P14 NEW LOW FOR BOSSES P20 ‘THEY’RE INCREDIBLE’ P22 INSULT TO INJURY Cleaning company’s disgraceful attack Convenor Wendy Nichols pays an Ministers want injured people to on sacked Kinsley Academy strikers emotional visit to a Gambian school fund insurance company fat cats UNISON SPRING 2017 | ISSUE 26 | £3 THEACTIVE! MAGAZINE FOR MEMBERS IN YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE WWW.UNISON-YORKS.ORG.UK FROM ZERO TO HERO AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP LEFT LAURA RILEY AT ROCK BOTTOM. NOW SHE HELPS OTHER WOMEN P08 UNISON:ESSENTIAL COVER FOR THOSE DELIVERING PUBLIC SERVICES DONCASTER RACEDAY SATURDAY AFTERNOON 5 AUGUST 2017 Exclusive special ticket offer for UNISON members Early booking incentive drinks voucher for ‘2 for 1’ Grandstand Tickets each of the first 400 ticket sales courtesy Total price £13 (2 tickets) of UNISON Living. On sale: from 1 February 2017 Offer closes: 5.00pm on 28 July 2017 Please note: there will be a To book tickets call 01302 304200 and quote £2.50 transaction charge per order except for purchases ‘the UNISON raceday offer’, your UNISON of four or less tickets. membership number or UNISON branch code. UPGRADE! Members can upgrade to two County Stand tickets for £30 (These are usually £32.50 each!) SPRING 2017 UNISON ACTIVE! 03 WELCOME UNISON:ESSENTIAL COVER OurUnion WE’LL STAND BY YOU FOR THOSE DELIVERING General Secretary Dave Prentis n diffi cult times, counted. achievement after PUBLIC SERVICES Regional Secretary our union has At a dark time sixty years. And John Cafferty Ialways pulled for those who value supporting the public Regional Convenor DAVE PRENTIS together and fought rights at work and service champions, Wendy Nichols GENERAL without whom our SECRETARY for our shared values. fi ght bigotry in all DONCASTER UNISON Yorkshire & UNISON members its forms, UNISON communities and Humberside are resilient and members don’t just our loved ones would Commerce House, Wade Lane, Leeds LS2 8NJ spirited, passionate stand fi rm, they not be cared for and T: 08000 857 857 or freephone and dedicated – and continue to march protected. RACEDAY textphone 08000 967 968 W: www.unison-yorks.org.uk always supporting in the direction of Your union will each other. justice. stand by you every Lines are open 6am-midnight That’s the kind of Together we can step of the way SATURDAY Monday-Friday and 9am-4pm Saturdays members we have. continue to make throughout this year That’s the kind of great strides in the and the years to Editor union we are. And year ahead. come. Fighting for AFTERNOON Barrie Clement at times like these Providing the the best deal at work, Consulting Editor – when the battles best possible public fi ghting for rights at Mary Maguire ahead are expected services – from work and at home and Chief Photographer to be diffi cult and it local government standing up to those 5 AUGUST Jim Varney can feel like those that still gives so who wish to do down Contributors who share our much despite years our public services. Peter Carroll, Helen Hague, Ryan of savage cuts, to So let’s stand Fletcher, Tom Jones, Peter Lazenby, values face an uphill 2017 Mary Maguire, Annie Mitchell, Paul struggle – UNISON the National Health together – let’s stay Routledge members continue Service – still our strong, and lets win Cover Image to stand up and be nation’s greatest together. Mark Harvey Published on behalf of UNISON by Century One Publishing Ltd. Alban Row, 27-31 Verulam Road Tories’ Big Lie about austerity St. Albans, Herts AL3 4DG T: 01727 893 894 F: 01727 893 895 The Government is has been an ideologically-driven Exclusive special ticket E: [email protected] systematically starving the attack on working people and the W: www.centuryonepublishing.uk public sector of the funding communities they serve. offer for UNISON members Advertising enquiries WENDY it needs to provide essential But we continue to do everything David Murray NICHOLS T: 01727 739 182 REGIONAL services, and our members are in our power to fi ght for our E: [email protected] CONVENOR bearing the brunt of the misery members` jobs, pay and conditions. Early booking incentive Art Editor W.Nichols this is causing. We have joined forces with the drinks voucher for ‘2 for 1’ Grandstand Tickets Heena Gudka E: [email protected] They have suff ered years of public to stand together against the each of the first 400 real-terms cuts in their pay while numerous attacks on services in our Total price £13 (2 tickets) Design and Layout ticket sales courtesy Caroline Jakobsson coping with ever greater pressure on communities. of UNISON Living. On sale: from 1 February 2017 T: 01727 739 189 them in their working lives. I cannot praise our members E: [email protected] The fear of redundancy looms over too highly for their resilience Offer closes: 5.00pm on 28 July 2017 Printed by members in local government and and solidarity in such appalling Unison Print the NHS and there seems no end circumstances. They know that Copyright reproduction in whole P14 Please note: there will be a NEW LOW FOR BOSSES in sight to the Tories’ war on public their union will continue to fi ght for Cleaning company’s disgraceful To book tickets call and quote attack on sacked Kinsley strikers 01302 304200 or part by any means without P20 Convenor‘THEY’RE Wendy’s emotionalINCREDIBLE’ visit to a school in The Gambia P22 INSULT TO INJURY them and their written permission of the Ministers want the injured to fund services. They have slashed budgets £2.50 transaction charge per UNISON insurance fat cats ‘the UNISON raceday offer’, your UNISON publisher is strictly forbidden. in the name of austerity and the communities, order except for purchases UNISON and the publisher THEACTIVE! MAGAZINE FOR MEMBERS IN YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE accept no responsibility for FROM ZERO SPRING 2017 | ISSUE 26 | £3 result is the crisis in the NHS and leading from of four or less tickets. TO HERO WWW.UNISON-YORKS.ORG.UK membership number or UNISON branch code. errors, omissions or the AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP LEFT LAURA RILEY AT ROCK BOTTOM. NOW SHE HELPS consequences thereof. OTHER WOMEN P08 the destruction of local government the front in the © UNISON 2017 services. battle against Yet the budget defi cit has risen to the cruel UPGRADE! Members can upgrade to two County Stand tickets for £30 (These are usually £32.50 each!) historically unprecedented levels, injustices of revealing the lie that austerity this dreadful would bring economic stability. This government. 04 UNISON ACTIVE! SPRING 2017 NEWS Fight for NHS EVENTS 2017 April – September Campaigners in the ended up at the head of UNISON-led battle to the march. Our campaign Yorkshire Barrio Fiesta 2017 save the A&E department has inspired people from Saturday June 10 (10 am- 5 pm) at Huddersfi eld Royal across the community The Ripon Racecourse, Boroughbridge Road, Infi rmary took their to get involved and fi ght Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1UG message to a national for our treasured health rally in London. service.” Natalie was Durham Miners Gala Thousands of people interviewed for Channel Saturday July 8, Durham City from across the country 4 and ITV national gathered on March 4 to programmes giving the First UK Pride Event, call on the Government to Huddersfi eld campaign an Saturday 22 July, Hull fund the NHS properly, even higher profi le. writes Peter Carroll. Local Tory MP Jason Bradford Festival Friday July 28 – Sunday July 30 News of the campaign McCartney has been in Huddersfi eld had trying to get in on the act, UNISON Doncaster Race Day spread to other parts of alleging the campaign Saturday August 5,Doncaster Race Course the country, according has been ‘politicised’. He to UNISON regional claims to have spoken Leeds Pride organiser Natalie to ministers about the Saturday August 5 and Sunday August 6 Ratcliff e (below). closure plan, but has She said: “Some produced no evidence South Yorkshire Festival campaigners have sought of it. Saturday August 13. 12 Noon – 17.00 hours advice from us so they Now the campaign is Wortley Hall, Wortley can use our experience considering seeking a Sheffi eld S35 7DB as a blueprint in judicial review into their own areas. the closure decision. Hull Freedom Festival “We took Natalie said: Queens Gardens, Hull three full coach “Lawyers think Friday September 1 – Sunday September 3 loads from we have a very Huddersfi eld good case, but we Rotherham Show down to London will continue to Saturday September 10 and Sunday September 11 Clifton Park, Clifton Lane, Rotherham S65 2AA to make our voices explore all available heard and we avenues.” would keep the promise Snape said the lives Theresa’s Test she made at Conservative of millions of workers party conference in had been transformed Melanie Onn MP, former out’ by Conservative October last year, that by these hard-won regional organiser for MPs. workers’ rights will be workplace rights. UNISON in Yorkshire Melanie, who maintained. “But they could now and represents Great Melanie said: “Theresa face a future fi lled with Humberside Grimsby, drew up a May failed working job insecurity and a (left) was bill to safeguard every people at the fi rst hurdle labour market where left furious aspect of employment by enlisting her MPs to zero-hours contracts after her legislation currently talk about their favourite become the norm. Bill to protected by EU law. radio programmes for “Laws that protect preserve These include rights, four hours instead of people’s right to a decent workers’ such as maternity pay, this Bill.