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