Mark Evans, Unison local government service group executive (personal capacity)
At the 24 November meeting of Unison’s local government service group executive (LGSGE), Socialist Party members proposed a motion on fighting cuts.
It is already the policy of the LGSGE to call on councils to implement no-cuts budgets – as a result of motions argued for by Socialist Party members in previous years. But, in practice, only a few local government branches are calling on their councils to do this.
The motion, proposed by myself, seconded by Angie Waller, and supported by Hugo Pierre, called on the LGSGE to step up its anti-cuts campaigning and to support branches in developing alternative strategies to cuts.
As well as publicising the important work council workers do and the vital services they provide, as Unison already does, the LGSGE and Unison as a whole has to fight cuts on a national basis. It should not be left to branches to fight cuts on their own.
The consequence of runaway inflation is significantly increased costs for councils, coming on top of the pandemic and savage cuts imposed since 2010. This has dire consequences for councils. Increasing numbers of councils are threatened with technical bankruptcy, such as happened at Croydon twice.
Many councils in England, Scotland and Wales have increased their budget shortfall predictions. For example, Glasgow City Council’s predicted funding gap has gone from £25 million for 2023-24 to £119 million! Given the calamity facing local government it cannot be ‘business as usual’ for Labour councillors or the trade unions.
Councils already have been, or are considering, using the significant reserves they have accumulated to plug the gap in finances. But our motion called for the LGSGE to explore with councillors how lawful balanced no-cuts budgets could be implemented, and to build a mass campaign, with community support, to demand additional funding from central government.
We also called on the LGSGE to explore how to unite members in a UK-wide campaign, including industrial action.
The motion was passed unanimously, but that is the easy part. We need to keep the pressure on to turn words into action.
Socialist Party members have put forward a strategy that, if put into action, could defeat Tory cuts. We need to fight for maximum unity with other local government unions to take on the Tories. Unite already has official policy to campaign for no-cuts budgets. After decades of rule by the right wing, Unison now has a left-led national executive, with a majority for the Time For Real Change group, alongside four Socialist Party members. It is vital that the NEC puts this fighting approach into action.
