UNISON's public service message gets to the heart of Labour

by Dave Watson

The final act of the autumn Scottish political conference season was Scottish Labour in Oban. UNISON was there pressing our message on public services, pensions, water and equal pay.

UNISON was also active on the fringe. At a joint meeting with Oxfam 'Public not Private - How to End Global Poverty', Sofi Taylor set out UNISON's position on a platform with Oxfam and Douglas Alexander MP.

Other fringe events included our popular 'Revitalise the Scottish Labour Party' meeting, giving delegates an opportunity to consider internal party reform with UNISON's Dave Watson and Michael Meacher MP.

Dave also set out UNISONScotland's energy strategy at a fringe meeting with Allan Wilson MP. The main business was to adopt policies to form the basis of the manifesto for the coming Scottish elections.

The trade unions had championed their joint proposals throughout the policy process that culminated in the votes at conference. UNISON delegates, including Alan Cowan and Sally Lee, made a number of contributions to the debate.

Key trade union issues in the programme were highlighted in the document Delivering on the Workplace Agenda launched with First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP. This paper sets out 75 policy commitments of particular relevance to trade union members.

While media attention focussed on the exclusion of support services from future PPP contracts and a presumption that in-house services will be the norm as current health contracts expire, there are many more significant commitments for UNISON members. Primarily the development of Scotland's distinctive public service model as argued for in UNISON's 'Revitalise our Public Services' manifesto.

Attempts to import the problems facing colleagues in England were soundly defeated. Instead we have a commitment to comprehensive education, an integrated NHS, a public water service and new roles for local government. Specifically for staff the policy document tackles new initiatives for education staff, assaults on public service workers, long term funding for community wardens and developing the role of police staffs.

Careers staffs are to be employed by regional groupings of local authorities, funding is to be provided to implement the 21st Century Social Work plan, and life long learning representatives will get further support.

In addition to the measures protecting NHS support staff there is support for wider nursing roles and measures to tackle drop out rates of student nurses, reducing dependency on agency staff and ensuring that overseas nurses are not exploited.

Delivering on the Workplace Agenda is at www.unionstogether.org.uk/documents/Deliveringtheworkplaceagenda.pdf

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