Leeds Unison needs programme of anti-cuts action

Over the next week Leeds Unison will be having its AGM across four different venues. We’ll be discussing our strategy to defeat the cuts.

On 22 February the Labour-led council passed proposals to cut an estimated £55 million from this year’s budget that could translate into up to 600 job losses.

But the £90 million axed from last year’s budget is already having a detrimental impact on services.

Up to now, the position of the Unison branch has been to ‘manage’ the cuts so they impact less on members.

Although there has been no compulsory redundancies many services are short staffed. This is particularly acute in both children’s and adults’ social services. Further cuts will see more services threatened with closure.

It is necessary to build a campaign now to oppose all the cuts and generalise all the issues we face.

A campaign with the other council unions is needed to prepare members for action. This will see an increase in membership and put us in a strong position.

Unison must build a campaign for industrial action. It must call an all-stewards meeting and conduct an indicative ballot for industrial action to oppose all the cuts within Leeds City council.

On the basis of a ‘yes’ vote we can build for a Saturday joint trade union rally in conjunction with an industrial action ballot.

A member of Leeds Unison