General Secretary outlines strategy to deal with the Coalition government's attacks?

The major part of the General Secretary's report to today's meeting of the Unison NEC dealt with what Dave described as the cataclysmic change of Government.

The Tories didn't, we were told, get the result they wanted. They had wanted a massive majority for ideologically driven cuts.

The deficit is due to bailing out banks and there is no need to close the deficit so quickly. Nevertheless the Government will cut public spending because that is what they want to do. There will be a misleading focus on waste and on the non-existent distinction between the "front-line" and the "back-office" with local government already taking a big hit.

We are into a four year battle to defend public services, jobs, pay and pensions. Our main focus must be on defence of jobs and services.

Resources need to be shifted to the local level in our Union.

Government plans for schools and health privatisation threaten us. Whilst inflexible contracts may mean disproportionate cuts for in-house public services.

What we need is unity with other trade unions and alliances with service users. We have a lot to do politically.

We may also have a lot to do industrially. Whereas - we were told - an attack on pensions could lead to national industrial action local action is a more likely response to compulsory redundancies.

Dave reported that the European TUC were calling for a demonstration in Brussels on 29 September and floated the idea that perhaps we should demonstrate in London rather than Brussels.

Since we had been told that the NEC would be making a statement to Conference following the outcome of the General Election, I made the foolish error of asking if we couldn't see a copy of the statement. This led to some of the audible "tutting" with which I am often honoured by some NEC colleagues.

There needs, you see, to be discussion with "the Regions" about the content of such a statement but I wasn't to worry, as the statement will be available for the next NEC meeting, ninety minutes before the opening of Conference on Tuesday 15 June (by which time the NEC will be presented with a statement already agreed with "the Regions" shortly after the Regional Convenors will have themselves been presented with a statement.

My friend and comrade Paul Holmes asked what UNISON's Strategy was to deal with the new situation after the General Election. The General Secretary kindly explained that this was a matter for the Service Group Executive as far as Local Government is concerned and that Paul could ask there.

Another NEC member pointed out that we already have the "Million Voices" campaign (to which some 15,000 voices have been added) and that all we needed to do was to take this campaign back into our branches.

So that's all right then.

I think I may have to return to this topic.

Lambeth Branch on good form :)

It is great to link to some good news from my own UNISON branch in Lambeth!

Thanks to support from UNISON's General Political Fund, approved by the Regional Finance Team in Greater London, our branch has been able to employ a consultant (that's a good consultant who believes in public services!) to help us develop credible proposals for a direct labour organisation (to be managed via a tenant led board with worker and Councillor representation) to deliver services to tenants in the borough.

Through united work between activists in the branch, the cooperation of our Regional Organiser, and a productive working relationship with Labour Councillors, we are showing what is possible for those of us in local government branches fortunate enough to have employers who are not hostile. The effective unity of all branch activists is of course also critical to this - as is the assistance of the Region.

I'm proud to come from a UNISON branch which can function so effectively - and whether or not we achieve the objective which we have set ourselves I know that in Lambeth we are giving effect to the intentions of UNISON's Million Voices campaign as well as anyone in the UK.

That's how to do it Darling! UNISON budget saves money and public services.

UNISON's alternative budget demonstrates why we do not need cuts in vital public services;

• £4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50 per cent tax rate on incomes over £100,000
• £10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and 'non-domiciled' residents
• £14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used to disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000
• £30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on financial institutions
• £76bn could be saved over 40 years by cancelling Trident, amounting to £1.8bn annually
• £500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare-acquired infections from the NHS - extra cleaners would cost half this
• £495m could be saved every year by adopting measures to improve the health and well-being of NHS staff, thereby reducing sickness absence
• £1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, a sum achieved by high performing councils
• £5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings, which only exaggerate housing shortages and harm neighbourhoods
• £2.8bn could be saved every year by reducing the central government use of private consultants
• £3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total: £74.195 billion

This is precisely what we need from our trade union - a coherent alternative to the consensus between the three main parties that our members have to pay the price for the bankers'crisis.

We need now to be lobbying politicians to support this alternative - and to take careful note of their responses (and remember them come the Election).

If UNISON Labour Link want to make effective use of our resources then our support should be going only to those politicians who will endorse the principles of UNISON's alternative budget.

Full marks to the Morning Star for giving this the coverage it deserves.

Well said Mike

I was sorry to miss the People's Charter Convention last week - particularly since I missed the contribution of UNISON's Scottish Region Convenor, Mike Kirby.

Mike rightly argued that we can (and indeed should) campaign both for the People's Charter and our own Million Voices campaign. The two are in no way counterposed. I agree - and have done for some time.

Both are about focusing the support of working class people on policies which are in our interests in order to mobilise pressure on politicians in our interests. Mike's comment about the STUC could equally apply to many other UNISON Regions; "The People’s Charter was opposed less because of what it said, but because of who was saying it".

In the choice which we will face between prioritising resistance or accommodation to attacks upon our interests we need to use both the Charter and the Million Voices campaign as ways of helping our members, and working people generally, to chose the former.

The lady vanishes...

When I heard that a lollipop lady had vanished from UNISON's Labour Conference delegation I was of course deeply concerned that a vigorous approach to collective responsibility and internal union discipline might have got out of hand.

It turns out that this is just an amusing gimmick to promote our Million Voices for Change campaign.

The progressive aspirations which inform our campaign are essentially the same as the objectives of the TUC-supported Peoples Charter.

Not every UNISON branch can afford to produce an ice-sculpture to catch the attention of jaded delegates at a political Conference - but we can all buy a pasting table and get out petitioning at a weekend or outside workplaces (or for that matter inside workplaces).

The Charter could be a valuable tool to build UNISON's campaign as well as demonstrating - across the breadth of our movement and beyond - the popular support for socialist politics which fails to find a voice from the leadership of any of the major parties.

I hope that this is the direction in which the campaign can now be taken. After all, Miss Froy was quite capable of acting alone - as UNISON is - but she still sought allies from those travelling in the same direction.

A Million Voices for Change - a million signatures to show we are serious

The TUC voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Peoples' Charter last Thursday.

This was a result for all those of us who want the union movement to break out of the political impotence and irrelevance which our leaders have all but celebrated for the past decade.

It was also to the credit of the politically astute souls in the RMT who accepted an amendment from UNITE which may have been intended as a wrecking amendment but which in fact strengthened and focused the position of support for the Charter, leaving in the commitment to work for a million signatures on the charter whilst also pressing for action in the Labour Party (about which the RMT had been uncharacteristically reticent).

Once leftwingers in UNITE had corrected a wobble about whether or not to withdraw the amendment (which had helped to ensure - for example - UNISON's support for the motion) the eventual outcome (support from the General Council - albeit with a a reservation - and then Congress) was predetermined.

UNISON activists can now correct any foolish perception upon the part of cynical souls that our "Million Voices for Change" campaign was ever intended as an establishment spoiler for the Charter (perish the thought!) Instead what we can now do is use the campaigning materials for the Million Voices campaign at branch level alongside the Charter itself.

After all, some of us on the political left are used to the criticism that we espouse causes on behalf of our members without their support - UNISON can now protect ourselves from any such criticism by integrating our Million Voices campaign with support for the Charter.

If we have a million voices for change - and I believe we do - then we can get a million signatures on the Charter which calls for that change. Mass support for the Charter will enable us to put pressure on politicians to join us in expressing that support if they want our votes.

From my perspective (as a Labour Party member who is not afraid to own up to that political affiliation when seeking office in our trade union, unlike some) I think that this can only be helpful in firming up the position of the better Labour candidates (of whom there are some) and helping us to campaign to protect as many as possible of the few socialist Parliamentarians we currently have to speak up for our class in the Palace of Westminster.