Unison policy backs the PCS motion’s call for a national trade union-led demo
Paul Couchman, Unison South East regional delegate to TUC Congress (in a personal capacity)
This will be my third year as a delegate to the Congress from Unison. Last year I was very pleased to see the motion calling for a national demo against Labour austerity passed overwhelmingly, only to be disappointed when the TUC General Council didn’t call one.
My Unison branch discussed this and decided to submit an amendment to a motion at our National Delegate Conference in June, which was carried and is now Unison policy: “Step up the campaign against austerity and for Jobs, Homes and Services not Racism, including calling upon the TUC General Council to organise the mass demonstration against Labour austerity agreed at last year’s TUC Congress”.
This is fully in line with the motion to this year’s TUC Congress from PCS: “Congress agrees to urgently call a national Saturday demonstration this autumn for investment in public services, against austerity and for pro-worker policies.”
A number of our activists will be travelling to Brighton to attend the lobby called by the National Shop Stewards Network and to make sure the Unison delegation fully supports the PCS motion in line with our conference policy.
We also need to ensure that, if passed, the TUC leaders are not allowed to ignore the call and press them through all our unions into naming the date for a mass demonstration against Labour austerity.
