Unison local government conference delegates
Unison local government conference, representing 600,000 workers, met on 12 June. Having lost over 500,000 jobs since 2010, with a £5 billion shortfall in council budgets, and with real wages of council workers having fallen by 25% in the last decade, the debates on council funding, pay and fighting the cuts were key.
With the government already saying that public sector workers should not expect to see inflation level pay awards this year, and many councils only budgeting for 2%-3%, it is clear that there will need to be strike action across the nations to force the government and councils to pay up.
It was welcome to hear the leadership say they want to see a fight, and the general secretary issue the call for branches to “go back from conference and get ready to strike.”
Speaking in the debate, Socialist Party Scotland member Jim McFarlane said: “We’ve been undervalued, overworked and underpaid for too long.” Socialist Party member April Ashley said that we must build for, and use the demonstration on 18 June as a springboard for strike action.”
Socialist Party member Brian Debus warned: “We must not make the same mistake as before, sitting back waiting for the employer’s final offer. If they don’t pay up on the pay date, we should ballot.”
In the debate on council funding and cuts, there was a clear attempt by the leadership to try and overplay the role that Labour councils are playing in defending services, particularly in Wales. However, Socialist Party members Jean Thorpe and April Ashley rightly exposed this as a fraud. Jean pointed out that “in Nottingham 50 of the 55 councillors (half claiming to be on the left) are Labour, yet they have voted to decimate children’s and youth services. The reality is, there is no will by Labour to fight the cuts and we cannot rely on Labour, only our own collective strength.”
April Ashley reminded the conference about Tower Hamlets council which sacked its entire workforce in order to force through cuts to pay and conditions. She said: “Labour prides itself on managing cuts but the reality is they are simply passing them on, we should only support those who refuse to vote for cuts.” Support for our socialist ideas was shown by delegates buying 57 copies of the Socialist paper on the first day of conference.
