of Workers’ Rights for Scotland at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in April.

On the occasion of retiring from social work

Beautifully written by my daughter Seonaid Stevenson on her train journey through to my social work leaving party on 15 March 2019 - and much appreciated.

When I was wee
My Dad asked me what I wanted to be
When I grew up.

I said I wanted to work in a cafe,
And if I couldn’t do that… then I’d just be a Social Worker.

Like Dad.

Retirement speech UNISON Edinburgh AGM 2019

Can I just say thank you to a few people who have been important to me since I first became a branch officer in NALGO in 1982.

I need to mention figures like John Wilson, NUPE branch secretary that went on to be Depute Lord Provost.

And Rab Amos who became active in UNISON but who I first met working to support him and his comrades in the NUM during the miners' strike of 1984/85.

From huge figures like Michael McGahey who I never managed to persuade I wasn't called Tom.