“Let’s make clear to the outside world what a force we can be as UNISON and that we are ready for the fight and the challenge ahead.”
That was the message from UNISON president Maureen Le Marinel as she opened the union’s national delegate conference (NDC) in Brighton this morning.
Noting that this year marks the 21st birthday of the union, she said that “we have come of age and must celebrate”.
There had, she explained, been plenty worth celebrating, from the union’s many living wage successes, to the successful fight against the privatisation of George Eliot and Weston hospitals, to helping to see BNP leader Nick Griffin lose his European Parliamentary seat to a UNISON member.
But the past year has also “felt like the toughest one for UNISON members and activists,” she continued.
Ms Le Marinel, who works in police staff, said that “cuts have hit my service group hard – we’ve lost thousands of jobs and faced the crazy prospect of police privatisation and the privatisation of probation”, but police and justice services were not alone.
“Cameron and his numpties continue to steer the economy down a one-way street marked ‘austerity’,” she said, while “the recent Queen’s Speech held out no hope for ordinary people”.
With increasing numbers of people struggling to pay for the simplest everyday essentials, the president noted that “Save the Children estimate that there could be as many as 5 million people living in poverty by the end of the decade”.
“What we really need is something to ease the pain of the spiralling cost of living,” not “Gideon’s beer and bingo” attempt to bribe ordinary working people, noted the president.
Observing the government’s record on sell-offs – the NHS, the Royal Mail and the Probation Service – she warned that “now the child protection services could even go”.
“Gove is writing a new story – a children’s horror book – and it could have a devastating effect on children who are already damaged.”
And the question that all this leaves is a simple one: “Where will it end and who will pick up the pieces?
“It won’t be this shambles of a government,” she said, but “you, me and our members.”
Ms Le Marinel also urged members in local government to make sure that they have voted in the industrial action ballot on pay – and voted yes.
“Many members say they can’t afford to take strike action,” she said. “But I always ask them: ‘can you afford not to?’
“We should and cannot shirk from this … it has been said before, but enough is enough.”
The president took the opportunity to remind delegates that recruitment remains a key issue for the union, asking them to “please continue the good work that you’ve done over the year”.
“We have a good story to tell – we just need to make sure everybody has the chance to hear it.”
“When our members fight with our help,” she added, “they – we – can win.
“When we are united and when we are organised, we can prevail: we can win for our members.”
