Mark Evans, Member of Unison local government service group executive (personal capacity)
The Local Government Association (LGA), the local government employers’ body, thought it was being clever in basically making the same £1,925 flat-rate pay offer for 2023-24 to local government workers as it did last year.
It obviously thought that Unison’s body responsible for pay, the National Joint Council (NJC) committee, would put this offer to members, as it did last year without making a recommendation – an abrogation of leadership if ever there was one.
However, no person walks in the same river twice – things have changed! The cost-of-living crisis continues to impact on members and it has not gone unnoticed that many unions have been taking industrial action. Unison’s NJC committee was under greater pressure this time to fight on pay due to the mood of members. Consequently it voted to reject the pay offer and move straight to a ballot for industrial action in May, without a consultative ballot first.
Our previous pay award and this year’s offer represent a real-terms pay cut for all members, when we have already suffered a fall in the real value of our pay of well over 25% on average since 2010. What is on the table would be around 9% for the lowest paid, but as you go up the pay scale it is worth less and less.
The consequence of the declining value of our pay is that much of local government is in crisis, as they cannot recruit and retain workers for many jobs. A significant percentage of jobs advertised don’t even get any applications!
The joint claim of Unison, GMB and Unite is for 12.7%, which equates to what inflation was at the time the claim was submitted plus 2%. The NJC committee, and the ‘Time for Real Change’ leadership of the local government service group executive and national executive, all now need to mobilise the whole of the union to get over the 50% turnout threshold imposed by the Tories.
While passing the voting threshold will take hard work it is achievable, and there is little doubt that members will vote for strike action.
That would mean over 350,000 Unison local government workers would join the many other unions taking strike action on pay. Unison members, like other workers taking action, see the need for coordinated strikes, and many also the need for a 24-hour general strike to step up the pressure on the Tories.
Hopefully, Unison, GMB and Unite will all vote for strike action and demand that the Tories fund our pay claim in full.
