We regularly ask our members to keep us updated with their current workplace, home address and name. We established a quick and easy way of doing this via the web site on our update page.
There is a prominent link to this on the top menu bar as well as a link further down the home page. You can of course also update your details by ringing UNISON Direct on 0845 355 0845.
Many members believe that the service will notify us when you are initially posted from training school, move station or get promoted. They do not, they also do not notify us if you change your home address or get married and change your name.
Why does this matter? Well apart from not being able to contact you with news from the union or the branch, we would also have trouble trying to run a ballot. As highlighted in the recent BA dispute and more recently the RMT Network Rail dispute, employers are increasingly prepared to challenge ballots in the high court.
In the RMT dispute, Network Rail alleged In court that the RMT balloted 11 signal boxes that did not exist, and that in 67 locations the numbers of union members balloted exceeded the total number of employees working.
It also claimed that 26 workplaces were missed out, giving RMT members at these locations no opportunity to vote.
Mr Crow said “There’s 1,700 workplaces and over 18,000 workers that work on the Network Rail sites, and we have to at any given moment in time before we ballot, name every single grade and every work location.
By the time you finish the audit it’s like the Forth Bridge – you start again because someone else has been promoted, someone else has been sacked, someone dies and so on. It’s a moving feast,”
Network Rail said it had challenged up to 300 votes in the ballot, which it claimed could have swayed the vote from a yes to a no.
Meanwhile the Conservative party were busy gloating about their anti-union laws introduced in the 1980’s
Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said “While Gordon Brown and his weak government were powerless in the face of growing union militancy, the strike laws passed by the last Conservative government have brought the country back from the brink of transport meltdown,”
It is important to learn lessons and be prepared. If we did need to hold a ballot of members, we must ensure that our records are correct and the time to do that is now.
Update your details online right now at https://www.lasunison.co.uk/member%20services/update.htm or phone UNISON Direct on 0845 355 0845 or alternatively speak to your station rep.
