National Delegate Conference 19-22 June 2007

UNISON says no to EU privatisation threat and privatisation threat

Jane Carolan

Conference committed itself to a campaign of active opposition amongst members, to any attempts to revive the EU constitution and pledged to fight attempts to open up health and social services to competition and to remove them from democratic control.

It backed a call to monitor the impact of the Service Directive as in is incorporated into UK law to ensure that this does not further undermine public services and to raise awareness of these matters amongst UNISON and other trade union members and the general public.

Proposing the motion, Jane Carolan, Scottish NEC member, highlighted the dangers of adopting policies which cannot be changed by the democratic process. She pointed to EU economic policy, wedded to the principles of monetarism, enshrined in the Maasticht Treaty and guarded by the European Central Bank, an unelected and unaccountable body.

John Stevenson

"I would love to think that a new form of treaty will represent a shift in power toward the democratic rights of nations to pursue economic and social policies that defend the rights of working people. Then again, pigs might fly to the moon," she said.

"It was the pursuit of liberalisation and privatisation that pushed for the adoption of the service directive," she warned.

"This introduced free market competition to all services within the EU, including health and education. National governments would no longer have been able to take decisions on the way services are regulated in their own country. Free trade is the only game in town."

However, the trade union response was decisive and won concessions. Labour law and collective bargaining were excluded from the directive. So was health and social services partially so. However, the threat continues, and the threat is real, Jane told delegates.

"They have been defeated on these issues in the past but there is no guarantee they won't try again." She called on UNISON to monitor and review this and to actively oppose a revived constitution based on the same principles as before.

John Stevenson, City of Edinburgh supporting the motion, rejected any charge of anti-Europeanism. "These are gross distortions and an insult. We are pro European and take a global perspective, which means that our solidarity extends beyond these shores and this continent. That solidarity is based on protecting workers and defending publicly provided and publicly accountable health and other public services."

The people of Europe want security, a level playing field for the workers of all countries which pushes standards and expectations up, not down, he told conference.

"That we will get from international union solidarity and from laws in countries that protect workers and are not undermined by directives. We will not get that from a system based at its roots on corporate interests." He warned that public services face a terrifying threat from forced privatisation of health and public services.

Peoples' basic need in danger of being dictated by the needs of business, hived off for profit. He called on this message to be taken out to members with a focus on the real issue of putting the brakes on unfettered privatisation.

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