The outcome of the general election will have a significant impact on UNISON members.  It will impact on pay, on jobs and on our public services.

The Skills for Strength organising training day on Saturday 7 March was a great success and I got a lot out of it.  Copied below is an extract from my closing speech.  The materials from the event will soon be on the regional website at:unisonnw.org/skillsforstrength.

Last week I was pleased to speak to a meeting of teachers who are members of the NUT.  UNISON represents support staff in schools and there are clearly opportunities in working with teachers’ unions on issues of common concern.

Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an international commemoration is taking place at Auschwitz, which was liberated exactly 70 years ago.　

I’m ever so pleased to report that UNISON North West has met its 2014 recruitment target of 25,000 new members.  This is an incredible achievement.  Despite the job losses and fragmentation of public services caused by the austerity agenda, our union in the region has grown again this year.  In workplaces across the North West, stewards and activists have played an essential role in this success.  It’s a great effort.

This week, I had the pleasure of chairing a packed meeting about TTIP – the ‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’.  Despite its mysterious language, TTIP is really important and we all need to know about it.

Immigration is a big issue today. Certain newspapers have spread alarm about it almost  daily for many years. Slowly it has risen up the agenda.  Yet is this really the biggest problem facing union members today? If so, what exactly is it that causes the concern?

NW Regional recruitment for the year stands at 23,800, which is 15% above our previous year to date figure. We have already passed the total 2013 recruitment of 22,400 and are just 1,200 from our 2014 target of 25,000. We are by far the highest recruiting region in UNISON this year and our high levels of recruitment have ensured that we are currently in net gain during 2014.

Local government has borne the brunt of austerity, and this week we saw some councils in the region begin to make announcements about how they will try to cope with further central government cuts in the new year.  The scale of cuts to our councils is eye-watering, and there has been significant media attention in Manchester, Salford, Cumbria and Trafford – to name just four councils.

Yesterday, I was pleased to take part in a question time event about how we make the economy work more fairly for all. The event was at the University of Manchester and was organised by CLES. Amongst the panellists was Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%.