“Thanks for all that you do,” were the words of UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis as he opened UNISON’s local government conference in Glasgow today.
He was welcoming activists from all over the country who he said, had faced their toughest year yet: “The daily reality of austerity cuts at a local level.”
Namechecking local actions including Barnet branch facing mass privatisation of council services, Glasgow council’s homeless workers unit moving to their 12th week of strike action, Hertfordshire county, Brighton and Leeds, he said “we stand in solidarity with everyone in dispute.”
And he reminded delegates: “These are hard times, but that is what our union is for. That is why UNISON was created.”
