Today’s UNISON Annual Leadership seminar heard General Secretary Dave Prentis call for the union to face up to the tough times that we face - and represent the working people of this country.
The seminar was called UNISON Beyond the General Election and aimed to to fix our attention to make sure we think further ahead – especially in times of uncertainty, particularly as we are approaching a crucial election, gearing ourselves up for the fight to get the vote out and knowing our members' future is in the balance.
Prentis had a clear message that trade unions were formed to protect workers in tough times, and that on the verge of an election where all mainstream parties have a common agenda of cuts to public services, threatening our members jobs, pay, conditions and pensions it is time for the union to step up to the mark.
The speech was uncompromising “Our members did not create this recession.
No school cleaner gambled billions on the stock exchange.
No nurse got a million pound bonus for risking other people’s money.
No social worker, no librarian, no paramedic, no dinner lady, no housing worker – not these people, our people. None of them created this recession, so why should they be expected to pay for the recovery?
That’s why we have to speak up now. We can’t zip up our mouths and keep our gobs shut for Labour. We have to challenge the orthodoxy that we have got to batten down the hatches. We can’t NOT do that – for our members’ sake and for Labour’s sake.”
Prentis contrasted what he saw as the eighteen years of Tory devastation with a Labour Governemnt that had made improvements for the members of this union, in improvemnts in public sector investment, in political devolution, in the minimum wage and in the real improvement that had been made in the health service. But he went on to add angrily, that despite the gains, this union had to face;
“The onward march of the market and privatisation – into the heart of our public services.
Labour’s love affair with the private sector.
Not so much a match made in heaven – more an abusive relationship.
The failure to properly fund equal pay.
The squeeze on local government.
A so-called flexible labour market that has left British workers the least protected in Europe.
Deregulation that left the bankers free to ruin our economy and left working people paying the price.
So we can’t keep quiet.”
For Dave the message is that UNISON has to do what it was born to do. “After all, trade unions were not created for the good times.
They were born out of necessity.
They were created to deal with conflict.
To represent a class of workers.
Our working class.
We are here to fight those battles.
That is our history and that will be our future too.”
He was very clear about the future direction “As long as I lead this union, there will be no saying one thing in private and another in public.
That’s not my style.
No putting party before union.
There will be no compromise on our values
Our members need more from Labour.
A vision of a better society.
A fairer society where we count the value of our public services by the way they change and improve people’s lives rather than as an easy target for spending cuts.”
Prentis went on to outline the real threats we are face in the event of a Tory victory
“Already they are talking immediate and savage spending cuts:
• Cuts that will mean thousands of public service jobs lost
• Cuts that will punish the poor and vulnerable
• Cuts that will attack our pensions; pay freezes at best; pay cuts, the norm
• Cuts made so deep and so fast that they risk sending our economy back in a downward spiral. A double dip recession.
But even if we do face that nightmare of waking up and watching Cameron move into Downing Street, we shouldn’t be fearful.”
The speech was thoughtful on the organisational challenges that the union will face over the coming year and gave delegates much to consider.
But as a declared candidate for the General Secretary’s Prentis’s political stance was tough and uncompromining, being clear that the mission of this union is to stand up for the working people of this country.
