Unite Fujitsu News: November 2007 Archives

November 29, 2007

Report on Fujitsu Manchester EGM

Reps gave a brief overview of key issues, including progress and difficulties in the implementation of the new agreements, offshoring, Out Of Hours harmonisation, learning, pensions and organising.

A number of members reported how valuable the new agreements and the support from reps had been in relation to current issues such as redundancy and offshoring.

The main debate was around pay and benefits. The following motion was agreed unanimously:

The recent Manchester agreements resulted in most employees in scope (those below the old salary threshold) getting an additional pay rise of £150 from October 2007, and about half of those in scope (those who were receiving a disturbance allowance) having their disturbance allowance consolidated into basic pay (an average increase of around £1000).

As company pay budgets are calculated as a percentage of the existing pay bill, the effect of these salary increases has also been to increase the size of the pay pot for April 2008 for everyone, whether they personally received a rise in October or not.

As a result of recent agreements with UNITE, the company is already committed to:

Discussing company plans to change the career structure and its link to pay and benefits. UNITE wants this to include published pay and benefit scales which take account of external market rates.
Funding all promotional pay rises outside the annual pay review “pot”.
Ensuring that employees who change roles or receive pay rises between general pay reviews are paid at least the lower guideline level (with certain agreed exceptions, where a plan must be put in place to rectify this).
Monitoring to ensure that the company consistently agrees a plan (including reward and development) with individuals who are promoted.
Providing proper pay progression by ensuring fair relative pay levels within the pay band for each Professional Community role.
Clarifying the D1-4 scales and who is on this pay system.
Preventing the salaries of employees on D1-4 scales affecting the medians used for the pay reviews of those who are not.
Implementing the review of benefit cars agreed in the 2005 pay agreement and reiterated in the recent ACAS talks.
An Equal Pay Review with UNITE.
Reviewing policies relating to Equality between April and December 2008.

In addition, UNITE is representing employees in national discussions around the “harmonisation” of contracts in relation to overtime, shifts, standby and normal working hours.

During the dispute talks, UNITE had proposed a two-year pay deal, partly to help provide a period of stability after the settlement. The proposal would have allowed time for staff and management alike to feel the benefits of the new agreements and to build trust and new relationships. However, the company did not include this in their offer. We want the benefit of this stability while continuing to vigorously pursue improved pay and benefits for Fujitsu employees.

We believe that the best way to improve pay and benefits over the next few months is to focus on:

Campaigning and organising in Manchester and on other sites to influence the national approach Fujitsu takes to pay and benefits now and strengthen our ability to do so in future.
Pressing for the best possible implementation of the commitments already made.
Providing advice, support and (where appropriate) representation to members over pay and benefits issues.

We resolve:

To pursue the priorities set out in 1-3 above.
To ask the company to consider UNITE’s views when determining the company’s standard (national) pay arrangements.
Not to submit a pay claim for April 2008, but to ask the company to include everyone in the Manchester bargaining unit in the standard April 2008 pay review.
To instruct our reps to monitor the implementation of the pay review and report back to members.

It was agreed to take account of the contents of the draft pay claim which had been circulated by email on Monday 26th November (but which was not adopted) in campaigning over the coming months.

Rep Zahid Ramzan is due to TUPE out of Fujitsu Services shortly, and members were urged to consider standing as reps or nominating colleagues.

Proposed nominations by Reps for the elections to the UNITE Executive Council had been circulated to members in Monday’s email. In addition to these nominations, Zahid Ramzan proposed to nominate the same five candidates as most of the rest of the reps. Members endorsed the proposed nominations by reps, which can now be submitted.

All members will be able to vote in the elections, which will take place in March. Members in Fujitsu should have votes for six of the seats – the five for which your reps could nominate, plus a regional seat (for which nominations are made through branches, not workplace reps).

More information on the election process is available on the union’s national web site.

Members discussed the UNISON Manchester Community & Mental Health dispute. This group gave us strong support during our own dispute and are now on indefinite strike demanding the reinstatement of sacked nurse and branch chair Karen Reissmann. A collection raised £140. For more information, see www.reinstate-karen.org or www.karenreissmann.wordpress.com.

Posted by IMH at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Manchester: Extraordinary General Meeting

An important decision on pay has to be made by members, so please do your best to attend the Extraordinary General Meeting for all UNITE members in scope of the Manchester agreements:

2pm – 3:30pm, Thursday 29th November
Hot desk area, MAN33-1 - East

You are entitled to attend the meeting in work time. However, if your manager may need to arrange cover for while you are in the meeting, please confirm your attendance with them as soon as possible. If you have difficulty getting release, please contact a rep as soon as possible.

Please take the time to consider the information below, so that the time in the meeting can be used as productively as possible. If you wish to propose amendments to the proposals, it would be helpful if you could discuss these with a rep and sort out the wording in advance.

A “One Per Desk” leaflet is being distributed across the site to advertise the meeting. Copies are available on CafeVIK and on OurUnion. Please do all you can to encourage colleagues to come along and have their say on Thursday.

Proposed Agenda

General Update
Including offshoring, implementation of the new Manchester agreements, union learning, out of hours harmonisation, pensions, organising
Pay Review 2008
See below for details of the proposals
Election of Reps etc
No new nominations for Reps, Health & Safety Reps or Union Learning Reps have been received so far.
Nominations to UNITE Executive Council
Following the merger, UNITE members will elect a first Executive Council. Your workplace reps can nominate candidates for some of the seats, subject to your endorsement. See below for the proposed nominations.
AOB (items notified in advance)
Summing Up

Pay Review 2008

Your reps are putting forward two alternative approaches towards pay and benefits for the next few months. The reasoning behind these alternatives will be explained in the meeting.

The meeting will be asked to decide between the approaches and members can amend them if they wish. To enable the smooth running of the meeting, please contact your reps in advance if you wish to propose an amendment to either proposal.

OPTION A

Context for pay review

The Retail Price Index (RPI) rose by 4.2% in the year to October 2007. Average earnings rose by 4.2% in the year to September 2007.

The trend in the UK IT jobs marketplace is still one of skills shortage rather than skills surplus. This is one of the reasons quoted by employers for wanting to relocate some work offshore.

Many parts of Fujitsu Services are recruiting externally, including in the North-West. The company operates an “Introduce a Friend” scheme to help identify suitable external candidates. To attract external candidates the company has to take account of market rates. A situation where long-serving and experienced employees are paid less than new colleagues is damaging to morale and not sustainable.

Sustained good company performance in a service industry depends on attracting, retaining and motivating the workforce. This requires a skilled and experienced workforce with good morale.

Fujitsu Services’ profits have been improving significantly over recent years, benefiting from rapidly increasing productivity. Profit before taxation has grown by 5% to £172m and revenue by 5% to almost £2.5bn. The Annual Report refers to strong revenue growth, an increasing order book and positive cash-flow. It says that total equity grew from £157.0 to £287.5m as a result of another year’s strong trading performance. The highest paid director received a package of £1.87M in the last financial year, a rise of over £100K. Employees should share in the benefits of their increased productivity and the resultant increased profits. Discretionary non-consolidated bonuses are no substitute for adequate levels of basic pay.

Pay for many Fujitsu Services employees is low compared to market rates for a combination of historical reasons, including a long period of poor company performance, followed by a period of below inflation rises despite rising profits. Median pay for Fujitsu staff in many roles is still below the median for equivalent jobs in the external market in late 2002. The company used to argue that low basic pay was offset by good packages (out of hours arrangements, pensions, severance packages etc). Though the company is making efforts to increase the range of employee benefits, these are at the “low value” end and an increasing proportion of employees do not benefit from the more favourable packages which were typical in the past.

For a number of years the company has allocated a pay “pot” that is then distributed between existing employees. The pot size needs to be significantly higher than the increase in prices or average earnings just in order for pay rates to keep up. This is because pay increases reflecting individual progress up the career structure are included in the pot, but have no impact on the rate of pay for a role. Individuals are having to run up a down-escalator.

With this background in mind, it is both right for Fujitsu employees and necessary for the company to award a substantial pay increase, recognising not only the labour market within which the company operates but also to recognise and reward the contribution made by employees to the developing success of the organisation.

Ongoing activities already agreed

Separately from any 2008 pay deal, the company is already committed to:

Discussing company plans to change the career structure and its link to pay and benefits. UNITE wants this to include published pay and benefit scales which take account of external market rates.
Funding all promotional pay rises outside the annual pay review “pot”.
Ensuring that employees who change roles or receive pay rises between general pay reviews are paid at least the lower guideline level (with certain agreed exceptions, where a plan must be put in place to rectify this).
Monitoring to ensure that the company consistently agrees a plan (including reward and development) with individuals who are promoted.
Providing proper pay progression by ensuring fair relative pay levels within the pay band for each Professional Community role.
Clarifying the D1-4 scales, and who is on this pay system.
Preventing the salaries of employees on D1-4 scales affecting the medians used for the pay reviews of those who are not.
Implementing the review of benefit cars agreed in the 2005 pay agreement and reiterated in the recent ACAS talks.
An Equal Pay Review with UNITE.
Reviewing policies relating to Equality between April and December 2008.

Pay claim

a) The April 2008 pay review

1. Increases based on factors such as performance, scarce skills, attrition.
2. Increases to address individual and groups with low pay for historical reasons. These should be centrally allocated to avoid impacting on departmental pay pots.
3. A centrally allocated cost of living pay rise for all employees reflecting the increases in prices, average earnings, productivity and profitability.
4. Ensure nobody is paid below the bottom of the relevant pay scale.
5. Pay rises on promotions during the year should be properly funded, in addition to the annual pay review “pot”.
6. All the pay budget should be spent on increases to basic pay, not bonuses.

b) The pay system

1. An increase to the D1-4 helpdesk pay scales.
2. The Company to publish the guideline pay and benefit levels.
3. Agree with UNITE a way of creating meaningful pay and benefit scales based on a stated pay policy in relation to external market rates.
4. Ensure fair relative pay and benefit levels within the guidelines for each Professional Community role (based on the progress from Settlement Agreement section 3.3)
5. Clarify what defines the job someone is contracted to do – is it their Professional Community role or the tasks they are currently employed to do?

c) Life-work balance

1. Introduction of an overnight allowance for those working away from home.
2. A reduction in contracted hours to 37 for those currently on more, without loss of pay. Discussions on an eventual reduction to 35 hours.
3. Improvement of the sabbatical leave scheme to allow employees to take a break from work and then return to their job.

d) Bonus/incentive schemes
1. Targets for completion of timesheets, appraisals etc should be realistic and be set and measured in a way that avoids loss of bonus for occasional minor oversights or for problems that are outside the control of the individual. Loss of all bonus for administrative oversight early in the year would remove any incentive for completion for the remainder of the year.
2. “Stretch” targets for utilisation are inappropriate, as they can only be achieved by excessive hours or neglecting vital parts of company business that do not count towards utilisation. Nobody in the bargaining unit to have their bonus or incentive payment reduced on this basis.
3. Nobody in the bargaining unit should lose bonus or incentive for legitimate absence (e.g. maternity, illness).
4. Bonus or incentive payments should only be reduced as a result of performance, attendance or conduct issues if that was a sanction imposed as part of a proper disciplinary process. Any loss of bonus as a disciplinary sanction should be proportionate to the offence, both for reasons of natural justice and because removal of the entire bonus for a first minor offence removes any incentive for the remainder of the year.

e) Pensions & retirement
1. The re-opening of the Defined Benefit (final salary) scheme to all employees.
2. Update all the company’s pension schemes to have at least 50% of trustees being Member Nominated.
3. Work with UNITE to educate employees who are currently not in any company pension scheme about the benefits of scheme membership.

f) Implementation
1. The company will provide information to UNITE after the pay review and during the year to allow monitoring that the agreement has been implemented fully and fairly.

OPTION B

As a result of recent agreements with UNITE, the company is already committed to:

Discussing company plans to change the career structure and its link to pay and benefits. UNITE wants this to include published pay and benefit scales which take account of external market rates.
Funding all promotional pay rises outside the annual pay review “pot”.
Ensuring that employees who change roles or receive pay rises between general pay reviews are paid at least the lower guideline level (with certain agreed exceptions, where a plan must be put in place to rectify this).
Monitoring to ensure that the company consistently agrees a plan (including reward and development) with individuals who are promoted.
Providing proper pay progression by ensuring fair relative pay levels within the pay band for each Professional Community role.
Clarifying the D1-4 scales and who is on this pay system.
Preventing the salaries of employees on D1-4 scales affecting the medians used for the pay reviews of those who are not.
Implementing the review of benefit cars agreed in the 2005 pay agreement and reiterated in the recent ACAS talks.
An Equal Pay Review with UNITE.
Reviewing policies relating to Equality between April and December 2008.

In addition, UNITE is representing employees in national discussions around the “harmonisation” of contracts in relation to overtime, shifts, standby and normal working hours.

We believe that the best way to improve pay and benefits over the next few months is to focus on:

Campaigning and organising in Manchester and on other sites to influence the national approach Fujitsu takes to pay and benefits now and strengthen our ability to do so in future.
Pressing for the best possible implementation of the commitments already made.
Providing advice, support and (where appropriate) representation to members over pay and benefits issues.

We resolve:

To pursue the priorities set out in 1-3 above.
To ask the company to consider UNITE’s views when determining the company’s standard (national) pay arrangements.
Not to submit a pay claim for April 2008, but to ask the company to include everyone in the Manchester bargaining unit in the standard April 2008 pay review.
To instruct our reps to monitor the implementation of the pay review and report back to members.

UNITE Executive Council elections

Following the merger with the TGWU to form UNITE, elections are taking place for the union’s first Executive Council (EC), which is the controlling body of the union between conferences.

The EC will consist of 80 people, 40 of which will be elected by former members of Amicus.

Nominations are currently open and your workplace reps have the right to nominate candidates for one seat for the Electrical Engineering, Electronics & IT (EEE&IT) industrial sector, and for four women’s seats. At the EGM members will decide whether to endorse the proposed nominations.

The proposed nominations (showing name, branch and membership number) are:

Rep	EEE&IT	Women's nomination #1	Women's nomination #2	Women's nomination #3	Women's nomination #4
Dave Francis	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Dean Burn	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Ian Allinson	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Isabel Hay	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Jackie Cook	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666
Lynne Hodge	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Michael Thomas	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Nikki Aldridge	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Pauline Bradburn	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Phil Tepper	Ian Allinson Greater Manchester IT 9827M 30439666	Jane Stewart Levers 9704 30269599	Louise Cousins Leeds 0517 32987372	Terri Miller Delarue 32680603	Dawn McAllister South Lanarkshire 32938535
Zahid Ramzan	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

More information on the election process is available on the union’s national web site.

Once nominations are complete, all members will be able to vote in the elections, which will take place in March. Members in Fujitsu should have votes for six of the seats – the five for which your reps can nominate, plus a regional seat (for which nominations are made through branches, not workplace reps).

Posted by IMH at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2007

Fujitsu Manchester EGM, 29th Nov 2007

To see an electronic copy of the latest one-per-desk leaflet, clickhere. The leaflet advertises an Extraordinary General Meeting for all UNITE members in scope of the Fujitsu Manchester agreements:

2-3:30pm, Thursday 29th November
MAN33, first floor, East wing (hot desk area).

Posted by IA at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2007

Manchester: Extraordinary General Meeting

There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting for all UNITE members in scope of the Manchester agreements:

2pm – 3:30pm, Thursday 29th November
Hot desk area, MAN33-1 - East

The agenda will include:

Current issues (including offshoring, implementation of the deal, out of hours, pensions)
Deciding on pay claim for April 2008
Elections for Reps, Health & Safety Reps
Nominations for UNITE’s Executive Council

If you have other items for the agenda, please let your reps know as soon as possible.

We are looking to strengthen our team of Reps and Health & Safety Reps. If you would be willing to stand, or want to suggest someone else, your reps want to hear from you.

If you’re not sure whether to take on one of these roles, our new agreements provide the facility for you to undertake some of the training prior to standing for election.

If you’re interested, want to stand or to nominate someone else, please get in touch by Thursday 22nd November.

Posted by IMH at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

UKCF Elections

All Fujitsu Services’ UK employees (except in Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire and the North-East) should have received either a letter at home or an email inviting them to vote in the elections to the company’ UK Consultative Forum.

Voting closes on Friday 23rd November, so if you haven’t voted already, please do so now.

Less than a quarter of employees have voted so far, so every vote will make a big difference.

If you’re looking for the email, the subject began with “Election for the UK Consultative Forum Representatives” and it was from onlinevoting at electoralreform.co.uk.

For more information, including which candidates the unions in Fujitsu are encouraging employees to support, see www.ourunion.org.uk/ukcf.htm.

Posted by IMH at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Karen Reissmann sacked

Around 160 UNISON members in Manchester are on all-out indefinite strike to win the reinstatement of Karen Reissmann, the local nurse and UNISON rep who was sacked by her employer for speaking out in defence of the NHS.

Karen and her branch gave us magnificent support during our own dispute. Now they need our help.

Join the demonstration:
1pm, Saturday 24th November. Assemble Peace Gardens, St Peter’s Square, behind Manchester town hall.

Donate to their strike fund:
Send donations (payable to “Manchester Community and Mental Health UNISON”) to Union Office, Chorlton House, 70 Manchester Road, Manchester, M21 9UN.

Give donations to your rep to pass on.

Send a message of protest (see http://www.reinstate-karen.org/5.html for more information)

Sheila Foley, chief executive of the trust
Alan Johnson, secretary of state for health
Contact Manchester City councillors (the council funds part of the trust and two councillors sit on the board).

Please send copies to the branch (see http://www.reinstate-karen.org/5.html for more information)

More information:
www.reinstate-karen.org
www.karenreissmann.wordpress.com

Posted by IMH at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

Manchester: Extraordinary General Meeting

There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting for all UNITE members in scope of the Manchester agreements:

2pm – 3:30pm, Thursday 29th November
Hot desk area, MAN33-1 - East

The agenda will include:

Current issues (including offshoring, implementation of the deal, out of hours, pensions)
Deciding on pay claim for April 2008
Elections for Reps, Health & Safety Reps
Nominations for UNITE’s Executive Council

If you have other items for the agenda, please let your reps know as soon as possible.

We are looking to strengthen our team of Reps and Health & Safety Reps. If you would be willing to stand, or want to suggest someone else, your reps want to hear from you.

If you’re not sure whether to take on one of these roles, our new agreements provide the facility for you to undertake some of the training prior to standing for election.

If you’re interested, want to stand or to nominate someone else, please get in touch by Thursday 22nd November.

Posted by IMH at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

Occupational Pension Schemes and Trustees

All occupational pension schemes are currently having to re-appoint their Member-Nominated Trustees. Every member of the scheme must have the opportunity to be considered and make nominations, and members must be involved in choosing who is appointed.

UNITE-Amicus believes that Trustees need to be prepared to act vigorously to look after the interests of pension fund members. For example, if a plan is in deficit (as most are), Trustees have strong powers to ensure that the Company puts in enough money. In the event of a possible takeover, they can insist that the company doing the takeover proves its ability to go on funding the pension scheme, and if necessary that it injects very large amounts of money to safeguard pensions - and that can even block the takeover.

Member-Nominated Trustees should keep in touch with members of the scheme, and they should tell members what is going on except where information is confidential on grounds of personal privacy or has the potential to affect stock exchange prices.

Trustees are responsible for the plan as a whole, and all of them (whether nominated by members, the Company, or as "independents") must protect the interests of plan members, not the employer. They should not take instructions from anyone (including their union) but they should listen to members and their representatives.

If you are interested in helping to protect your future (and who isn't?) and you think you have the right qualities, please consider becoming a Trustee of whichever pension plan you belong to.

The ICL Group Pension Plan is one of the biggest, and applications to be a trustee of this plan close on Friday November 16th. See http://www.cafevik.fs.fujitsu.com/viewer.aspx?/content/0502/public/00023/mndannouncementoct2007.pdf for details. Trustee positions for both current contributing members and retired members are available. A selection panel of the ICL Pensions Members Committee will be interviewing applicants early in December.

The TUC has made a short “Introduction to Pensions” course available online. If you are considering becoming a trustee, please make use of it. UNITE can provide extensive further training for members taking on trustee roles.

Other pension plans in the Company are also likely to be looking for Trustees, and if you are a member of one of them, you should have had a similar communication recently or will get one soon.

Posted by IMH at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2007

2008 UNITE Diaries

Orders are now being taken for UNITE’s 2008 pocket diaries. The Greater Manchester IT Branch has agreed to buy some for the first members to request them.

If you’re not one of the lucky ones, the cost will be just £2. If you are in a different branch, your branch may also be ordering some.

If you’d like a diary, please let us know as soon as possible.

Posted by IMH at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

UKCF Elections

Fujitsu is about to send out email and postal invitations to employees to vote in elections to the company’s UK Consultative Forum (UKCF).

UNITE has worked with the PCS and UNISON unions, which also have members in Fujitsu, to agree a set of candidates which we hope all employees can support.

The unions have prepared an explanation of what the UKCF is, why you should care, and what you can do about it:

http://www.ourunion.org.uk/ukcf.htm

This includes a list of the candidates the unions are backing.

Posted by IMH at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Karen Reissmann sacked

On Monday Karen Reissmann, local nurse and UNISON rep, was sacked by her employer for speaking out. UNISON members plan an indefinite strike from Thursday, demanding her reinstatement. She is also appealing against the decision.

UNISON have issued a leaflet and collection sheet, and the following statement:

On Monday November 5th Karen Reissmann, CPN and UNISON branch chair was sacked on 4 counts. Firstly that, when she was interviewed in December 2006 criticising the transfer of NHS work to the voluntary sector, she brought the Trust into disrepute. Secondly, for telling people that she was suspended and what for. Thirdly, for protesting her innocence. Fourthly, for allowing the press to print information, some misleading about her case. The fifth charge of misusing time was dropped. All the charges were gross misconduct and all sackable offences.

UNISON believes this is an absolute disgrace. Union reps must have the right to campaign against cuts and victimisation of our trade union reps. The Human Rights Act brought in by the Labour government allows for freedom of expression. Karen works in the NHS, in 2007, in Britain not Burma – she must have the right to speak out without fear of persecution. If she remains sacked it will make all NHS staff and all trade union reps feel much more cautious about saying anything.

UNISON is determined to fight for Karen's reinstatement. 150 members of her branch who work in community mental health teams and crisis resolution teams will start an indefinite strike from Thursday 8th November as part of that fight. There will be picket lines from 8am to 11am at North Manchester General Hospital, MRI Hathersage Rd, and Chorlton House. On Thursday strikers will then meet at 12noon to organise their next activities and march to the strategic Health Authority at Piccadilly.

In 2 weeks we will have a branch wide one-day strike.

We also hope to have a solidarity rally on Wednesday 14th November in Manchester in the early evening, details to follow.

We also plan a Saturday demonstration in Manchester, probably 24th Nov.

We expect to be able to pay very substantial hardship pay to all strikers and will be sending delegations of strikers around the country to speak to other trade unionists and raise money. Already we have had significant promises of money from a number of branches eg Pennine have promised £2000 a month.

If you want to make a donation please send to "Manchester Community and Mental Health branch UNISON" c/o union office, Chorlton House, 70 Manchester Rd, Manchester M21 9UN. If you want a speaker at your next union meeting please contact us on 07972 120 451.

This branch gave us enormous support during our dispute – now they need support from us. Being on indefinite strike means they need to raise large amounts of money – quickly. Please give generously.

Key events planned for their campaign:

. 7pm, Wednesday 14th November: Solidarity meeting, Mechanics Institute
. 1pm, Saturday 24th November: Demonstration, Peace Gardens, St Peter’s Square

Posted by IMH at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

Manchester Branch Meetings

November’s meeting of the Greater Manchester IT Branch discussed nominations for the UNITE executive, and decided to nominate:

. Pat Coyne for the North-West seat
. Jane Stewart, Louise Cousins, Terri Miller and Dawn McAllister for the four women’s seats

The next branch meeting will be:

6pm-7:30pm, Thursday 6th December
Upstairs, Hare & Hounds pub, Shudehill, Manchester M4 4AA
[Near the spiral ramp to the Arndale car park and the Shudehill Metrolink and bus interchange]

All branch members are welcome.

As usual, a number of us plan to go out for a meal in Manchester after the meeting – if you’d like to join in, please let your reps know how many places you want.

Posted by IMH at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

Manchester: Extraordinary General Meeting

UNITE plans an Extraordinary General Meeting for all members in scope of the Manchester agreements, on the afternoon of Thursday 29th November. Please pencil this in your diary now.

The main item for discussion will be a pay claim for the April 2008 pay review. We will also discuss nominations for the UNITE executive elections.

If you have any other items for the agenda, please raise them in good time.

Posted by IMH at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2007

Advice on Out Of Hours

UNITE, PCS and UKCF reps involved in the Out Of Hours consultation have published some advice on CafeVIK.

Posted by IA at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)