- Conference
- 2002 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 25 February 2002
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference believes that the private ownership of essential services is being increasingly exposed for the disaster that it is. The state of Britain’s railways has revealed particularly clearly what happens when the mandatory priority of an undertaking is to maximise the profits of its shareholders. Private ownership can clearly be seen to reduce equality, efficiency, economy and safety alike. The Government’s continued commitments to Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives are as unpopular as they are misguided. In the interests of our members as both users and providers of public services it is essential that the National Health Service and local government services such as housing and education should be publicly owned and accountable as well as properly funded.
Conference therefore now calls on all UNISON’s representatives to campaign against privatisation in the strongest possible terms in every available arena, both unilaterally and also in conjunction with other organisations such as the TGWU, the GMB, the CWU and the rail unions and so on.
Such campaigning should not be restricted to general celebrations of existing public services or to the defence of particular groups currently threatened with privatisation. It should also relentlessly expose the injustice of private profiteering from public need and campaign for public ownership to be positively extended.
Conference instructs in particular our Union’s National Executive Council to demand at this year’s TUC that the ongoing campaign against privatisation of public services is emphatically strengthened and sharpened.