Edinburgh steps up campaign against sell-offs

UNISON’s City of Edinburgh Branch has stepped up its anti-outsourcing drive with two recent half page newspaper adverts urging the public to join the campaign.

The “Our City’s Not For Sale” campaign exposes Council privatisation plans that could see a fifth of the workforce outsourced, probably to huge corporations.

“Services like front line customer contact, revenue and benefits, catering, cleaning, security, cleansing and vehicle and grounds maintenance, along with HR are all up for grabs with cultural services, transport and legal services also being primed for outsourcing through multi-million pound ‘strategic partnerships’ or ‘joint ventures’ privatisation, to you and me”, explained Agnes Petkevicius, UNISON Edinburgh Branch Secretary.

The advert points out that

• Of the 18 ‘comparable’ councils used to justify the outsourcing, few are comparable in any way with the capital and one is the smallest metropolitan borough in England.
• In most of the 18 contracts, there is no evidence of any benefits being achieved.
• At least one has been severely criticised on quality, others have lost money and services have had to be brought back in house.
• Even the Audit Commission has warned about such ventures and says councils should consider ‘other options to transform service delivery including reforming in-house provision’.

“But if all that is not enough, just ask the obvious question. If the council provides services without having to make a profit, how can a private company save money and make a profit on top?

“With shareholders and big executives to pay, how can they do it cheaper?

“Simple. By cutting quality. By cutting the service. By cutting the wages and conditions of some of the lowest paid staff. Or - as other councils have discovered - by charging more! “So your tax pays for profits instead of services.” says the advert.

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