The Socialist 27 April 2010

Vote for a socialist alternative

Heading for a coalition government?

Fund a political alternative to the establishment parties

Filthy rich get richer

World's most unequal city

Greek crisis

No trust

A 'beacon of hope' in Gateshead

STUSC candidates speak

Press try to gag socialists in Walthamstow campaign

Debt balloons go up in Brighton Kemptown

Cleaning up in Cardiff

Extremes of rich and poor in Swansea

Campaign hots up in Lewisham

"That makes real sense to me"

TUSC: 'Hear your candidate' meetings

Jobs not cuts

Can the Greens help provide a left alternative?

Housing in crisis: Bankers rob people

Nottingham city council: Shocking new cuts!

Unison health conference

Glasgow CSG workers fight pay freeze

Three years of wage cuts for council workers

Strike at Northumberland College

Workplace news in brief

Previous issues, etc

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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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