After the
fiasco of the pay capitulation by the local government trade unions, UNISON
activists need to work out how to make best use of the
Special Conference which we are (I hope) about to requisition thanks to the Manchester Branch.
Last
time local government activists succeeded in requisitioning a Special
Conference, the national union responded by getting an agreement between the
Service Group Executive and the relevant NEC Committee Chairs to call a
different Special Conference so as to have more leeway to control the
agenda.
Such sharp
practice would be unwise on this occasion (although wisdom is in short supply
at the UNISON Centre just now so it cannot be ruled out). All the best speakers
on both sides at that previous Special Conference are united in criticism of
the conduct of this year’s NJC pay “dispute”.
It is
necessary to be clear. We have squandered the action on 10 July by settling for
proposals which are in several ways worse than the one year 1% offer against
which we took that action. No amount of obfuscation (or what plain speaking
folk might call “lies”) can conceal this alarming truth.
Local
government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would be materially
better off now had we not had a dispute over pay in 2014 and simply accepted
the 1%. None of those who gain a pittance in 2014/15 (comparing the previous to
the revised offer) have gained more than they lost by striking for a day – and everyone
will suffer for our inability to fight for better pay in the year in which a
General Election will be fought on the issue of living standards.
Even when we
have gained very little from disputes (as in 2008 when
post-strike arbitration delivered an additional
0.3%) we have at least been able to say that the sacrifice of strike action
has delivered some benefit which (even if only in the long term) will be seen
to have been worth having. In 2014 the truth is that we have asked members to
make the sacrifice of taking strike action and have achieved worse than nothing
as a result.
The
misleadership of this “dispute” goes beyond letting down the members
immediately involved to bringing not just our own trade union but the entire
movement into disrepute. That is why it is appropriate for us to convene a
Special Service Group Conference.
The branches
seeking a Special Conference want it to discuss;
- The 2014-2016 NJC Pay Proposals.
- The decision to cancel strike
action on 14th October.
- The future Pay Consultation
protocols in respect of Local Government pay claims.
- The best means to secure a
decent pay increase for Local Government members.
This won’t
be an academic exercise in debate for its own sake. The whole future of
national trade unionism is at stake here, if the three largest trade unions in
the country cannot manage to secure anything for workers in the largest
organised bargaining group in the economy then local government trade unionists
will want to know what is the purpose of our national structures (in their
impressive erection on the Euston Road).
(Incidentally,
any critic of the “expense” of a Special Conference would do well to attend to
the loss of income from all the empty space at the UNISON Centre before opening
their ill-informed mouth to make any such criticism.)
The flaccid
complacency of our hypertrophied official structures absolutely requires to be
shaken awake – and activists now need to coordinate in the run up to the
Conference when it is called.
Of which.
More.
Soon.
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