We need to make 20 October the launchpad for an organised and united campaign trade union campaign against austerity, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis declared this morning.
Moving a composite motion at the TUC congress in Brighton which called for “a future that works,” Mr Prentis accused the coalition government of “declaring war on our people” as pay was frozen and living standards slashed, while the rich and powerful remained untouched.
“It is our job to lead the fight-back,” he told delegates: “to protect our heritage, to defend that fairer society that those who went before us fought for, to fight for a future that works.”
He issued a rallying call to make sure that 20 October is “the biggest anti-cuts demonstration in our history; a day that will give hope to our people and hope for a fairer, better society.
“But 20 October has to be more – much more than just a march. It must be the launch pad for our campaign against austerity.
“After that day we must march on, united and co-ordinated, as unions and through the TUC – we must be out there campaigning, organising, building a movement, building alliances of all unions.
“We are never stronger than when we co-ordinate action, when we speak with one voice,” declared Mr Prentis.
Unions will continue to do what their members ask them to do – to seek decent pay and to negotiate, he said: “But make no mistake, if employers refuse to negotiate, if the attacks continue we will move to the co-ordinated action called for in this composite. Now is the time for action.”
Mr Prentis paid tribute to all the athletes who had taken part in the Olympics and Paralympic Games – and “to the 80,000 women, men and children in the Olympic stadium who showed George Osborne exactly what they thought of him.
“The day Osborne was rumbled. That crowd who spoke for us weren’t booing pantomime villains, but real life villains who are destroying Britain.”
He said that, in Tory Britain a public service job disappeared every 45 seconds, with more to come, while the government oversaw the worst child poverty record for a generation.
“Last week, Save The Children, an international charity, launched an appeal to help UK families plunged into poverty by cuts and recession,” he recalled.
“We’ve seen the cost of food go up again by another 10%, with the cost of gas and electricity rising even more. We know that just a £50 rise in monthly costs would plunge one third of families into ruin.”
He said that Britain was changing beyond recognition: “We see a Britain where everything is up for sale: our NHS, our police service, our care services, our education services – essential services are being privatised.
“£27bn of contracts are to be signed in the coming year alone, despite the scandals, despite the failures – A4E, Southern Cross, G4S, ATOL and its discredited benefits tests, failed council contracts.
“The Tories, with no road to recovery, are using austerity and the recession to destroy our public services, to destroy our welfare state,” he stated.
“Without austerity they couldn’t privatise our NHS, privatise policing, close libraries, attack the hard-won rights of working people.”