"In spite of management's efforts to stack up a case against me, which could have resulted in my dismissal Jane acted with the utmost professionalism.She is persistant and leaves no stone unturned. Which is why I had no case to answer.She is the ONLY candidate for Branch Secretary."
"Jane Doolan is simply the best, always has and always will be.Jane has done brilliantly to get active career grades for all the staff at a very difficult time in Mechanical Services.
Jane gets our vote everytime."
"I Support Jane.I have known janee for many years. She has always been very hard working and polite and have found her very helpful, understanding and full of empathy."
| A Page from our history Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER Published: 20 April 2007 |
| Trouble on the menu School catering deal angers unions
UNION chiefs are already heading for
conflict with Cater Link, Islington’s new school dinner provider, just a
week after it was announced that the firm were being given the
prestigious contract.
Unison, the main Town Hall union, accused
Cater Link of lack of consultation with up to 100 dinner staff who will
be providing the new service in the autumn.
Branch secretary Jane Doolan is angry that
Cater Link has even published its new menu for schools on an education
website without liasing with the people who will be preparing and
cooking the food.
It follows the decision to dump previous
school dinner provider Scolarest after a catalogue of complaints from
parents and teachers about the service.
Cater Link will take over the lucrative
contract from September for an undisclosed sum and have pledged to
include up to 90 per cent fresh produce in their menus.
But Ms Doolan says she has studied the new
menus and there is no information about the ingredients or recipes. “On
the face of it the menus look fine,” she added. “But there’s no point in
providing exciting healthy food if they are, for example, using bulking
agents or other unhealthy ingredients. ”
Ms Doolan added that none of her members had
been involved in discussions, despite the new service having to be up
and running by September 1.
She added: “This was meant to be a brand new
dawn in school catering with parents, teachers and dinner staff
involved. Yet so far the new firm have not talked to us. But they are
going to need the goodwill of our members.”
Another potential source of conflict could
be a clause in Cater Link’s contract for “robust training” with “zero
tolerance for absence”.
Ms Doolan added: “What does that mean? Are they planning to sack people who become ill?”
The situation is complicated by the fact
that many schools will be cooking their own meals on site and a few are
planning to stay with Scolarest on an independent basis.
Cater Link was founded in 1993 and provides
school meals for more than 200 schools across the country.
Tony McKenna, who founded the company and continues to run it, said:
“We’ve only just been told that we’ve been appointed. We’re still waiting for the official letter to formally proceed.
“I’m obviously keen to follow up with talks with everyone involved.
“As
far as the menu is concerned there’s a commitment that 90 per cent of
all food will be fresh and the menu will be repeated only once every six
weeks. Menus will also vary seasonally.
He added he didn’t know where the “zero tolerance” for absence came from.
|
At last years budget setting meeting Councillor Catherine West vowed that there would be no library closures. Instead they would explore the option of Trust status. Apart from being contrary to UNISON policy. It was clear that councillors had done little or no research into what this could mean for the service.Staff and buildings would have been transferred out of the council and this would have had far reaching implications for the service and the terms and conditions of Libraries staff. Staff also had concerns that a Trust could impact on their professionalism in terms of policy and stock selection. I arranged a series of departmental meetings and along with Library stewards we did our own research and attended the public consultation meetings. I raised a number of questions and points that clearly could not be answered and we used the local press to highlight these issues.Some slight pressure was applied from one or two local Labour party members for me to drop our campaign against the Trust option but UNISON members were very clear and I had a clear mandate.It was also clear that the public were not keen on going down the Community Library route and certainly did not like the idea of volunteers. The cost of volunteers did not appear to be taken into consideration when the council prepared its public consultation document. However, this was another area that we researched and the expense along with that of CRB checks should make use of volunteers prohibitive.A previous restructure twinned or paired up Libraries and management are currently looking at staff rotas, proposals on opening hours and self service machines,I have met with members in Libraries to discuss the implications of these cuts on staff and services and a number of site meetings are planned over the coming weeks. We are currently proposing to hold a public meeting (details to be confirmed at a later date) on this prior to any changes to opening hours and the introduction of self service machines which are scheduled for later this year.
After months of speculation and meetings. The council in mid December formally decided to bring Homes for Islington (The ALMO) back in house. This is a move widely welcomed by UNISON and staff. Discussions are under way as to how the TUPE transfer of these staff will be carried out as seamlessly as possible. Some parts of HFI will just directly transfer to Housing and Adult Social Services. Although clearly at some point the council may need to consider how this growing department may need to be reorganised. Some sections of HFI e.g. HR and Finance will need to be integrated with LBI. I am leading on the transfer on behalf of the branch and being assisted by Fiona Monkman our Branch Chair.As part of that process informal consultation around proposed structures is currently taking place and we are consulting affected members in HFI and LBIClearly the transfer of such a large staff group will have implications for the structure of our branch. This will need to be revisited after the transfer and this will need to come back to a Special General meeting of the branch later in the year.In April 2012 and in 2013 we will also see the transfer of staff back in house from CEA. We have already seen staff from Kiers Cleaning contract brought back in house and it is hoped that following meetings between LBI and the trade unions the Enterprise contract will also come in.I have been representing UNISON at meetings with management from Environment and Regeneration to discuss bringing the Enterprise contract back in house. This is a positive step as I raised concerns with the Leader of the Council before Christmas regarding previous meetings where I felt there was a move to outsource some of the housing caretaking functions to this company and I pointed out that any attempt to do such a thing would meet fierce resistance from UNISON. Along with the GMB we are attending regular meetings on this issue. It is looking fairly certain that this contract will be brought in house and there may be some implications for the Mechanised Services section based in HFI. I am currently consulting with those members.
Dear Mike
I am more than happy for you to put my Name up for support of Jane as Branch Secretary.
As you know I have had to rely on Jane and yourself to support me and diligently seek ends through means
that at times seemed impossible.
So If you want a job done at the best level and be supported as a person and not a number. My vote will always go for you guys. Jane Has my Vote for Branch Secretary.
God Bless you guys...
The Council wanted to introduce a Trust to run the libraries. The Stewards and I attended all the public meetings and made it very clear that we would fight the Trust idea to the end.Enterprise and the HFI Caretakers
We won through fighting and struggling. The members backed down from their proposal
We met the Labour leaders just before Christmas and were told that we should consider ourselves fortunate as our cleansing service were run by Enterprise but we were surrounded by other less reputable companies.
We made it lear that we would defend our careetaking and other service if they were transferred to Enterprise including a ballot for action.
Next thing we know we are invited to meetings about an in-house bid for Enterprise.
Another victory for us.
