| UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch |
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10 years of City of Edinburgh UNISONThe City of Edinburgh Branch was founded on 13 May 1996 when ex NALGO and NUPE Edinburgh District and Lothian Region Branches merged. And right away it was a lively time. We faced a conditions crisis and members rejected the package by 9-1 in a ballot in late November after a 700 strong (yes 700) Branch Meeting in August. And on top of that hundreds of members faced cuts in salaries due to the Detriment Regulations. After months of negotiating that was brought down to seven and those cases were to be further considered following test cases at an Industrial Tribunal. I recall spending New Year 1996/97 trooping round TV and radio stations after the Council issued redundancy notices on 31 December. Still, we won the national magazine competition. 1998 saw even more budget cuts and what seemed to be the annual fight to save Childrens Centres (now Child & Family Centres). We won the national magazine competition In 1999, the Council faced a cut of nearly £28m. The consequences were reduced services and 165 job losses, mainly met by voluntary severance. School meals: The withdrawal of subsidy for catering threatened 90 job losses in school meals. But the school meals service was saved following a massive campaign. General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaff was the guest at the AGM that year and we won the national magazine competition The 2000 Millennium brought a strike by Revenue and Benefits staff which won a compromise settlement on a new grading structure. The bitter janitors' dispute rolled on with huge mis-information going back and forward. I know it was UNISON that proposed conciliation and the Council that refused - but try telling the Evening News that. In the end the jannies won the day. We also got fair deals on Millennium payments. But the major issue was the pay dispute with national strikes rolling on through to 2001. We won best website in 2000 and 2002 along with second prize in the magazine competition. Branch organisation was strong and as Branch Secretary Dougie Black said in the Annual Report; "The massive rejection in the second ballot was the envy of other branches and demonstrated the response to all the work put in." 2003 was dominated by two high media profile issues - the nursery nurses' ongoing action and the crisis in Social Work. However there were also major issues in other departments. The Nursery nurses dispute rolled on throughout the year. The Branch took the lead in discrediting the O'Brien Report into the death of a child when many others were expressing concerns about the report's accuracy and competence but were not willing to speak up. Oh, and we won the magazine competition. 2004 saw The Nursery Nurse dispute end with a 10 point rise for many members but it still kept us all busy tying up outstanding issues. The huge reorganisation in Education and Social Work and the campaign against Housing Stock Transfer also placed considerable pressures on stewards and activists. John Stevenson |
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