UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, today called on the TUC in Liverpool to come together to back public services through the recession. The motion*, moved by UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, appeals to the TUC for a joint union campaign to claw back banking bail out cash, and to keep the focus on challenging the excess of the City. This, says the union, will help protect people who depend on the public sector for care and support, from paying the price for the economic crisis.
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:
“Congress, an attack on public services is an attack on us all. Our families, our communities. And I want to make it clear at the outset that my UNISON delegation here today will not allow our public service members to pay the price for bailing out the banks.
“We will not allow our members to suffer for something they played no part in. The breakdown of a greedy financial system, a breakdown overseen by the rich and powerful, a self-serving elite, given freedom. Less regulation, more contracts, more privilege. The super rich believing themselves to be super special, abusing their position. And when we challenged. We were told, ‘the city knows best’, ‘the markets know best’, ‘the consultants know best’.
“And in the end, they drove our economy off a cliff. A soft landing for the banks, but ordinary people, our people, left injured. Their hopes, their dreams, shattered. Our people, suddenly finding themselves in a job centre with thousands of others. Worried about their homes, their families, their pensions.
“And in times of need congress, in times of crisis, it is our public services that keep our fabric of life, our communities together. Getting people rehoused. Benefit advice. Our members in social services, looking out for the most vulnerable. Caring for the elderly, our children. A lifeline for those struggling with family breakdown. Our members in schools. Colleges, helping people reskill, not lose hope. Our members in the NHS; in mental health, making sure, unlike America, that everyone gets the care they need.
“Congress, it’s our public services who’ll pull us through. It’s our members who’ll rebuild our communities. But what of the future? What do we get? The spotlight rapidly turned from city excess onto cutting our essential services.
So called backroom services – expendable, to be sold off just like in Thatcher’s Britain, when cleaners were deemed to be ‘non core’. Their jobs halved, sold off to the lowest bidder. And what did we get? dirty hospitals, MRSA, C-difficile.
“And make no mistake, in 2009, UNISON will defend our cleaners, our dinner ladies, just as much as we will defend our nurses and social workers.
“A Tory party, egged on by the tax payers alliance, calling for savage cuts, using the crisis to dismantle the state. A treasury pushing outsourcing as the only way to make efficiency savings. Councils falling over themselves to hand services to private companies. Multi-national companies invading every corner of our health services. No monitoring. No accountability.
“And it’s not just about a Labour government warning us that the Tories will cut spending. We know that – it’s about Labour convincing us that it will not do the same. It’s not about just warning us that the Tories will privatise all our public services. We know that. It’s about convincing us that Labour will not. It’s not just about attacking the Tories. That’s easy. It’s knowing that our people have a party, in Westminster standing up for Labour values.
“Standing up for a Labour vision. Standing up for our public services. Standing up for a fairer society, ending the market madness.
“Congress, our members will not pay for the greed of others. We will not take lectures from discredited city bankers. Nor from politicians, who should know better. We will work with all public service unions to fight job cuts, to save our national health service, to defend our public services, to bring fairness back into our society. A united plan of action.
“Congress,