Arena Magazine 2006 Issue 1 January February

All to play for in coming year

Usdaw will be at the heart of all the major debates affecting its members and their families in 2006.

This promises to be one of the most exciting years in our history with a number of challenging initiatives facing the union.

Our forward-looking modern-thinking approach has won Usdaw vital funding from the Government to help us give you as much information as possible on the complex pensions issue.

Of all the problems facing the modern workforce this has to be the most important and it's right that we are leading the way to keep it at the heart of the industrial relations agenda.

You will also see a number of campaigns hitting the headlines this year both on a local and national basis. We will be putting our energies into opposing deregulation of Sunday trading. We will also be pushing for a national identity scheme for young people to save our members from abuse and/or prosecution when dealing with underage sales.

The action doesn't stop there. Our campaigns to spread the opportunities to more members on lifelong learning, to provide more support for parents and carers, and to continue with the award-winning Freedom From Fear crusade, will go on.

It's clear for our members, no matter where they work or who they work for, they can use these campaigns to recruit and energise current members and encourage them to become more involved. This can only lead to improved quality of life for all of us, a more active number of reps, and a more influential role for Usdaw.

What's also clear is our positive parliamentary profile and our political reputation for being a reasoned, professional and persuasive union. Time and again we win the backing of hundreds of MPs for our campaigns. That's not a coincidence, it's because we deliver intelligent arguments, backed up by real evidence based on the everyday experience of our members.

I'm delighted to report our inaugural National Organising Awards night was such a fantastic success.

The evening saw hard-working reps from across the UK honoured for the tremendous work they put in on behalf of their members.

While there were eight national awards across a number of categories, there were certainly more than eight winners on the night.

As far as Usdaw is concerned every rep who made up the 55 nominations were winners, and I think getting them together for a special celebratory night gives them the recognition they deserve.

On behalf of the executive council our sincerest congratulations goes to them and many thanks to all of the people behind the scenes who made it such an outstanding event.

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