GMB Magazine GMB24 Centre Point Spring 2016 | Page 3
In this issue…
Save
the date
2 July
2016
Join us at this year’s Women Chainmakers
Festival in Cradley Heath. Page 30
4 Support British steel!
GMB campaigns to save the steel
industry, plus our Region wins big
at the TUC Awards
6 Jobs saved at JCB
GMB members find a solution at JCB, and we
highlight greed at Birmingham City Council
8 Education update
GMB protects a victimised nursery manager
Building the UK – GMB members make the
bricks, concrete, glass and plaster
18 If the lights go out…
The government needs an energy policy
20 Get your branch online
Websites are easy with Pellacraft
22 GMB 2015 election results
Who you elected across all GMB regions
9 Tim Roache
Welcome to GMB’s new General Secretary
10 EU referendum
An angry ‘yes’ vote
11 Tolpuddle 2016
Free camping for GMB members at
this major summer festival
24 UNIONLINE
GMB members’ own legal service
25 999 emergency!
CenterPoint spends a day with a GMB
member who drives an ambulance
26 Fight the TU Bill
12 Pension protection
And news from our Region’s
Women’s Conference
13 Equal pay claim
Meet our new officers, GMB’s
charitable work, and more
GMB makes sure members
at EDF get decent pensions
If you’re a woman and have
worked for Avery Care Homes,
read this page!
14 Mental health
GMB’s new guide to mental
health at work
Cover: Shutterstock
16 Made by GMB
On average
union members
are 16.7%
better paid
than non
members
GMB
membership
covers you
wherever you
work
28 Notice board
31 Switch to DD
If you work in the public sector, use
this form and stay a GMB member
GMB fights to save West
Midlands steel jobs. Page 4
UNIONLINE
Your trade
union law firm:
0300 333 0303
Not a GMB member? Join today
www.gmb.org.uk/join/join-online
INS24.bir_03.12gw.indd 3
No one can stop
you joining
GMB
Current
Vacancies
@GMB See
www.gmb.org.uk/
about/gmb-jobopportunities
Joe Morgan
and West
GMB Birmingham Secretary
al
on
gi
Re
ds
lan
Mid
We face
a serious
challenge
Welcome to the spring
edition of CentrePoint.
I have to say a farewell and
good luck to Paul Kenny, our
retiring General Secretary, and welcome
and good luck to our incoming General
Secretary, Tim Roache.
No-one should underestimate the
fantastic job Paul Kenny has done for GMB.
He took charge of GMB when we were in a
dire financial situation. He led us through
that period to financial stability and
organisational strength. We all wish Paul
a long, happy and healthy retirement. And
welcome Tim Roache, who comes in at a
time when GMB and the wider movement
face serious challenges and outright attacks
on our ability to defend our members’ terms
and conditions of employment. I’m
confident that Tim will lead us positively
and take on those challenges.
Here in the West Midlands, we are having
to come to terms with what a Combined
Authority will bring for our members. While
we as a union have agreed to be involved in
the setting up of the Combined Authority,
we must remember that our responsibility
is to our members. We must ensure that
it does not become a prescription for
unbridled privatisation of local authority
services and even further job losses.
Finally, a few words on Europe and
whether we should be in or out of the EU.
Almost all the legislation on workers’ rights
has emanated from the European Union
and successive Tory governments have
grudgingly accepted them. Imagine what
would happen to such rights if we were
no longer a part of the EU. They would
be eroded in the name of competitiveness.
GMB will be outlining all of these
possibilities over the coming months,
so our members can make a considered
decision in the referendum.
www.gmb-westmids.org.uk 03
18/02/2016 17:34