UNISON police staff conference - outsourcing threat intensifies‏

I returned home from the UNISON Police Staff Service Group Conference last Saturday with very mixed emotions. On the one hand I felt angry, worried and dismayed that our Government could be proposing that the future of our police service should be left to outsourcing, shared services and collaboration.

On the other, I felt encouraged that our service group appears to have come of age and is showing signs of maturity in its approach to dealing with these very real threats.

We have watched and campaigned with our comrades across the public services as their jobs have been privatised and their terms and conditions have been under cut. There was an air of complacency inthe mistaken belief that our service would be safe. After all, every party wants to be seen as the party of law and order!

We are now seeing that the protection of our communities is secondary to efficiency savings. We have already experienced the failure of privatisation projects such as in the South West and proposals for outsourcing in Durham.

We have plenty of evidence of the failures of privatisation which was pointed out by our Deputy General Secretary, Keith Sonnet in his opening address to conference.

So how do we respond?

Conference heard that we are mounting national campaigns to protect public services, which of course our members will support. However, if we are to make the urgent progress that this requires then it is not enough to simply make a declaration of support by signing up, we have to organise effectively across our union.

All of our members need to be engaged if we are to show the strength of our collectivism to whichever party is in government. Last week our Police Staff members showed that they are ready and able to stand up for our world-class police service.

Annette Mansell-Green