GMB Britain's General Union - Northern Region - Providing security at work as well as numerous benefits and services

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Dear GMB Member, 500 GMB members who have been elected to go as delegates to GMB Annual Congress 2009 assembled in Blackpool on Sunday June 14th. You can join them at GMB Congress by watching GMB Congress TV live at www.gmb.org.uk. Go to the HOME webpage and click on the special panel at the foot of the page. If you don't have Windows Media Player you can just follow the instructions for the free download.

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Pay & Conditions We met the company on the 30^th March 2009 and presented this Years Pay Claim. The Company thanked the Consortium and adjourned the meeting to consider the claim.

To date (21^st April) we have had no dates to start formal negotiations. The fly in the ointment as always appears to be the guidelines from the DWP and treasury.

It is now a year on since the factories started closing and our friends, colleagues and comrades left their factories for the last time. The trade unions and the workers who left were promised help and support. The workers who left the York factory were promised a job shop in York.

That hasn�t happened; they were promised proper permanent good quality jobs that hasn�t happened, all that has happened is a catalogue of broken promises, by the Company and by the Government. The Consortium have not forgotten, or forgiven the betrayals to the Remploy workers by the Government and their poodles on the Remploy Board.

Consortium members are asking the factories in their constituencies to provide as much information as they can as to;

The Consortium of trade unions want to find out what experiences the disabled workers who have left Remploy under modernisation and VR have had. Have they managed to find decent employment or have they, as we suspect, experienced the same experiences as their comrades in York, those of broken promises and being left on the scrapheap?

Hugh Bayley MP the Labour MP for York is fully supportive of the York workers campaign to have a factory re-opened in York under the Remploy umbrella and is working closely with Phil Davies and the Remploy Consortium to exert as much political pressure to bear on the Government and on Gordon Brown who it will be remembered, promised Tracy Cross and her father and colleagues from the GMB that he would look sympathetically at the issue.

Jonathan Shaw, the new minister has already dismissed the idea saying that Remploy York will not reopen under any circumstances. Mr. Shaw may do as well to remember that a General Election is looming, and within a very short time, Gordon Brown, Jonathan Shaw and James Purnell will be asking all of us for our support at the ballot box and Gordon Brown�s Labour Government needs all the friends it can get at the moment.

VR and the decimation of the factory network has resulted in our organisation losing good people. One position that is vitally important today in Remploy is the role of Diversity Rep. and we need one in every factory.

The diversity reps role is to examine the make up of the site with regard to women, members of the black and ethnic minority, the gay and lesbian community and other groupings that we have in our communities. The diversity rep must work with the trade unions and the Company to ensure that our factories are fully inclusive and are free from any discrimination and bigotry.

A fully inclusive workplace is not just a good thing to have, it is not only vital to ensure the health and welfare of all employed at a factory or site. It is also an imperative for the Company when pursuing Public Procurement Contracts. As the role of the diversity rep is developed the Trade Union Consortium and the Company will be engaging in comprehensive training programmes for our Diversity reps.

Following VR it is quite obvious that we need to share the workload out a bit better, on far too many occasions the same individuals or couple of individuals have all the work put on their willing shoulders. Rather than expecting someone to tackle things and then be upset at the result, why not grasp the Opportunities that are there now.

You can advance yourself in the Trade Union if you choose to. Don't forget every good shop steward starts out at the bottom and works their way up. Its the training and support you get from the Gmb that makes all the difference. For further details contact your TU Consortium Delegate. Their contact details can be found clicking on this link here.

Support our Union, because in the long run we will also be supporting ourselves!!

I doubt that there is anyone in Remploy that does not believe that a �Second Front� of factory closures or mergers; call it what you will, is on the cards. The only question, I believe, in most people�s minds is - When?

Whenever that day comes, the support of our MPs, our Welsh Assembly Members, Scottish Parliament Members and our European Parliament members will be vital in our strategy of protecting our factories and now is the time to do it. Every Labour MP will be looking to the future and asking themselves �Will I have a Job after the next election?� and tempting though it might be to say to the Labour Government �you are history!� the reality is that if the Tories get in we will be the ones that will in all likelihood be consigned to the history books. So it�s a case of mutual self preservation and we must realize that the Trade Union Campaign started during the campaign is still very much running.

I know that our wounds are still raw after the factory closures and the way that the Labour Government have let us down in Remploy and I know that it is very tempting to either stay away from the polling booth or alternatively to vote for some party in the election.

I would respectfully remind all our members that the European Labour group has consistently supported Remploy Workers and the fight to keep factories open. We thank them for their support and I think we should repay their hard work by turning out on June the 4^th and Voting Labour in the European Elections

That concludes my report and I promise it will not be as long until the next one.

TUC DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY 28 MARCH 2009

Over 45,000 members of Trade Unions and other organisations flocked from from all over Britain plan to be in London last Saturday, 28^th March 2009 to take part in a national demonstration called for by the TUC and a number of other organisations which coincided with the G20 summit taking place in this week. It went off as a very successful and violence free demonstration with the overriding memory of a carnival atmosphere to it. Yet at the same time sending out a very serious message to power brokers of what is needed from them.

Below: Message from GMB National Secretary Phil Davies.

Just a short note to thank and congratulate everybody who was able to make it to the March on Saturday. Particularly those selfless and highly motivated activists from Remploy who came from all over the country to show their unflagging support for their Union colleagues, despite their many varied disabilities and handicaps .

As you can see from the photos show below, the GMB turnout was easily the biggest of the trade union sections of the March. All regions of the Union were represented and it was truly inspiring to see so many officers, staff and rank and file members turning out on the issue of jobs and global poverty.

The GMB had lead position amongst the trade union delegations, quite rightly so, both on our turnout and our organisation and, I know that the sounds of the New Orleans Jazz Band did not go as far back as the tail end of our portion of the March, which at times, seemed to stretch almost as far as the eye could see.

The turnout of GMB banners was really, really good. I think generally speaking, it shows that when the GMB decides to go on the road, it makes its presence felt.

Once again, thank you to everybody. I will be writing to a number of regions to pass on thanks to some of the branches that I saw, some of whom had been on the road for six or seven hours, before arriving at the Embankment.

Very best wishes and as I say thanks to everybody who helped organise it. I thought it was a real feel good factor and a testament to how far the Union has come over the last few years.

Phil Davies GMB National Secretary

Below: Message from GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny

�On Saturday 28 March 2009 GMB members joined the many thousands of people that marched through London to demand decent jobs, a low-carbon world and a fair distribution of wealth.

The economy is in crisis with job losses announced everyday. Public services are under threat as tax-payers foot the bill for stopping the collapse of the banks.

Barack Obama will join other world leaders in London for the G20 summit at the start of April. Some want business as usual, but we need a new start.

One that puts people - not top bankers� bonuses - first.

Even before the crisis, the world suffered poverty and faced the threat of climate change. The G20 must fight recession by making the world fairer and greener."

Below are Photos of the March with GMB National Secretary Phil Davies leading the way for Remploy

EACH DAFFODIL REPRESENTS EACH REMPLOY WORKER NOW OUT OF WORK AND SHOULD ACT AS A STARK REMINDER TO THIS GOVERNMENT OF THE SHAMEFUL DISGUSTING AND DISGRACEFUL WAY ALMOST 3,000 REMPLOY WORKERS HAVE BEEN TREATED BY THEM.

It does to all the current Remploy workers and their former workmates who no longer have a job in Remploy