Lambeth Unison and Local Government Pension Scheme Divestment over Palestine

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This motion was passed at our Branch Committee in September 2024

Members of this branch:

● Continue to express our horror and outrage at the Israeli state’s genocidal assault on the Gazan people, intensifying Israel’s barbaric colonisation of Palestine since 1948

● Condemn unequivocally the support given to Israel by the UK government and by the Labour Party leadership;

● Declare our determination to provide practical solidarity with Palestine.

Members of this branch

● Note that £10.4 million of our pension fund is invested in companies that support Israel’s apartheid regime and its genocidal actions, including many companies that supply weapons and military surveillance technology to Israel

● Reject entirely a situation in which our pension fund is being used to finance a genocide, alongside the ongoing colonisation of historic Palestine, especially the West Bank;’

● Note that the union’s national policy on Palestine supports a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel

Members of this branch further resolve, in line with branch policy, to:

● Campaign for BDS in solidarity with Palestine

● Demand that the Council divest itself of all investments in companies linked to Israel, either directly or indirectly through banks and investment funds;

● Call upon other unions whose members have LGPS pensions members to support this demand and to campaign with us for divestment

● Insist upon a meeting with the Council to put forward our demands

● Call for a branch campaign and meeting to support maximum attendance at a lobby of the Pensions Committee meeting happening on the 9th October.

Council and School Pay campaign 2024

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Local government staff keep communities safe, clean and accessible, often for little to no recognition.

Within our 2024 claim, we asked the employers for a pay increase of £3,000 or 10%, whichever was greater. The offer of £1,290 falls far short of this. (The local government employers have made an offer of a flat rate increase of £1,575 for workers in the inner London area and £1,491 for workers in outer London.)

Following a consultation of member, our NJC committee, made up of leading activists, decided that we would proceed with an industrial action ballot.

The ballot opens on Wednesday 4 September and closes at 10:00 on Wednesday 16 October.

Voting for, and taking, industrial action will send a clear message to employers that you need a better pay rise.

We will continue to every means possible to make the employers improve their offer. Read our latest joint union letter to the employers here.

Industrial action FAQs can be found below.

Find out how the offer stacks up against our claim using our pay calculator.

Calculator

Will your pay go up in 2024?

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Every year the joint trade union side for local governmemnt, UNISON, GMB and Unite, negotiate over pay.  Below are details of the joint pay claim for local government workers in 2024-5

Pay Claim 2024-5

Local government pay has fallen back into bargain basement territory. We are some of the lowest paid workers in the public sector.

We have lost 25% of our pay in real terms since 2010.

More and more of us are struggling to make ends meet and falling into debt.

This year UNISON alongside the other unions has proposed the following:

A pay rise of £3,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) for all local government & school workers

The full claim is available on our Pay Campaign Website 2024 and has been submitted to the Employers’ Side.

Gearing up for the pay campaign!

The Employers Side will be consulting councils on the pay claim throughout March 2024, before meeting initially in April and then again in May 2024 to consider their response. It is crucial that we maximize political pressure on council and school employers during this period. We need everyone to make it absolutely clear to national and local government employers why a fair and decent pay rise is so vital.

Please use this Local Goverment funding campaign website to contact your local MP about backing more funding for local government.

This is a political fight to get central government to properly fund the public sector. The money is out there but they are prioritising ‘vote winning’ tax cuts over providing the services that people rely on.

Make sure your data is up to date

In case you are balloted for strike action over the pay claim we need to make sure your address is up to date. Please check your current details with us at My UNISON – Login Page.

Lambeth UNISON leads the way

During last years pay campaign Lambeth UNISON got the highest turn out in the country and an amazing 89% yes vote for strike action. This year local government branches up and down the country are looking to us because we are a flagship branch made up of trade unionists who want to fight for a decent standard of living and better pay. 

If there are new people in your team then get the to join UNISON today join.unison.org.uk!

If we do get balloted for strike action over the pay claim we will expect every member to vote and have their say. Without a decent fight our pay will continue to decline and the crisis in local government will only get worse – that means engaged and active members across the union.

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2024

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The Lambeth UNISON 2024 AGM will be held on Tuesday 20 February

Two AGM Sessions, both at Lambeth Town Hall

  • 1pm-3pm (Council Workers)
  • 4.30 – 5.30pm (Schools and Private Sector)

The purpose of the annual general meeting is to bring the branch committee and its officers to account:

  • agree policies and plans for the year;
  • to elect branch officers and branch representatives to external bodies for the coming year
  • to report on the branch’s finances;
  • to report on the branch’s activity during the past year ;
  • to receive a report on the annual assessment.

 If you would like to submit a motion or an agenda point to the AGM agenda, please email the full text of your motion to Ruth Cashman rcashman@lambeth.gov.uk or to UNISON, Room G.3. Lambeth Town Hall, 1 Brixton Hill, London SW2 1RW

Please see below if you would like to stand as, or nominate a candidate to be an Officer of the Branch. If so write to our nominations officer Paul at PDFitzgerald@lambeth.gov.uk If you have any questions about roles and responsibilities or particular officers do not hesitate to contact us.

Please see below for important deadlines.

12 December 2023: Nominations for Officer and delegate elections close
9 January 2024: Motions and rule change deadline, motions will then be circulated a few days later.
23 January: Alternative motions deadline. Due to nature of the AGM we cannot accept amendments, instead members are asked to write alternative motions.
6 February: AGM papers distributed
16 February: Deadline for emergency motions.

Officer posts at the UNISON branch

Branch Secretary                In charge of day to day running of the branch, overall strategy, campaigns, etc (5 days facility agreed)
Assistant Branch Secretary     Currently three roles for overseeing policy, casework and campaigns
Branch Chair                        The branch chair facilitates branch and committee meetings, and may also be a senior negotiator.
Branch Vice Chair               Chairs meetings when the branch chair is unavailable
Branch Treasurer                 Responsible for finances in collaboration with the secretary
Deputy Branch Treasurer   Assists the branch treasurer
Publicity Officer                    Helps produce newsletters, manage social media accounts, press releases and so on.
Membership Officer             Assists with recruitment and retention, managing our membership database.
Health and Safety Officer##  Watch that badly fixed light! Is work making you stressed? Health and safety is the name of the game.
Environmental Officer         Helps keep the branch up to date on green issues and develops campaigns and policy (will be a very important role in years to come!)
Equality Officer                    Is responsible for equalities issues, assisting self-organised groups and being a union lead on equalities at work
International Officer            Keeps an eye on the news, is informed about international issues and feeds campaign ideas into the branch (e.g. anti-fascism in Brazil, solidarity with trade unionists in Colombia, anti-war campaigning in the Middle East)
Welfare Officer                     The lead person for assisting members with any welfare issues and providing access to UNISON’s welfare fund.
Learning Co-ordinator#      Works with employers and co-ordinates the work of union learning reps in supporting members with lifelong learning and skills for life
Education Officer                 Helps arrange training courses and education programmes for members, stewards, health and safety reps and branch officers.
Returning Officer                 Oversees elections for the AGM and any by elections that may be held for officer posts or convenor roles.
Branch Auditor                     Checks over our finances and ensures we have complied with UNISON regulations.
Deputy Branch Auditor       Helps the branch auditor carry out their duties
Young Members Officer**  Coordinates campaigning and organising work among younger members – are you under 30 and interested?
Labour Link Officer++         A crucial role in liaising with local Labour Parties and coordinating delegates from UNISON to Labour to advocate for our unions agenda.
** must be under 30 at end of their term of office (early 2023)  
++must be a Labour Party member who pays into the Affiliated Political Fund
# must be a trained ULR        (training provided)
## must be a trained safety rep (training provided)

All posts are open to job share 

Open Letter to Conservative and Labour parties on the Palestine/Israel conflict

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Agreed at the Lambeth UNISON branch committee 17 October 2023

Lambeth Unison and Lambeth Black Worker’s group are gravely concerns by the current war in Israel and Palestine and the atrocity being committed in Gaza. We urge the UK Government and the opposition Labour Party to STOP blindly supporting and funding the Zionist Israeli regime in bombing the Gazi strip and indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestine civilians’ population.  

Hamas attack may be wrong, but two wrongs does not make it right.   Two million innocent Gaza residents who are trapped and imprisoned cannot be condemned. British people do not support killing of innocent peoples. Not in my Name. Please do not kill innocent people in our name. We do not want to be in the side of the oppressor and be party to the mass genocide of innocent impoverished Palestine people of Gaza and wider Palestinian people.

Arab minority Jews, Christian and majority Muslim were peacefully coexisting in the land of Palestine for many centuries. The seed of the problem in the region was actually started by British colonialist/imperialist in 1917  with the establishment of  Balfour Declaration ( see Balfour Declaration – Wikipedia) and their ongoing support led to the establishment of the Zionist regime , the state of Israel around 1948. 

Since 1948 the Zionist Israeli government has been pursing policy of ethnic cleansing ‘ Naqba’ (see Nakba – Wikipedia) and their ongoing oppression, killing and  seizing  of Palestinian Muslim land and creating illegal Israeli settlement at the expense of Palestinian and  contrary to the UN Resolution.

The UN and the World’s community watched and ignored the Palestinian plights. The Zionist government’s apartheid system been allowed to flourish without consequences, which resulted in the largest open-air prison of refugee, where the Israeli government and its powerful military force in the region with tight land, sea and air blockade of Gaza deny residents their basic Human Rights and Freedom of Movement. It is a very abhorrent state of affair, where the Zionist government do not even recognise the 2 million people of Gaza as human but reduce them to mere “animals”. Furthermore, they continually occupy more and more Palestine land in breach of international law.

The Zionist at their whim stop food, water, electricity, medicine, other necessity and oppressed the people as they wish. This is exactly what they are doing now applying a medieval seized tactic. A war crime, indiscriminately killing innocent civilian population; baby, children, women, elderly, medics, and aid workers by carpet bombing residential buildings in Gaza.

Shamefully the UK governments and many of the western allies are ignoring and supporting the oppression in the region.

Given the history and gravity of situation in the region the British Government has duty of care to ensure peace is established as a matter of urgency.  A lasting political solution needs to be found. This need to be done with fairness, justice, and equity without any bias.  We demand the following from our government:

Our demands

  • UK Government, rather than stoking up the war must immediately persuade Israeli Government to exercise restraint and stop immediately its military actions and seize against Gaza population and allow Humanitarians aids.
  • UK government, EU countries, USA and Arab countries must work together and negotiate ceasefire and find political solution for ever lasting peace. Which is fair and just.  For example, recognising and help establishing Independent Palestinian state with full freedom of an independent state without any interference and occupation. The Palestine state as minimum must be based on pre-1967 borders. This position reflects the international consensus, successive UN resolutions and international law, and provides the most realistic chance of peace.
  • UK government use its special relation to persuade USA to support the establishment of Independent Palestinian based on pre-1967 borders and stop the USA from supporting Israel with arms and monies.
  • UK government and the EU ends all arms trade and military collaboration with Israel. We support a mandatory UN arms embargo on Israel and believe that companies supporting Israel’s military industry should end their complicity.
  • The suspension of the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement and the European Union/Israel association agreement until Israel is in full compliance of its human rights clauses and international law;
  • Support from the UK Government to Palestinians in referring human rights violations to the International Criminal Court;
  • The immediate recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the United Nations and the UK government;
  • Force Israel to return land to Palestinian people that was illegally seized.

Emergency motion on the Israeli-Gaza war

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Adopted at the Lambeth UNISON branch committee on 17 October 2023

This branch notes:

  1. That Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas on 8 October in retaliation to Hamas firing hundreds of rockets into and invading Israel with dozens of soldiers/volunteers.
  2. That US President Joe Biden has promised to send to Israel billions of dollars worth of weaponry and ammunition and has already sent the Ford carrier group of six of the USA’s most modern warships to the eastern Mediterranean.
  3. That over 1,200 people have been killed, thousands injured and millions of dollars of damage done in just a few days, with the certainty that these numbers will be multiplied in the following days, weeks and months ahead.

This branch believes:

  1. That Israel is a settler colonial state that has denied the Palestinian people their right to self-determination for 75 years and millions of the original inhabitants of Israel-Palestine the right to return to their homeland, killing tens of thousands in wars.
  2. We do not endorse the atrocities committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israeli civilians and young people in their incursion into Israel but we recognise the boiling rage brought about by decades of occupation, discrimination, arbitrary detention and killings – the de-facto establishment of an apartheid like state by Israel in occupied Palestine. We do not equate the oppressor with the oppressed and continue to support the Palestinian resistance and its right to defend itself against the Israeli army and armed settlers by any means necessary.

This branch resolves:

  1. To publicise all protests against this war and in solidarity with the Palestinians, encouraging members to attend and, where possible, sending our branch banner. This branch affiliates/donates to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  2. To demand Lambeth Council declares its solidarity with the Palestinians and flies their flag from the Town Hall. Calls for an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of all blockades, the return of all stolen and occupied land to the Palestinians, and a just and lasting peace acceptable to all Palestinians.
  3.  To affiliate/donate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  1. To call for an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of all blockades, the return of all stolen and occupied land to the Palestinians, and a just and lasting peace acceptable to all Palestinians. Trade unionists, workers and socialists have a duty to speak up for the Palestinians and anti-Zionist Israelis, who are resisting the Zionist state’s attacks on Palestinians.
  2. To send this motion to the NEC for discussion and voting.