April Ashley, Unison NEC, personal capacity
The first public sector union Unison National Executive Council (NEC) since the general election recently met and the discussion concentrated on the Labour government’s Employment Rights Bill.
The Keir Starmer-supporting general secretary, Christina McAnea, gave an upbeat assessment about working with the new Labour government as the NEC welcomed the demise of the Tories. The meeting reported that there are now 127 Unison-backed MPs.
The NEC welcomed the Employment Rights Bill although it was confirmed that many of its provisions would not be in place for two years, for example a fair pay agreement in adult social care. There is a dominance of individual rights compared to collective rights and there are still many shortcomings. These include specifying a ban on ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts rather than an outright ban, which will be exploited by employers.
It was clear there will be a battle with the employers as they try to water down some of the provisions, and the trade unions need to strengthen our rights such as trade union access to workplaces.
Repeal anti-union laws
I raised the timetable for repeal of the Strikes (MSL) Act and the Trade Union Act 2016 which brought in the 50% turnout threshold for ballots. This has affected Unison’s ballots in local government and health and prevented action. At the NEC we were awaiting the outcome of the local government national pay ballot, but we now know the threshold has again not been met in the majority of places.
It was reported to the NEC that the 2016 Act was expected to be repealed in May-July 2025, immediately following Royal Assent. But there is no reason this repeal cannot happen straightaway and we should campaign for that – particularly when many pay anniversary dates, including in local government, are in April.
Fight for council funding
The NEC also debated the dire situation of local authority cuts, with many councils facing Section 114 notices – effectively bankrupt as they can only spend on statutory services – like Nottingham City Council and Birmingham, which have Tory commissioners running Labour councils. Councils across the UK are falling over with services destroyed and hundreds of jobs being lost.
Unfortunately, although declared a priority for Unison, there is no industrial or political strategy, leaving Unison leaders to just plead with the Labour government for more funds. Like Oliver Twist, they are reduced to begging for ‘more please, sir’ instead of building a militant campaign to fight for emergency funding.
Demands for Labour councils to set no-cuts budget and organise industrial action have been wrongly ruled out of order at successive Unison conferences.
However, Labour’s first budget in the autumn will show clearly if Rachel ‘no more austerity’ Reeves really will bail out local government with higher funding. If not, the left ‘Time for Real Change’ grouping that leads the NEC needs to stand up to the general secretary and mount a fight to stop the collapse of local government services and jobs.
