UNISON Fife Branch


HOPE not hate: Celebrating modern Britain
HOPE not hate
Celebrating modern Britain



Play Octopus - The UNISON welfare monthly prize draw

UNISON Fife - on the move!

UNISON Fife are currently in the process of moving to their new accommodation in Glenrothes.

Whilst this will cause some minor disruption we hope to maintain quality services to our members as we have always done.

Members can contact the branch on the following numbers:
Internal : VOIP 447 008
External : (01592) 583 686

The new office address is:
UNISON Fife
Unit 19
Fife Food and Business Centre
Faraday Road
Southfield Industrial Estate
GLENROTHES
Fife
KY6 2RU



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We hope that the new offices will enable us to continually improve the services and accessibility of our union! For general enquiries please email unison.fife@fife.gov.uk


Implementation of pay award

Fife Council announced will implement the pay award, accepted by UNISON members, in the January and February pays for Single Status staff.

UNISON Fife's Executive committee agreed to request this if it became evident that there would be no nationally agreed position. This was the case by the time that UNISON met with Senior Officers and Politicians at the December JNCF.

Whilst we are happy that the views of the largest local government union have been taken on board, we are disappointed that there was not a national consensus. Undoubtedly, the position and status of the SNJC's (which negotiates on matters such as pay) role in collective bargaining will be under extreme pressure.

UNISON Fife want national negotiating to be protected, if this means that the functions, structure and composition of the SNJC needs to undergo a fundamental review then it needs to happen and happen soon.

Collective bargaining is best achieved through the joint positions of all three unions and our members. Nationally, UNISON's membership represents a massive majority of Council employees, when UNISON representatives enter negotiations they are representing thousands upon thousands of hard working and dedicated council staff.

Any suggestion that the national framework could be devolved to a local level needs to be resisted. Although this hasn't been suggested the failings to gain a collective agreement and the failings to co-ordinate from the employers side mean it is a significant threat!

The pay award, achieved through the collective strength of our members will be implemented in the January pays for ex-APT&C and DSO payrolls and February for the ex-Manual payroll. The Council have stated that this will include any backdating to April 1st 2008.


NEC statement on the financial and economic crisis

The crisis in the financial system, caused by the greed and irresponsibility of a privileged minority, now threatens the living standards and future security of millions of ordinary working people. Jobs, homes, savings, pensions, and essential public services are at risk.

Some warn that we could be about to enter an economic downturn of historic severity. Output is now falling and unemployment is expected to rise above two million over the coming months.

Public services and the staff who deliver them are not immune from these developments:

  • The economic slow-down is already having a negative impact on tax revenues and the resources available for public spending, squeezing central and local government budgets and adding pressure for further pay cuts, and increasing recruitment freezes and redundancies.

  • Due to the government's excessive reliance on private finance under schemes such as PFI, and on private providers that have been bought up by private equity and laden with debt, the credit crunch is also leading to an abandonment of necessary investment in schools, hospitals, social housing, care homes, and other essential facilities and infrastructure.

  • Many public service workers, including 3.5 million local government employees, save into pension funds whose viability is now threatened by the destruction of the value of their asset base. Pension funds are particularly at risk of losing their share of global capital assets in current conditions because speculative funds have a trading advantage.

These are matters of urgent concern, not just for public service workers, but for our entire society and economy. This is because public services have a vital role to play in protecting individuals, families and communities from the worst effects of an economic downturn; and because investment in public services and public infrastructure will be essential to stabilising our economy, maintaining demand and employment, and underpinning future growth.

UNISON therefore calls on the UK government and all relevant regulatory agencies to take bold and principled action to protect the public interest and the living standards of the majority:

  • working people, particularly the lower paid, must be protected from the worst effects of the crisis. Relief from rising fuel bills must be financed by a windfall tax on the profits of the energy sector, combined if necessary with price controls. Measures must be taken to minimise evictions and homelessness, including empowering councils to take on threatened homes. The current public sector pay policy, which imposes real terms pay cuts on millions of public service workers, must be abandoned.

  • protective measures to help pension funds deal with the current crisis, and prevent enforced closure of schemes, must be developed. Member-nominated representatives must be given 50% of seats on pension boards as promised, and the Local Government Pension Scheme must be reformed to provide the same representation. Member representatives must be included in discussions of future market regulation and economic policy.

  • spending on public services must be increased to meet greater social need and counteract the downturn in the private sector. This will necessitate an increase in public debt, currently low by international and historic standards, and a rebalancing of our system of taxation so that corporations and wealthy individuals are required to pay their fair share.

  • to make up for the increased costs, risks, and likely shortfall of private investment afflicting PFI and other privately financed schemes, we must return to direct public sector investment in and ownership of public service facilities, affordable housing, and other essential infrastructure. Too often we have seen the market fail to serve the public interest and the public sector forced to step in and pick up the risks created by the private sector - a phenomenon we are now seeing repeated again on a grand scale.

  • to stimulate investment and growth throughout the economy, interest rates must be cut as a matter of urgency, and the monetary policy pursued by the Bank of England needs to move on from an exclusive focus upon controlling inflation to one that also seeks to ensure high levels of investment and employment.

  • intervention to secure the banking system should not merely "bail-out" those who have caused this crisis by socialising the losses and taking on unprofitable parts of the sector. Instead any public financial support for the sector should entitle the public to share in the benefits of any future recovery, and must be accompanied by an extension of regulatory controls to ensure that the excesses of the recent period are not repeated or rewarded. The bonus culture that has fuelled destructive risk-taking in the financial sector must be brought to an end. At the same time appropriate measures of protection and support are needed to ensure that lower paid financial service employees do not pay the price of others' irresponsibility.

UNISON supports the recent declaration of the ETUC that this crisis must mark an end to the "casino capitalism" which has placed the pursuit of speculative gain before investment in productive industry and essential services.

The UK has been home to many of the worst excesses of this phenomenon, and is now especially exposed to the fall-out. We therefore also support the statement of the TUC general council calling for a new economic programme for the UK that puts fairness and the needs of the majority first.

Thirty years of deregulation, privatisation, financialisation, tax-cutting and tax-evasion have resulted in an unprecedented widening of inequality and concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, and a massive burden of risk transferred to the many. The neo-liberal era has ended in failure. We need now to begin to rebalance our monetary and fiscal framework, our system of taxation, our regulatory regimes and our overall pattern of investment and economic development.

Public services will be fundamental to this new settlement. The lasting legacy of the current crisis must be a clear recognition of the necessary role of the state, both in its regulatory role and as a provider and guarantor of stability. In the past it has always been the public sector that has led the way out of recession by picking up the pieces of the market's failure and serving as the engine of renewed economic growth, and over the next few years it must do so again. Now more than ever we need public services, provided to all on the basis of need by a publicly accountable and properly funded public sector, to carry our economy and our society through these difficult times. This is the bedrock upon which we will better advance social justice and the public good in the years to come.



20% discount for UNISON Fife Members

Corporate leisure active
Corporate Leisure Active membership offers a whole range of packages that will allow you to benefit from unlimited access to swimming pools, health suites, gyms and fitness classes at 11 conveniently located leisure centres across Fife.


You could have an early morning swim at a centre near your home, then visit a gym near your work in your lunch break.
Active Platinum Active Gold Active Silver Active Bronze
Swimming
Gyms
Health Suites
Fitness Classes
Swimming
Gyms
Health Suites
Swimming
Gyms
Swimming

An active healthy lifestyle is good for you in so many ways and whether you are a regular at the gym or new to maintaining your health and fitness there is a membership to suit you.

What are the discounts?
Corporate Leisure Active membership offers great value for money and there’s no joining fee to pay. What’s more as a Unison member you can benefit from an additional 20% discount off the individual Leisure Active prices.

Active Monthly Direct Debit Annual Single Payment
Individual Rate Unison Member Individual Rate Unison Member
Platinum £43.00 Only £34.00 £430.00 Only £344.00
Gold £30.00 Only £24.00 £300.00 Only £240.00
Silver £23.00 Only £18.40 £230.00 Only £184.00
Bronze £16.10 Only £12.88 £161.00 Only £128.80

Join now and start saving today - monthly direct debit or annual single payment - you decide!

Just complete the application form and return to Leisure Active Admin Team, Duloch Leisure Centre, Nightingale place, Dunfermline, KY11 8LW. Enclose a passport photograph, payment and a photocopy of your UNISON Fife membership card to obtain your discount. Please make cheques payable to Fife Sports and Leisure Trust Ltd or complete a direct debit mandate.

For more information visit www.fifeleisure.org.uk

UNISON leisure active (pdf 2MB)
Leisure active direct debit form (pdf 4345Kb)
Leisure active application form (pdf 1.5 MB)
Leisure active terms and conditions (pdf 850Kb)

Access this information on FISH


Help for UNISON members

For urgent help and advice at work contact your local UNISON steward or health and safety rep as soon as possible. If you are a member of Fife branch and don't know who your local UNISON rep is, call the branch office on (01592) 412222 or get in touch with UNISONdirect (see below).

Members - change your details via phone

Call UNISONdirect 0845 355 0845
Or freephone textphone 0800 0 967 968
Lines are open 6am-midnight Monday-Friday and 9am-4pm Saturdays

If you go here you can change your details online.


What is Wola Nani?

Alec Deary with Pat and Daisy from Wola NaniGuide to South African HIV/AIDS initiative Wola Nani by Rosemary Hopkins following her presentation to the branch Executive on Thursday 3 October.

Update-Thanks from Wola Nani Pat Francis, Director of Wola Nani, has emailed Alec Deary thanking the Fife Men's Group for the funds raised for the initiative.

Pat wrote:
Dear Alec

I'm not sure where to begin - thank you just doesn't seem enough, but it's what we want to say:

thank you.

We received your deposit this week - it has realised R13 252.10 rands - can you imagine how much money that is for us - thank you so much for efforts - it's not just the money though - the meeting with you, you speaking of us, your latex gift pack - knowing you are out there and on our side - I'll say it one more time thank you and all you Men of Fife for supporting us.

With best wishes to you
Pat, Daisy and all of us at Wola Nani


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