UNISON chief issues votes warning to Government

In a key note speech to more than 600 delegates at UNISON’s women’s conference in Brighton today (14 February), General Secretary Dave Prentis will issue a votes warning to Government: “It’s up to you, but keep on cutting jobs and services and you cut your chances at the next election”.
 
Dave Prentis went on to say:
 
“Women are in the eye of the storm when it comes to this Government’s austerity agenda.  And it will take more than a pair of wellies to protect Cameron and his party from the voter backlash from women everywhere.
 
“It is women who are the backbone of our public services – they make up two-thirds of the workforce and it is women who rely on them most.  They rely on them to keep their children safe in schools, in hospitals and on the streets – and yet the Government have cut jobs and undermined budgets one after another in education, the NHS and the police service.
 
“Women are the ones who care for our elderly and yet cuts to council budgets have led to homecare services being delivered in 10 minute time slots, by women mostly on the minimum wage, on zero hours contracts and with scant attention to training or employment rights.  
 
“I have heard our homecare workers complain bitterly they do not have time to give the care and attention they want to give – and that they know their clients desperately need.   And when help with care is not enough – or too expensive – women have to deal with the consequences acting as carers – often at the expense of their own health.
 
“And who is subject to another blow when women’s refuges are forced to close their doors because of lack of funding?  Who are being forced to make long, painful and anxious journeys when the local maternity unit is shut down and moved 10 miles down the road?
 
“The Government has already taken the axe to more than 631,000 public service jobs and in January the Chancellor warned that more are to come – 400,000 more – that is 1 in 6 public service jobs gone since the coalition came to power.
 
“So I am warning the Chancellor and all his millionairecabinet colleagues, that the backlash is coming.  It is coming in the 2015 election.   The women’s vote is enough to make or breakthis Government – the power rests in your hands.”