- Conference
- 2021 Virtual Special Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 April 2021
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes that during a time of international pandemic, once more local government workers rose to the occasion alongside other key workers in the NHS, care, transport and retail to keep essential services running and to support lockdown policies that were the front line in reducing infections and allowing time for a vaccine to be developed. We are therefore appalled that the Conservative government has announced that the reward for this vital and lifesaving service will be yet another local government pay freeze.
This is not only an insult to all our members who worked tirelessly and selflessly on the frontline, and in support, but also demonstrates that the Tories are still wedded to the internationally discredited idea of austerity that has done so much damage to this country over the last ten years. This austerity hollowed out the very services that were so vitally needed once the pandemic struck and our members were caught between the decade of economic vandalism that had been done to the public sector from previous Conservative led and ConDem coalition governments and the mismanagement of the health crisis from the incompetent leadership of the current government.
This conference agrees that UNISON should continue to oppose pay �offers� which in reality continue to result in further cuts in real living standards for our members and call on the union to campaign for action at every level of UNISON to provide the fair and equitable remuneration that our members deserve. This can only be fully achieved when the public sector gets the funding that is so desperately need in order to have a fair and equitable recovery from the pandemic and the damage done by the current government�s mishandling of it.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:
1)Build a national campaign to fight against any pay freeze or derisory pay offer that is below our National Joint Council (NJC) demands, alongside calling for the funding from national government to fund it;
2)Reject any return to austerity as a part of the post-Covid-19 settlement;
3)Campaign for investment in local services that will provide safe, secure, well-paid jobs while providing the best outcomes for residents;
4)Campaign with others for this investment to be part of a just, green settlement, not just a return to business as usual.