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The government has revoked changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme scheduled to come into force on 1 April 2005, after pressure from UNISON and other trade unions. The triumph has also been a valuable recruiting tool
Pensions victory aids recruitment
“We’ve had people joining who would never have considered
it before,” says Oxfordshire county branch secretary Mark Fysh on
why membership in his branch has shot up during the local government pensions
dispute.
“This issue has transformed how people see the union and they are
recognising that we can do a lot of good.”
The hard work and campaigning of UNISON against the changes to the pension
scheme - nationally, in regions and branches and by members - has paid
off.
Lengthy negotiations between UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis and
deputy prime minister John Prescott have resulted in a momentous breakthrough
in the dispute making it an excellent time for recruitment.
The talks between Prescott, Prentis and representatives from other public
sector trade unions paid off when the deputy prime minister pledged to
revoke changes to the pension scheme scheduled to come into force on 1
April.
Prentis expressed gratitude to the branches and regions for all their
hard work.
“Thanks to all of you who put so much effort into this campaign,”
he says.
“There is no doubt that a united effort by the local government
trade unions, with the support of PCS and FDA, also contributed much to
a successful outcome.”
More than 1.4 million public sector employees were prepared to walk-out
in protest at the legislation that would have raised pension and retirement
ages in local government in England and Wales from 2005 and threatened
to do the same in Scotland from 2006.
Strike action planned for 23 March 2005 was called off when the government
met the unions’ demands.
“There’s been a gut reaction,” says Fysh. “ People
are really angry that the government tried to push this through with no
negotiation, they understand there is a problem and there needs to be
change but they expect a discussion to take place.”
Membership of the Oxfordshire county branch has gone up by 10% in the
past three months. Fysh said the campaign has done his branch a lot of
good.
“The strength of feeling has been enormous and universal,”
he says. “We had a really high turn-out for the ballot and six to
one voted in favour of industrial action.”
His branch’s strategy has been to be as visible as possible. Fysh
along with two other full-time officials did enormous amounts of touring
and recruited and trained stewards so they themselves could go out and
recruit in the workplace.
“It’s important to be approachable and really understand people’s
concerns,” he explains. “An issue like pensions is a key recruitment
tool as they are relevant to everyone and it has really helped us break
down barriers with people who are not traditional trade union members.”
Branches have not only kept their profile high in the workplace: they
have also ensured the pensions debate was always on the agenda through
lobbying and letter writing.
The only other issue on which MPs have had so much correspondence is foxhunting.
204 MPs signed the early day motion and they did that because of the pressure
UNISON members put on them.
Now the strike has been called off the next phase of talks will be crucial
to the final outcome.
The negotiations need to be evidence-based. If the employers say that
they need to make changes because people are living longer UNISON will
insist that this claim is substantiated.
Information gathered by the branches has already proved essential in the
recent negotiations and all further information obtained on local funds,
local membership of the scheme and employer contribution stories will
be an important bargaining tool.
Branches need to stay active for the next phase and they will continue
to get high numbers of queries from people interested in joining.
"People are still calling in to find out about joining even though
the strike is off,” says Glasgow City branch secretary David O’Conner.
“We’ve had people coming to our offices and asking for application
forms and signing them straight away.”
The Glasgow branch has literally had hundreds of new recruits. According
to O’Conner the new members are a mix of starters, employees switching
unions and people who dropped out of the union years ago. A surprising
number of young people have joined up because of concerns about the pension
scheme.
“The whole stewards network has been working really well and they’ve
been getting lots of information out to the workplace.
“People have been joining because they’ve seen what a key
part UNISON is playing in negotiating with government and that we’re
really achieving something.”
Story by Nathalie Towner
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