Happy Birthday Louise..... Justice for the 96

Whilst this is a blog relating to my quest to be elected to Unison's NEC I would just like to beg your indulgence to allow me to pay personal tributes to two moments in time to which I am forever emotionally linked.

To my beautiful niece Louise who would be 30 today. She died tragically at the tender age of 18 but continues to be remembered & loved by her family, friends & brave father, mother & siblings..... love to Billy, Philis, Phil & Bri xxx 

26 years ago a preventable tragedy struck Liverpool supporters and 96 of them never came home.  For almost 26 years Liverpool fans were blamed for the tragedy and a city was condemned.  We are close to justice but not their yet. Margaret Thatcher, the Police & the Sun are amongst the many guilty parties. Let justice be done - Justice for the 96 - Love to the families xxx

Have you voted yet?

I have voted - have you?

If you have lost or not received a ballot paper please phone 0800 0857 857 & one will be sent to you.

Join me in voting for:

• A leadership that actively opposes cuts & protect jobs
• A leadership that will campaign for fair pay
• A leadership that will use the combined strength of all its Service Groups in campaigns & actions & not leave members isolated
• A leadership that will effectively campaign and take action with other Public Sector Trade Unions & not capitulate to the government and employers
• A leadership that will only support politicians fighting austerity

It's in our hands!

We wanna be elected!

RECORD OF THE WEEK:

ALICE COOPER - ELECTED!!!

http://youtu.be/K_Cg2e70HqA

We wanna be elected!

Vote & spread the word.....

The election for the NEC is underway & ballot papers are coming through your doors now!  If you haven't received a ballot paper by the 14/04/15 please call 0800 0857 957 to get it sorted!

Reclaim the Union candidates can be found on the pages of this blog or through the official blog of the Reclaim the Union campaign blogspot:   http://reclaimtheunion.blogspot.co.uk

This is the week of the 'share!'

Ballot papers go out today. Please help this week by spreading the word in the South West about my campaign. Share the blog, like & share the Facebook page, email your contacts, talk to your friends & colleagues. You really can help me win this NEC seat in the South West!

There are 70,000 Unison members in the South West.

They work in local government, health, schools, colleges, the police, community & voluntary sector and energy & public utilities.

They live across the South West in the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire & Somerset including all the major cities in between.

As you can see the electorate is vast so you really can help by sharing with your friends. Unison members can be found in the strangest of places!

Fair Pay

Fair Pay is central to the 'Reclaim the Union' campaign for a leadership that reflects the needs & wishes of the entire Unison membership.

The recent fair pay campaigns have resulted in defeat whilst current and future campaigns are also doomed to failure unless their is a change in attitude of those in the leadership of Unison.

Time & time again the membership are rallied into strike action to be followed by capitulation, often after a single day of strike action.

There is generally an acknowledgement that when it comes to fair pay there needs to be a coordinated campaign across all public service trade unions but it never transpires into sustained joint action.

In fact Unison cannot even coordinate its own Service Groups just look at Local Government, Health & the Police and Justice Service Groups - all recently campaigning for fair pay but all having to go it alone!

The goal of fair pay has to unite Unison Service Groups, unite Trade Unions & deliver a imaginative and long term strategy that will challenge our employers and politicians and make them realise they are in a fight they cannot win.

If we cannot deliver fair pay what is our relevance as negotiators?

This is our opportunity, right now, to elect a leadership that will deliver!

We need a campaign with bite!

Congrats to Suzy Franklin who has been elected to Unison NEC unopposed. Suzy is a socialist who works tirelessly in the NHS & campaigns tirelessly FOR the NHS and all public services. She is a leading anti-racist activist and deserves her  victory. I feel extremely privileged that Suzy has endorsed my campaign & it's now my aim to join her on the NEC so we can form a formidable South West team fighting for fair pay & against cuts across public services, public utilities & the voluntary sector.

Follow the campaign:

Blog - berny4nec.blogspot.co.uk

Facebook - Elect Berny Parkes as Unison NEC South West Male Seat

Twitter - @bernyNEC  (not personally managed)