It’s time to turn despair into anger

by John Stevenson

It is time to turn the despair of assaults on public services into anger, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis told Scottish branches on 4 December as he announced a £10 million fighting fund to take the campaign forward.

The National Executive on 8 December combined that with the union’s £10 million industrial action fund to build a £20 million war chest to fight the cuts.

But this is not just a defensive campaign. It will be one that stands up positively for public services for now and for future generations.

“We can’t let the coalition steal our future”, said Dave. We have to resist the ‘assaults’ on pay, pensions, jobs, the welfare state and our NHS but we also need to take a positive arguments forward.

“We need a movement to build a better future with an economy that meets the needs of all of society”, he added.

“If there is money available to bail out the banks who are now making even bigger profits..., if there is money available for Trident, there is money available for our public services”, said Dave. He followed up on a theme raised the day before by UNISON’s head of local government Heather Wakefield as she addressed local government branches.

“It is not enough just to oppose privatisation, we have to show that all the evidence says it doesn’t work.” We need to start getting the message out that, “The public sector cannot afford privatisation”.

Dave rounded on the attacks on pensions, especially the coalition’s move to switch the figure for uprating which will mean everyone will lose out. Using the Consumer Price Index instead of the Retail Price Index, will bring a loss of 1% - meaning a cut for all public sector pensions indefinitely.

Add to that the increase of 3% in contributions that will go to the Treasury - not the pension fund - and throughout their career a local government worker could lose 20%. The meeting went on to set out strategies for taking the campaign forward.

The anger members are feeling about the cuts was reflected in a vote to open discussions on a one-day joint union Scottish public sector strike early in 2011 if legal obstacles could be overcome.

The meeting also backed calls to support councils or politicians calling for ‘needs led’ budgets in local government. A lively debate heard arguments for and against the strategy which was carried in a close vote, again reflecting the growing anger felt by UNISON members.

Speaking for the Scottish Committee, John Stevenson had cautioned that if councils set illegal budgets it could result in even worse cuts.

But Glasgow City’s Brian Smith stressed that, “If we are calling for no cuts in local government, we should be prepared to back a political strategy that supports politicians of any party who refuse to make cuts”.

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