Star date: 20th June 2014

DEMOCRACY IN SALFORD: Part 1…

`YOU WILL VOTE ON BECOMING A MUTUAL - BUT WE'RE NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS!'

Salford Council has this week imposed a ballot on its staff to vote on becoming a mutal without telling them what they are voting for!

As part of the cuts, senior management in charge of day care centres, supported tenancies, The Limes rehabilitation and Granville respite centre want to form a 'mutual' – or `employees co-op' – with them in charge, of course. But when staff asked what the hell the mutual was, questions went unanswered and the non-secret ballot has gone ahead anyway.

Come join us in North Korea! Full details here…

To be said in a North Korean accent…

`You vill form a mutual employees co-operative, vhere you are in charge …'

To be said in a Salford accent…

`Are we really in charge?'

To be said in a North Korean accent…

`Ve're not telling you! Just vote!!!'

To be said in a Salford accent…

`But we don't know what we're f*ing voting for!'

To be said in a North Korean accent…

`You vill vote!!!'

To be said in a Salford accent…

`But will there be a secret ballot, operated independently of Salford Council?'

To be said in a North Korean accent…

`NO!' You vill vote!!!'

This week Salford Council, led by Mayor Ian Stewart, is imposing a ballot for its staff working with some of the city's most vulnerable people in Provider Services – day care centres, supported tenancies, The Limes rehabilitation and Granville respite centre.

The ballot is about becoming a mutual – a form of privatisation where, instead of the Council hiving the service off to a private company, it hives it off to a so-called `employees co-operative'.

But the Salford Star believes that the `employees co-operative' is to be run by the Council's current senior managers, with ordinary workers only having one representative on its board. When staff trade union, UNISON, asked the Council questions on how the `mutual' was going to be governed, what rights staff would have and how it was going to be financed, it got hardly any information. Indeed, key questions got absolutely no response.

So workers are now being forced to vote on forming their `employees co-op' not knowing what the hell they are voting for! But the ballot has been imposed this week anyway...

...And the ballot won't even be secret. We understand that it was originally agreed that the independent Electoral Reform Society would be involved but that's not going to happen now either.

So now workers are voting in a non-secret ballot to form a company that is supposed to be a co-op, even though it's being run by the Council's current senior managers, with hardly any information about what they are actually voting for.

The Star understands that UNISON on a national level has now got involved and Salford Mayor Ian Stewart has agreed to have a meeting with the trade union about the fiasco – but the meeting is non-binding and, meanwhile, the vote has already started… 

The union is obviously recommending that people vote `No' – although, if discovered. they might just get shot!

* Democracy in Salford: Part 2 to follow...