GREATER LONDON REGION RETIRED MEMBERS NEWSLETTER Issue 17. November 2012

The Olympics and Paralympics seem like they happened ages ago, but I am sure for the volun-

teers involved with either events the memory will linger for some time

This is what retired member Stanley Cordell had to say about his experience

I was a Games Maker at both the Olympics and Para. Had to make 3 am starts to get to my check in at 6 am. It was definitely inspiring to see blind runners do the marathon and amputees too, what guts they have! they really are great people. It was a honour to be involved with them. It was the best Paralympics ever and I was proud to be part of it.

These are pictures Stan sent in. If you have taken part in an event that you would like to tell us about

or have pictures you would like to share, please send them to me, post, email m.barr@unison.co.uk

IT Training Courses These courses have been so popular, everyone attending has enjoyed them

and learnt a lot, giving them confidence to try out new things on the computer, now they know they

can’t break them. Members if they didn’t have an email account to begin with, leave with one, Its

opened up a whole new world, for communicating , storing information and shopping. Hopefully we

will have funding next year for more courses, In anticipation and you have to book room early, the

first two day course will be on 13th/14th March 2013 at the UNISON Centre, Euston Road, if you

are interest in attending contact Maggie at m.barr@unison.co.uk for a place. Photos taken at the

course have been used in the regional training booklet, and other regions are looking to put the

courses on as well.

With the recent announcements by all the major energy suppliers that costs are set to rise once

more, “There for you” UNISON Welfare, is again gearing up to run its winter fuel grants pro-

gramme in the new year. The process will be similar to previous years and an amount of money

has been ring-fenced to support this initiative. The scheme runs form 1st January to

28th February 2013. The scheme is targeted at household with net income of £18,000

or less and retired members. The application form will be available to down load on

www.unison.org.uk or ring 020 7121 5620

EDITORIAL by Rob Beeston

Well this will be our last newsletter for 2012 and the encouraging thing is we seem to be reaching more members every year which can only be good news. First I would like to say how pleasing it was to see so many of our members on the March on October 20th , marching with their branches and supporting our colleagues in work and also voicing their concerns over the cuts and attack on our pensions by this government. A few of us were also official TUC stewards on the march which shows our commitment to the cause. My only concern is having achieved a great turn out of over 100,000 what are they going to do next? We cannot afford to sit back for many months before we organise some

thing else. Because you can not lead people to the top of the hill and do nothing, they will all roll back down again. The TUC must make sure this does not happen. On our “Elder Abuse “ campaign once again we got a motion passed at the NRM Conference, and in Oc-tober I was invited to speak at a seminar on Health and Safety in Wales, the reception to our campaign by the delegates was brilliant. We aim to do more of this, but to get more out of the campaign we need more branches in our own Region to invite us along to speak on it and make members aware of what issues rally are, any offers ?, I am happy to come along to branch AGM’s to promote the campaign. Could you ask your branches, tell them about the campaign, We had an excellent turn out at our seminar in September, over seventy delegates attended. The next one is the ADM in February 2013, make sure you register through your branch. The reason I say this is because some members are turning up at these events not registered. So we have decided in future you will be allowed in but will be classed as a visitor as per UNSION conferences, which means you cannot participate in any debate or vote on any issue but just observe, It also throws the num-bers for lunch out. Well all that leaves me to do now is wish all a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2013 especially health wise.

20th October March for a Better Future, my part

I volunteered to help steward the March on the 20th. Had to be there on the Embankment for 8am, the van had already been and gone dropping off flags, placards, tabards, whistles and the ever popular Vu-vuzela’s. Not popular with me. I was working with the team from Head Office, on the Golden rope, that was my job for the day, what is the Golden Rope you may ask. It is the rope that is held across the road, at the front and the back of the area allocated to UNISON, in this case behind UNITE and in front of the GMB, once the police have given the nod that the road is closed . I was holding the rope at the back of the space, Helped GMB build their banner and watched their band tune up. Our area quickly be-gan to fill up with UNISON people and branch banners. Any stragglers who ventured into the area , were given a purple tabard to wear and vuvzela’s to blow. The road was closed at 10am and the March started to move off around midday. The sun came out briefly. The noise as we walked down the Em-bankment was deafening, with so many people packed together, as Dave Prentis said last year, a sea of purple and green, I found it quite emotional, a bit tearful, but a big smile too, to see all these people marching in a common cause, Fantastic. Walked alongside the March, lots of booing as we passed Downing street. To be honest when we got to Trafalgar Square, I stood and watched the March go by for 30 minutes, and it was still coming when I went to Charing Cross to catch the train home. I was in need of a comfort break, and the noise was beginning to get to me. It was estimated that around 100,000 and 200,000 turned out for the March which was really good, There was also Marches organ-ised by the TUC going on in Ireland and Scotland. There will be more Marches organised. To see pho-tos and read more about the day go to www.unison.org.uk , click on “Follow the March” Maggie Barr

If you would like to be on my email tree, please contact me

on m.barr@unison.co.uk

Once again it was a successful day with over seventy delegates attend-ing. The Seminar was opened by

Chris Remington from the Regional Office who outlined what we as retired members can contribute to our branches like helping with the recruitment drive and other jobs in the office. He did empha-sise that the membership within UNINSO was getting older, the average age is about forty five years old. The Region have now embarked on targeting young people into involvement with the union, from the regional office down into branches. A good Q&A session followed.

The next speaker was Julie Grant Head of the UNISON Welfare Charity “There for You” she said that because of the austerity policies by this government there had been a big demand on the

Welfare. Julie also pointed out that more and more older people were having their homes re-pocessed. Julie also spoke about all the benefits that older people where entitled to but failed to claim, Age UK do a booklet, online called “More money in your Pocket” —a guide to claiming benefits for people over pension age, which is really helpful. You can ring them on 0800 169 65 65 to order this free publication or go online at www.ageuk.org.uk/moneymatters . The Age UK group offers a wide range of products and services specially designed for peo-ple in later life. For more information ring 0800 169 18 19. Q&A followed.

You can contact Welfare 020 7121 5620 . Debt advice 0800 389 3302

We then adjourned for an excellent lunch and a speaker from the charity Action on Elder Abuse gave us a history of the charity and where they are at the present time, many points were raised including our tie up with the charity with our own campaign. After Q&A the Seminar closed, the delegates seemed happy with an interesting day.

Free Will Service

Another service offered to UNISON members is the Free Wills service from Thompsons, which is often overlooked. It is really easy to do and covers your husband/wife /partner. You initially get a form from Thompsons, fill it in, easy questions, all about you. Send it to Thompsons and they will draw up your will. Don’t think if you die everything will automatically go to your other half, it will eventually, once the government has taken their cut. Ring UNISON direct 0845 355 0845 and they will send you the form. Don’t leave it until its to late and the government take all your hard earned money.

Free Travel Pass at 60 as from November 2012 A new style Oyster photo card is to be intro-duced on all Transport for London [TfL] services,24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to everyone at 60. However it will not be valid on buses outside London. It is being funded by TfL, so there is no addi-tional cost to local Councils. Applications will be made on-line from late October, and there will be a paper form for those people without access to the internet. Watch out for details on how to apply. At the same time , despite our opposition , TfL are going to charge £10 for lost Freedom Passes. So hang on to it !! Available from National railway stations. This card is like a stop gap till you are older enough to get your Freedom Pass, if you have your Freedom Pass you wont need this card.

Seminar in September

Useful Contact details

GLRM Regional Committee

Chair -Rob Beeston

07516480568

Rob.beeston@hotmail.co.uk

Secretary—Maggie Barr

0207 535 6559 direct line

m.barr@unison.co.uk

UNISON Welfare

0207 121 5620

UNISON Direct for all other

numbers

0845 355 0845

Catch up on Elder Abuse Campaign

Rob Beeston and Marjorie Roscoe have been working hard on

promoting this campaign to increase signatures and awareness.

The National Retired Members Committee said at the Retired

Members Conference “ that they would like to take this opportu-

nity to commend the efforts of the greater London Region in pro-

moting their Elder Abuse Campaign to the wider union. Their

work has involved producing an electronic petition and leaflet.

The campaign has also had a presence at National delegate,

health, Women’s and Black Members Conferences. The work

continues and the National Committee remains committed to the

objective of the campaign, particularly in the light of the decision

made at National Delegates Conference.

Reference was also made by Kim Silver [UNISON NEC] to the

sterling efforts being made by UNSION’s retired members in their

campaign for elder abuse to be made a specific criminal offence

with higher penalties where it can be shown that the person had

specifically targeted the older person. She expressed her pride

that this campaign had originated in her region, Greater London.

Information on how you can get involved with the campaign can

be found at www.unison.org.uk/london and you can sign the peti-

tion, UNISON Legislation for Elder Abuse at

http://epetition.direct.gov.uk/petition/27208

To date we have only 472 signatures

Email me and I will reply , the link will be on my reply and all

you will need to do is click on it and sign, the spam word is a

problem, just keep clicking for one you can read. The peti-

tion will send you an email, to your email address, which

you must click on to get your signature on the petition.

[m.barr@unison.co.uk]

Health and safety Seminar Visit to Wales in October

We were invited to the seminar to promote our Elder Abuse Cam-

paign. First off I gave a talk to between forty and fifty delegates,

they came and signed our petition took all the materials I had

brought with me, I must say it was well worth the visit and shows

that direct contact can achieve Rob Beeston

Rob in Wales, Llandrindod Wells

Rob at the RMC Cardiff

2013 Annual delegates meeting Friday 22nd February —

Hughes Parry Hall has been booked again for the venue. The

forms for delegate to the meeting and the nomination form for the

GL Region RM Committee will be sent out to branches and mem-

bers I have on the mailing list around 3rd January 13. All forms

must be signed by your branch, closing date for returning

forms Friday 1st February. Wishing you all a Happy

Christmas and a Good New

Year