How councils could limit the damage of cuts and austerity - new UNISON report

UNISON Scotland has launched calling on the Scottish Government, local authorities and public bodies to do all they can to mitigate UK government austerity.

The public services trade union is calling for a range of financial and industrial policies to create investment in Scottish infrastructure, green energy production and jobs.

With interest rates at an all time low, it is cheaper to buy out or refinance PPP / PFI contracts saving up to £12bn; pension funds could be a source of badly needed investment for infrastructure, we need a political consensus on reform of local taxation; and councils should collaborate in using bonds as a means of financing borrowing rather than routinely using the Public Works Loan Board.

See the press release and the full report on the UNISON Scotland site at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2015/sepoct/0923.htm

Edinburgh marches against austerity

UNISON joined hundreds of marchers in Edinburgh on Saturday to demand an end to austerity. The rally was planned to give the message loud and clear to the Tory Party conference being held in the city but marchers were angered when the march was diverted away from the planned route past Conference centre.

The march was backed by the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Alliance, anti-bedroom tax groups, disability campaigners and many more. A minute's silence was held at the Festival Square rally in memory of Bob Crow and Tony Benn.

UNISON Banners and contingents from Edinburgh City, Police Staff Scotland and Dundee City joined that March from the Mound to Festival Square passing within shouting distance to the Tory Conference but diverted from the original planned route.

Earlier in the week, demonstrators dressed in panda outfits reminded the Prime Minister that there were more pandas in Scotland than Tory MPs. Edinburgh Zoo’s Tian Tian and Yang Guang outnumber Tory MP David Mundell by two to one.

New Year message: Rarely have we needed our union more

Rarely have we needed our union more than now.

The cost of living rises but our pay has plummeted in real terms. The average worker will be almost £2,000 worse off by next year but the top earners will be millions richer. The country is not broke, it is just the money is in the wrong place.

Even the CBI chief has said business needs to provide “better pay and more opportunities” for their workers. It is an unexpected, if welcome, realisation that the economy will not pick up until people are earning money they can spend in their communities and pay taxes that will bolster services.

Amidst the ‘big lie’ about the economy, there is a growing realisation that this is not about what the country can afford, it is about an ideology of planned poverty and a low wage, low skill economy.

So far, the trade unions have been almost the only mainstream voice speaking out against the wasteful and failed policies of austerity. We are backed up by the Nobel Prize winning economists who actually predicted the crash, but all we hear in the media are the economists and politicians who didn’t see it coming and are continuing to push their failed strategies.

Who would have thought we would have seen tens of thousands having to rely on food banks in 2013? More than half of those in poverty are in work. Why do we put up with mounting child poverty when top executives are coining it in through the recession?

The political leaders who praised the legacy of Nelson Mandela in 2013 would do well to heed his words from 2005: “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings”.

And at a time when unions are under attack for speaking out, they might also consider another quote from Nelson Mandela: “You must protect and defend your trade unions. You must make every home, every shack and every mud structure where our people live, a branch of the trade union movement and never surrender”.

Unions didn’t cause the problem. Public services didn’t cause the problem. It was the speculators and the profiteers that caused the problem and they are getting off scot-free while our services, our jobs and our wages are paying for it.

Unions, the biggest democratic voluntary organisations in the country, are standing up against all that and that is why our rights and freedoms are coming under attack. The rich vested interests don’t want anyone speaking up for you. Neither does much of the big-business owned media. But we are still here and we are still speaking up.

In Edinburgh, like everywhere else, UNISON is working hard to defend our members from the results of austerity cuts.

This year we have won free retrospective PVG checks for 9,000 people in Edinburgh. We have won equal pay victories. We have won deals that mean most people who came to the end of pay protection did not lose out. We are fighting on for the others still affected and we’ve commissioned an equality study to look at the whole pay system.

We have struck a learning agreement with the council that will allow staff to access lifelong learning and career development in their working time.

Then there are the hundreds of members getting individual representation along with the members UNISON backed with legal representation at the time when they most needed it and their jobs depended on it.

But pay is the big issue. Members voted by just a whisker not to take action on pay in 2013 and we need to build with each other to find the confidence to campaign again in 2014.

We have a great team of officers, stewards and support staff who give of their time and energies to deliver the best they can for members. They could do the job with a lot more influence and strength if we had even more members.

So let’s all make it a New Year resolution to recruit a new member each by reminding people of all that unions have achieved and what we stand to lose if they are weakened ... the minimum wage, the living wage, safety at work, maternity and paternity rights, sick pay, employment rights (under so much attack now), paid holidays, and much more, especially dignity at work.

A happy and peaceful New Year to you all.

John Stevenson
Branch President

Proud of achievements and ready for challenges of 2013

New Year message from John Stevenson, Branch President: Is it too optimistic to say we began to turn the tide in 2012? Well, maybe you have to be an optimist to be a union activist, but there has been much for the Branch to be proud of in 2012.

It was a year that saw the last of the mass privatisations thrown out following a fantastic UNISON and community campaign. The importance of that victory for Edinburgh and the whole of Scotland cannot be overestimated.

After years of hard work and legal action, UNISON achieved equal pay compensation offers for almost 3,000 workers in Edinburgh. These are still being paid out and will continue to be for some time yet.

We won a Living Wage of £7.50 an hour from 1 January 2013. The new Labour/SNP coalition was as good as its word when it responded to our campaign and the Living Wage will benefit many low paid workers. The next step is to campaign to get the same for contractors' staff and in the community and voluntary sector. Why stop there? We need to take the argument out to encourage all employers in Edinburgh to come on board.

And let’s not forget one-to-one representation. Hundreds of members have been represented by stewards and officers over the year, often in very difficult circumstances and sometimes in the face of media misrepresentation.

We also looked beyond our local issues. The Branch has been honoured to work with our colleagues in the London Borough of Barnet who are facing almost the whole council being sold off. Our international links continue and, for example, Matthew Crighton’s work with the Edinburgh World Justice Festival is highly valued.

Getting involved

With a new outlook from the Council, the branch is re-visiting the partnership policy it set back in 2000 to try to involve workers more, improve services and stave off the worst effects of the cuts facing us.

And at home we need to get involved in Scotland’s constitutional debate. Not on the basis of flags, borders or lists of powers in Edinburgh and London. But on the basis of what politicians intend to do with these powers to protect public services, improve rights at work, build full employment and make Scotland a more equal place. If we miss the opportunity to put those things at the top of the agenda, whether people vote yes or no may make very little difference to building a fairer Scotland.

Working together

The progress in 2012 is all the more encouraging because we have a relatively new officer team in place. Two seasoned leaders and negotiators left in 2012. Agnes Petkevicius took well-earned retirement and Kevin Duguid went on to a well-merited full time job with the union. Irene Heggie left the Recruitment Officer post after putting so much energy and commitment into it.

No branch can lose all that skill and experience without an effect. But those who have stood up to the mark have shown a great talent for organising, for willingness to learn, for bringing skills and knowledge to the task and for real commitment to the union and its members – and most of all for trying to instil a real team culture.

It has been a huge transition for the branch support staff too who, as usual, show year in year out that this is not just a job, it is a cause they are committed to.

Austerity isn’t working – spread the word!

Amidst this progress, times are still hard. After three successive cuts of £90 million over three year periods, the Council does not have its troubles to seek. Austerity measures from Westminster and Holyrood are destroying services and livelihoods but they are not making the economy better. They are making it worse.

It is all the more reason we need to urge the Council to stand up for the essential local services we all rely on - and work with us to ensure there is something there to build on when times get better. The alternative would be services lost to a generation or forever.

UNISON warned that cuts would bring a double dip recession. We were right. We warned that job cuts in the public sector would damage local economies and would not create growth. We were right. The fact is that the country is not less wealthy than it was, the money has just polarised with the gap between rich and poor widening.

We all need to take those arguments into our families and communities to put an end to the myth that public services were the cause of the financial crisis. On the contrary, investing in good public services is a major part of the solution.

Challenges

We face many challenges in 2013. The living wage is welcome but a 1% offer is not going to make up for years of pay cuts. It will help, but it will not solve the problem of the men and women set to lose out in October when ‘Modernising Pay’ protection runs out. Many of those people are the very ones keeping our services going over the festive holiday.

Officers and stewards are working hard on a ‘Dignity at Work’ initiative among other plans to improve conditions at work. We are also working on ways to better represent the voluntary sector and other bodies.

On the evidence of 2012, Edinburgh UNISON is well placed to meet those challenges. But that will depend on members’ support and on them becoming active in their union – and signing up new members.

A Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all – and why not make this year the one when you decide to become a UNISON steward!

See also UNISON Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby’s New Year message at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2012/novdec/3112.htm