The General Secretary

June 2007

In-Justice Ministry?

Firstly, I would wish to thank all branch delegates and their branch membership throughout the Union for providing a progressive and helpful agenda to Annual Conference 2007. The debates were good and the outcomes send a clear unequivocal message to those who seek to destabilise the Union that we are ready and willing to fight back.

Not everything was easy but then success involves both laughter and tears.

We will now seek to activate our policies as speedily and progressively as possible.

At the time of writing the National Chairman and myself are about to meet the new Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer. The Lord Chancellor should by now be in a position to address matters relating to Justice and he must!

Justice for prison officers is paramount in our minds and it will be in Lord Falconers by the end of the meeting. He will be pressed on the attitude of the Prisons Board towards the POA. In particular, why the Board believes that it is right for a free and independent trade union to be placed before a Court to resolve what amounts to an industrial dispute.

What justice is there in senior civil servants, who profess to run the Prison Service doing so with over 1,000 prison officers short?

He will be asked to explain the justification for not paying fair and just levels of pay to prison workers who are meeting difficult targets despite record level of prisoners and without extra funding.

We trust that Lord Falconer may wish to comment whether he will now run a Justice Ministry that will give to prison officers an appropriate recognition for the difficult work they are doing and that he will stop the constant attacks both individually and collectively by the “lame duck” Prisons Board.

In truth, we all have a real opportunity to draw a line under recent events and move forward to a better and more professional relationship. The POA is up for this. Is the Government?

The membership will now fully realise the need for the POA to engage the full political spectrum in order to get our case heard. Despite the hard work of the trade union movement we are still required to hold a ballot to maintain a political fund for this purpose. The POA will ballot its members from the 16th July until the 17th August 2007.

It is vitally important that all members vote and vote “yes” to ensure the POA can promote and protect its membership now and in the future.

This Union is now politically prominent. Your future and that of your colleagues depends on you ensuring that you say a “yes” to the POAs work with all political parties.

Brian Caton
General Secretary

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