NEC
Report from NEC (National Executive Council) meeting held on 12 and 13 July 2011
The newly elected NEC held its second meeting at the UNISON national Centre in London, the first meeting having been held in Manchester at the close of conference to elect the new presidential team.
The new president is Eleanor Smith, from the West Midlands Region, and the Vice Presidents are Chris Tansley from East Midlands Region and Maureen Le Marinel, a Police sector representative who is from the North West Region.
The first meeting commenced at 2pm. It was reported to the meeting that Angela Lynes, the former President, is recovering well from surgery having been diagnosed with breast cancer in the last couple of weeks.
Members of the NEC were allocated to committees for the following two years.
Steve Warwick was allocated the following:
I (Lesley Discombe) was allocated the following:
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Services to Members Committee
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Finance and Resource Management Committee
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NEC representative on the National Women’s Committee
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Labour Link Committee
The remainder of the meeting was given over to a briefing on pensions by Glyn Jenkins, UNISON’s Head of Pensions, and reports from Dave Prentis, Karen Jennings, and Heather Wakefield.
For me the worrying factor is that most of our members are totally unaware of the changes that are being proposed and how it can affect them.
The following links give more information:-
The difficulties in taking action were also outlined – there need to be separate ballots on the schemes. They will cross a large number of employers, in the Local Government Scheme 25% of the membership is with private firms with admitted body status. Care needs to be taken to minimalise the risk of legal challenge. It is also important that action is taken in conjunction with other unions. There are 26 unions that have not yet taken industrial action yet and will agree a timetable together to ensure that action is effective.
It is not the NEC who will set the date, but Service Groups as is the norm in UNISON.
The Service Group Liaison Committee and Regional Convenors will meet on 19 July to discuss this further.
The meeting finished at 6pm. The meeting re-convened at 9.30am the following morning.
Due to a leaking pipe, the Council Chamber and activist suite were unavailable for use so the meeting was rearranged into the ground floor meeting rooms and started on time. Had this happened in the old building, this would not have been possible.
The newly formed committees all held short meetings to elect their chairs and vice chairs for the coming 2 years.
Steve Warwick was re-elected as vice chair of the Policy Committee and I was elected as Vice Chair of the Services to Members Committee.
The meeting agreed the following nominations to the TUC General Council: Angela Lynes, Jane Carolan, Alison Shepherd, Eleanor Smith, Dave Prentis, Bob Abberley, Liz Snape and Gloria Mills.
It was agreed to nominate Chris Tansley for the current vacancy on the General Purposes Committee.
As this year’s congress is a smaller affair to be held at the TUC in London, the UNISON Delegation will be 38 and the formula for those who will attend was agreed, taking into account proportionality and fair representation.
Report provided by Lesley Discombe, South West NEC member. For further information contact Lesley by e-mail.