Mark Evans, Local Government Service Group Executive, personal capacity
Unison’s local government conference took place on 11-12 June, before the start of the National Delegate Conference.
Many motions at conference called for ‘Labour Link’ to call on the Labour Party to change its policies on various issues, and to support Unison’s demands on pay and fighting cuts. Labour Link is the section of Unison’s political fund where Unison members are members of the Labour Party.
We didn’t have to wait long for the response. Lisa Nandy, Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, addressed conference as guest speaker. While not mentioning our pay claim, she said that it would be ‘easy to say that the cavalry is coming with a new Labour government’. She went on to say, regarding the cuts to council funding under the Tories, ‘we can’t promise to fix that overnight’.
British capitalism is in crisis and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves is constantly reiterating that a Labour government would be ‘fiscally responsible’. Nandy let the cat out of the bag when she said that a Labour government would ‘ask more of you’.
April Ashley, Socialist Party member re-elected to Unison’s NEC, had an enthusiastic response from conference. She said: “The Tories lost a thousand council seats. The Local Government Association is now in the hands of Labour. We must demand they support our pay claim for above-inflation rises. If strike-shy Starmer is not supporting us, why are we supporting them?”
Labour councils
A number of Socialist Party members made contributions which called out cutting Labour councils. They reminded delegates that this year is the 40th anniversary of the Liverpool City Council battle, when a Labour council led by socialists refused to pass on Tory cuts and mobilised the workforce and community against Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
In the same debate, Hackney Unison branch chair Brian Debus described how the union-busting Labour council had attacked him and his fellow library workers, who had taken strike action to defend their jobs and library services.
The Socialist Party calls for a debate in the union as a whole – not confined just to Labour Link members – about how we can win genuine political representation for Unison members and all workers.
Speaking on pay, Brian outlined how much local government pay has declined. But he warned that the pay strike ballot timescale means we would be taking strike action five months after our pay claim had been submitted. He said we should be ready for action in April, when our pay claim is due to be paid.
The local government conference set the scene for the national conference to follow: we need a democratic union that fights industrially and politically!
