Scottish Labour hears UNISON policies first hand

A busy weekend in Aviemore saw UNISON delegates to the Scottish Labour Party Conference intervening in a range of debates to flag up important UNISON policy issues - both on the conference floor, and at a wide range of fringe meetings.

Among contributions on health, local government and international issues, Pat Rowland (Scottish LabourLink Chair) made a powerful intervention in a debate on education, criticising Scottish Government assumptions on early years education.

"Nursery education has been my life for 34 years - 20 of these as Head of an Early Education & Childcare centre in West Dunbartonshire," she said. "The SNP would like to remove us and replace us with teachers, despite excellent HMIE and Care Commission reports."

And she urged shadow ministers to oppose moves to turn the clock back to the days when nursery professionals were regarded as "no more than nose and bottom wipers."

Gordon Mackay moved UNISON's contemporary resolution condemning the Scottish Tories attempts to privatise Scottish Water under the disguise of 'mutualisation'. Gordon pointed out that the idea that the Scottish Tories had inherited the 'mantle of the Rochdale Pioneers and the Ayrshire weavers' was too much for anyone (other than perhaps the Liberals) to swallow!

John Lieser from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde successfully seconded a Socialist Health Association (SHA) motion on the threats to privatise Glasgow's Occupational Health Service.

UNISON's Dave Watson, in an important presentation from the Scottish Executive on health, criticised past failures to grasp important initiatives, but said, "The NHS is our greatest achievement. On its 60th birthday we are entitled to celebrate.

"We are proud of what Scottish Labour has achieved while recognising our weaknesses. We are entitled to be concerned over how the SNP are approaching the funding of core services.

"But the real challenge is to look forward, to identify the broader health challenges and how we should respond."

On the Fringe No-one could miss UNISON's presence on this years fringe programme. In addition to the now regular fringe meeting on steps to revitalise the party in Scotland - a very useful debate on some ways forward, UNISON was involved in a further five fringes! Highly successful were debates on tackling climate change (with WWF and the World Development Movement) and health inequality (with the SHA), whilst fringes on Racism with Show Racism the Red card, Venezuela (with the Venezuela Information Centre), and an early fringe sponsored by the Womens' Network added to the overall impact of the union.

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