Are your Local Authorities Trades People and Council Tenants being put at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 during the National Lockdown? During the first lockdown local authorities across the country reduced the service they provided and carried out emergencies only repairs in occupied houses. Following the announcement from Boris Johnson of a further lockdown on January 5th, some local authorities have been slow to act and are continuing with non-essential works within occupied properties. The workers can visit numerous properties within a day, frequently exposing workers and the tenants to the serious risk of contracting COVID-19. Latest information indicates one in three people do not show any symptoms of the deadly virus. The new strain of the virus is 70% more transmissible and evidence suggests more variants are likely to develop. By signing this petition, you are supporting Unite the Union to help reduce the spread of infections amongst workers and tenants within your Local Authority. Checklist for Members and Reps (Re Construction Tradespersons entering properties and occupied premises) • Unite supports local authorities and housing associations responding to emergency situations and essential maintenance only in occupied properties. • Planned maintenance work can be undertaken in vacant (void) properties provided risk assessments are conducted and strict social distancing measures are enforced at all times. • All necessary PPE supplied to workers who must have it before commencing work and completing jobs safely. • Employers must consult with trade union representatives when producing a risk assessment and the results of risk assessments shared with and communicated to employees. All existing risk assessments need to be reviewed and updated. • Unite reiterates the requirement for dynamic risk assessment which Includes an agreed stop work process, where the assessment highlights a serious risk. Incorporates method statements, including induction processes, being delivered remotely, utilising modern technology to update and inform all employees and workers prior to any works commencing. • Safe systems of work to be reviewed and updated in light of the increased transmission of the new Covid-19 variant. This to include workplace and travel to work policies. • Involvement of Unite stewards and health and safety representatives in all safety discussions. Please see Unite coronavirus guide. • All employers must construct a stop work on health and safety grounds procedure. An employee who believes their safety is threatened can stop work, and work cannot be resumed until a solution is agreed. Develop these procedures with trade union representatives. • All employees afforded protection under section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (the right to withdraw from a work area when faced with imminent risk to health/safety). https://unitetheunion.org/media/3094/legal-s44-100-advice-to-members-returning-to-workplaces-200520.pdf • The right to decline work due to the failure of the responsible entity/person to ensure social distancing on site with no detriment to the worker.

Our members don’t want to strike, particularly not in the middle of a global pandemic. They just want a wage they can live on, but Kingdom management's refusal to engage in meaningful talks over the 2020 pay award, harmonisation of sick pay, as well as enhanced pay for working nights, weekends and overtime has left them with no other option. These are low paid guards, who provide security 24/7 for the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust. The £12p/h for security officers and £13p/h for supervisors they are seeking is modest and affordable. For Kingdom to exploit the pandemic to drive down pay is totally unacceptable. Please Show your support for Kingdom security guards at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Add your name to our email to the Managing Director, urging him to get back around the negotiating table with Unite and pay his staff fairly. *The Unite members first went out on strike on 14 December for five days. The second strike action started on the 4 January for a further 20 days. More action is planned.

The decision to cut rates means we are paid less than the National Minimum Wage for working overnight protecting vulnerable community members. We have worked on the frontline throughout the pandemic and risked our own lives to care for the community for low wages. We are being rewarded with a pay cut as the cost of living spirals. The decision is not cost effective in the long term and will worsen the conditions and quality of care for the community over time. At Christmas, Geoff Driver OBE, Lancashire County Council Leader, sent a message thanking us for the care we provide and acknowledged that we already put in lots of unpaid extra work. Yet he had led the council to cut our pay and with this acknowledgment seems to expect that we will work for free because we care about supporting the most vulnerable members of society. Lots of other North West Local Authorities acknowledged the vital work we undertake and refused to cut wages of their outsourced workers, we ask that Lancashire reverse their decision and show that they value us.

This section was removed from the updated Salford Offer (October 2020) and we the undersigned believe that it affects single parents, that are key workers, in Adult Social Care, unfairly. If an outbreak occurs in a Salford School, where key worker children are situated, it leaves key workers that have child care issues in a vulnerable position financially. Please reconsider.

Today Leeds is the largest city in Europe without a mass transit system, but West Yorkshire used to have a dense, cheap tram network accessible to everybody. We deserve a mass transit system equal to that of Manchester, London, Newcastle or Glasgow — nothing less. But the government's current funding plans will only leave enough money for two lines in Bradford and Leeds. Two lines does not make a mass transit network. We have been failed so many times, it feels like it could never happen. But in the 1950s, West Yorkshire boasted a tram network that served every town in the region. Trams were cheap, frequent and reliable. But tracks were torn up in favour of more motorways. Now our failing public transit system needs serious investment, before it collapses completely. Previous attempts to build a new tram system have failed because politicians in Westminster pulled funding at the last minute. This cannot be allowed to happen again. If they can find money to invest in London transport, they can find money for us. A new tram line in your town would make your journeys quicker, open up jobs, reduce local pollution, and bring investment to our community. We need a new low carbon public transport system to fight pollution and climate change in our region. If it's good enough for Manchester, Edinburgh and London, it's good enough for us.

Unite the Union represents workers in the sectors that are at the brunt of this pandemic, made worse by the government’s inconsistency and failure to provide adequate Statutory Sick Pay and financial support directly to workers. Coronavirus carries a high emotional and financial toll. Mental Health has already deteriorated and the signs are that this will continue. So spare a thought for those on low incomes who rely on Universal Credit including those workers who continue to keep us fed, keep the country moving and those who care and treat us in these dreadful circumstances.

Without the nursery, many posties, especially women, would not be able to work. The nursery has been a vital support to many in its 22-year history, enabling local people to take jobs at Mount Pleasant. Protecting Kiddycare Nursery also protects jobs for local people.

Official government NHS plans contain a proposal to close both the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital and replace them with a so called 'super-hospital' on a single site elsewhere. This proposal represents a serious threat to the future of full hospital provision in Lancaster and the large area of North Lancashire and South Cumbria the RLI serves. Likewise, the people of Preston and Central Lancashire will also risk the loss of properly accessible full local hospital services. Any increase in travel distances, especially for emergencies, is not acceptable. Both cities and surrounding areas need and deserve their own hospitals, each with a full range of services, with proper investment to upgrade these. Keep up to date with our campaign here: https://www.facebook.com/LancasterSaveOurHospitals

We are Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) staff. We are British citizens who serve overseas in countries such as Belgium and France, maintaining and caring for the cemeteries of our fallen heroes. We are proud of our role in ensuring that the 1.7m people of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First and Second World Wars, will never be forgotten. We now need your help. With just three weeks’ notice and despite our many years of loyal service, the CWGC has given us a stark choice: be repatriated back to the UK or face having our incomes halved. This is happening it us as we’ve been told that we will no longer be entitled to UK contracts after 31 December 2020, when the Brexit transition period ends. But switching onto new contracts means changing to our country of employment’s tax code and changes to pensions and other terms and conditions, which could see us lose up to 50% of our income. To be given just three weeks’ notice to making life changing decisions on whether to uproot our lives and that of our families in the middle of a global pandemic when jobs are scarce is terrifying. So is accepting losing up to half of our income. We are desperate. We now need the minister Ben Wallace to intervene on our behalf to protect our terms and conditions and put pressure on the CWGC to talk to our unions. Please help us by emailing the minister.

Engie security staff at Blackburn and Burnley hospitals work around the clock to keep people safe at the hospital but are paid far less than our colleagues who do the same job for the NHS. We are often forced to take on unhealthy amounts of overtime that take us away from their families and impacts our health and wellbeing due to low pay. For too long outsourced companies have exploited their staff for private profit. By supporting Engie staff, you are taking a stand against this. Fair pay must be at the centre of all public services. As a vital part of the NHS team, Engie Security staff deserve the same pay and conditions as our NHS colleagues.

Private companies control bus services in South Yorkshire. They dictate prices, routes and timetables and the result has been catastrophic - passenger numbers have plummeted, prices have risen and services have shrunk. Send a message now to take back control of our buses!

We all have a shared interest in getting the vaccine programme right. It’s our only shot at getting life back to normal. But that means learning the lessons from the failures of Test and Trace and PPE provision. The best way to deliver an effective rollout - and build public trust in the vaccine - is for local public health teams to run it. They know their communities best and are best placed to reach them. Outsourcing Test and Trace to private contractors has caused huge problems. We cannot afford the same mistake to be made with the delivery of the vaccine.