Developments in the few days since have vindicated the caution of the union's leadership in opting out of the comical, lemming like,hand-clapping foot-stomping acclaim shown by many MP's, union representatives and other delegates at the Labour Conference following the Brown speech.
Hundreds of jobs are at risk in a restructuring of Lancashire County Council’s Environment Department, which employs about 1,000 people. UNISON NEC member and local branch officer Elaine Cotterill said: “We do not know numbers of staff potentially at risk at this stage, but this is probably just the start of restructures with the budget cuts that are needed. We are concerned both from a staff and a service delivery point of view.” http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/ribblevalley/4661911.Jobs_cull_plan_for_Lancashire_s_roads_department/?ref=rss
Elsewhere in the North West, Sefton Council is considering huge job cuts in a bid to save £25m by 2012, http://www.bootletimes.co.uk/news/bootle-news/2009/10/01/sefton-council-is-eyeing-up-huge-job-cuts-in-a-bid-to-save-25m-by-2012-union-says-97007-24822475/
The local press reports that 'a major workforce review has begun inlight of a massive squeeze on the public purse which sources say put sup to 600 jobs at risk.'
Police support staff are not exempt from the jobs squeeze caused by budget pressures. In Essex so called back office staff are facing joblosses in order to fund more front line police. This is precisely the logic of Brown's 'quart out of a pint pot' speech to the TUC and Labour Party conferences.
Saving are being proposed from a shared services initiative (IT, HR,training and finance departments across a number of south east police services). http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=xDefault&itemid=IPED30%20Sep%202009%2023%3A47%3A03%3A277
Barry Faber, UNISON branch secretary for Essex Police, said “We will resist compulsory redundancies at every point. To date, we have had a good record working with Essex Police in resolving these issues as they arise. However, vacancies and roles have been removed from the organisation, so now we have reached a point where the opportunities to redeploy people are becoming extremely limited due to the force trying to make the Operation Apex savings.”
In London, Tory led Hounslow Council has announced 100 job losses following 300 job cuts in the past year. A further £53m savings are being sought over a 3 year period.
Iain Raymond, local branch secretary of UNISON said: "I refuse toaccept these job cuts will not have an affect on the quality or standard of services. Quoting the improvement programme doesn't mean that it's right."
No one will be surprised to learn that the council spent £4.3m on fees for financial consultants KPMG as part of the improvement programme, which has delivered £6.9m for services this year and obscenely enabled council tax to be frozen.
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/hounslowchiswick/4656477.100_jobs_to_be_axed_at_Hounslow_Council/
Bad times are here for council workers but it is notable that in all cases - in every city, town and village - it is UNISON which is at the forefront of resistance to cuts in local authority jobs and services. The union will now have to prepare for defensive battles in the years ahead on a scale unprecedented in its short 16 year history.
