A woman ahead of her time?
With this year marking the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth, Claire Harman’s biography reveals the drama and tragedy of this literary talent’s life, as well as the intelligence, creativity and determination that drove her to create such classic novels as Jane Eyre, Villette and Shirley. Harman considers life as part of the enigmatic Bronte clan and assesses the new types of heroines Charlotte created in her sadly short life. We have one copy of this detailed biography to give away, along with a DVD of Jane Eyre – so send us your name, address and union number to the address on this page by deadline, marking entryBronte.
Music/Wildlife Wordsearch
This issue it’s the UNITE In a nut shell
Trade union Act
The TU Act is still bad news for trade unions – but some hard-fought concessions have been won. We summarise below.
Thresholds for strike ballots
• a 50 per cent turnout among all eligible voters still needed
• plus for those in ‘important public services’ at least 40 per cent must vote ‘yes’ – on top of the 50 per cent turnout needed for all strike actions
• concession secured: public services support workers in ‘ancillary services’ like cleaners and technicians, will be spared the ‘double threshold’.
Electronic voting
• concession secured: govt must commission independent review into use of electronic voting
• review must begin within six months of Act’s royal assent
• ministers must publish a response – paving way for modern balloting to become a reality.
Check-off
• concession secured: govt dropped aim to end check-off for public sector workers
• check-off can continue as long as unions agree to any admin costs cover.
Political fund
• bid to raid union funding via backdoor – to need members to opt in to their unions’ political fund failed
• measure attacked by peers and ministers as shamelessly partisan, hitting Labour party funding by £8m a year
• concession secured: only new members need to opt in to political funds
• concession secured: members will not be required to renew their opt-in every five years as originally proposed
Name Address
Membership number
• concession secured: opt-ins can be submitted electronically, including email and online forms, as opposed to original opt-in by post plan
• concession secured: unions will have 12 months for opt-in to transition instead of originally proposed three months.
Send your entry with your name, address and Union number to: Leisure time, uniteWORKS 29 Saltdean Way, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN39 3SS by Friday September 23, 2016
Many music groups are named after Nature’s crea- tures. Within this issue’s grid, we’ve hidden 10 of the most famous. If you can circle all 10 you could win a £25 voucher or a a Multi-Tool 6-in-1 Pen.
33 uniteWORKS Summer 2016 More concessions include
• concession secured: changes to proposals on picketing restrictions
• concession secured: the notice period for industrial action
• concession secured: proposed caps on facility time
• concession secured: new powers granted to the certification officer, who regulates trade union activity. For more see pages 14 to 17
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