Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/622/9458
From The Socialist newspaper, 28 April 2010
Unison health conference
Any Unison health members looking for a way forward in resisting future attacks on the NHS following the general election will have been severely disappointed by the Unison health conference.
Adrian O'Malley, Unison health Service Group Executive (SGE) member, Yorkshire, personal capacity
The Unison leadership strategy appears to be to cross their fingers and hope for the re-election of the Labour government! The same Labour government which has marketised the NHS and privatised more services than the previous Tory government.
The bulk of the conference was so bland that the agenda was completed half a day early.
The SGE, under pressure from some branches and the Scottish Region, supported a composite motion on pay for 2011 which commits the union to a "high profile campaign in opposition to the public sector pay freeze and to begin preparatory work for potential industrial action including strike action".
We must hold them to this position. The Socialist Party fringe meeting was attended by approximately 30 delegates and visitors. The speakers were Onay Kasab, the suspended branch secretary from Greenwich Unison who gave a report of the scandalous way his branch has been stopped from functioning by the regional bureaucrats.
Roger Bannister, who is standing for Unison general secretary in the forthcoming election, also spoke.
Both speakers were a sharp contrast to the lack of optimism and fighting spirit shown at the conference and explained the pressing need to transform Unison into a fighting and democratic union.
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In The Socialist 28 April 2010:
Vote for a socialist alternative
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Heading for a coalition government?
Socialist Party news and analysis
Fund a political alternative to the establishment parties
Socialist Party election campaign
A 'beacon of hope' in Gateshead
Press try to gag socialists in Walthamstow campaign
Debt balloons go up in Brighton Kemptown
Extremes of rich and poor in Swansea
TUSC: 'Hear your candidate' meetings
Socialist Party feature
Socialist Party election analysis
Can the Greens help provide a left alternative?
Socialist Party feature
Housing in crisis: Bankers rob people
Socialist Party workplace news
Nottingham city council: Shocking new cuts!
Glasgow CSG workers fight pay freeze
Three years of wage cuts for council workers
Strike at Northumberland College
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