UNISON conference:
Wrong Answers To Wrong Questions!
THE MOOD of militancy that was evident at UNISON’s Local Government Service
Group Conference, (see last week’s socialist), did not automatically feed into
the main Annual Delegate Conference, held on the following four days.
Bill Mullins
The reason for this was an agenda that in many ways did little justice to
the problems facing many UNISON members. In addition, general secretary Dave
Prentis used conference to launch his next election campaign, refuting rumours
that he would not be running for a second term.
Bale out Labour
Conference was used to bale out the flagging fortunes of the Labour Party
whenever possible. So instead of having a New Labour cabinet minister
addressing it, (which would have been provocative), Welsh Assembly First
Minister Rhodri Morgan spoke.
This was a crude attempt by the bureaucracy to show that a better Labour
Party was possible, based on some of the reforms achieved via the devolved
Assembly.
This manoeuvre even went as far as approving a motion on the forthcoming
political fund ballot which dishonestly proposed to play down the link with
Labour in order to win the ballot! Socialist Party members were the only ones
to speak against this proposal. Unfortunately the option of also balloting
members on how the political fund should be spent, (which would include a
disaffiliation option), was not allowed onto the agenda.
Moreover, a motion from the Bromley branch, that referred to public
expenditure as "meagre" was opposed by the National Executive Council (NEC) on
the basis that UNISON had welcomed additional funding.
Call for Blair’s resignation
One motion from the Lambeth Branch called for Tony Blair to resign as prime
minister. Despite the fact that the union’s leadership believe that the Labour
Party can be reclaimed, they opposed it, leaving many delegates wondering how
a reclaimed Labour Party could still have Blair at the head.
But the motion, which had people on both sides of the debate making similar
speeches, (not least pointing out that there is no left leader in waiting),
merely created confusion and was easily defeated.
Industrial action to defend pensions
There were some good points at the conference, not least during the
pensions debate, when the leadership accepted an amendment moved by Glenn
Kelly from Bromley. This called for industrial action to be organised in order
to defend public-sector occupational pension schemes.
This follows the TUC pensions demonstration the previous Saturday, called
largely as a result of Socialist Party members in the PCS union pushing it
through the union and onto the TUC agenda last September.
Distrust over witch-hunt
Clear evidence of a high level of distrust by conference delegates of the
NEC over the on-going political witch-hunt in UNISON emerged over a proposal
to suspend from office members accused of harassment.
When an NEC speaker referred to the new power being used "sparingly and
carefully" an audible groan of mistrust went across the hall! This proposal
was defeated, as were ones intended to move the union to a two-year cycle for
branch officers, Service Group meetings etc.
Despite a relatively "low key" agenda, conference was in no mood to
surrender powers to the NEC!