Scottish Black Members 2006 policy success

by Ismail Donmez

The Scottish Black Members Committee (SBMC) successfully achieved all its policy objectives it set for 2006. This was revealed in a performance report presented at the recent Scottish Council meeting.

The performance report notably won praise of Scottish Convenor.

Hamid Rasheed the Chair of the SBMC said: "The SBMC has increased its membership by 23%. And via RMS (UNISON Database) some 640 black members have been identified in UNISON Scotland. This heralds the opportunity to shape black self-organising groups at the branch level.

"We have challenges ahead; we need help of Scottish Region and Scottish Branches in creating self organising groups at branch level. Any such move will create a culture of learning and organising within the self-organising group, at a grass root level.

"Not only the existence of self organising groups at branch level will improve the representation of black people, but also the structure will enable black people to mainstream equality - using equality as bargaining agenda to influence the policy and to negotiate better terms and conditions for our members", he added.

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