Fight for an end to funding cuts

David Ellis, Birmingham City Council Unison branch, personal capacity

In what can only be described as an insult, local government workers have once again been offered the crumbs off the table from the Local Government Association employers, in the form of a 3.3% pay offer. Due to Trump and Netanyahu’s war in the Middle East, this pay offer will be lucky to keep wages in line with inflation.

It also does nothing to repair the decades of real-terms pay cuts. On average, council and school workers have lost 26% of our pay in real terms since 2010. Low pay undermines staff retention, recruitment, and morale.

Unison demands an increase of at least £3,000 or 10%, whichever is the greater, and a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour. We also demand a two-hour reduction in the working week and an increase of one day’s annual leave. The Socialist Party says this must be with no loss of pay.

Despite Starmer’s promise to repeal the law, trade unions are still required to achieve a 50% turnout for strike ballots. One of the many demands our union must place on Andy Burnham straight away!

Unison has chosen to ballot a select number of target employers that had a higher turnout in previous ballots. The votes for each employer will then be counted separately. However, fighting to close the gap on two decades of real-terms pay cuts will require a national fight, and the full might of the public sector unions.

All public sector unions should work together to coordinate national action. The ballot threshold can be beaten by directing support to reps in all areas that need the back-up, and most importantly, a strong national lead to give confidence to members. Holding a national ballot would also mean that branches that have had lower turnouts previously can be brought into the struggle.

Over 15 years of austerity has devastated local services. Over a million local government jobs have gone. Now local government reorganisation is being used to centralise services, merge councils and drive through ‘efficiency savings’ – meaning more job losses, and attacks on terms and conditions. Reorganisation without funding is simply austerity by another name.

The Socialist Party has consistently campaigned for councils to set no-cuts budgets, and invest in services. That’s another challenge to Burnham. I’m in Birmingham, scene of the historic bin strike and hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts across the board. We demand Burnham immediately kicks out the unelected commissioners and pays the bin workers what they deserve.

‘They owe us – big time’

We do not come to work for a pat on the head or empty words of thanks. We didn’t create the cuts to public services. We didn’t decide to ignore workplaces sweltering in the heat. We didn’t cause chronic understaffing, impossible workloads, or the stress that drives workers to their GP with burnout and poor mental health.

The government and employers owe us – big time. They owe us decent pay, safe staffing levels, and respect for the work we do every day. And they won’t hand it over out of kindness. They only act when workers stand together and demand it. A strong ‘yes’ vote tells employers that we reject poverty pay and we defend public services – and that we’re ready to fight for every penny we’ve earned.

Balaka Fell-Holden, Unison Local Government Service Group Executive, personal capacity

  • Unison is balloting around 200,000 members from 9 July – 6 August
  • Unite is also balloting local government members in targeted authorities from 16 July – 17 August