He began by putting on record his thanks and appreciation to ‘all of you out there in your Branches doing an incredible job in very difficult circumstances to get the best outcomes for our members and to protect those vital services that we all rely on’.
Chris outlined work to strengthen the role of all bargaining groups ‘ensuring that the different administrations in England, Northern Ireland Scotland and Wales are given an equal voice and increasing cross service group work.’ On recruitment he reported that in local government 2009 rate of recruitment was down on 2008 but have improved slightly in the first part of 2010’.
He reported that ‘over the past year branches have been facing increasing privatisation and wide ranging budget cuts threatening services, our members jobs and conditions of service. In my own Branch of Nottinghamshire a vicious newly elected Tory Council turned its back on years of being a good employer and provider of services to slashing budgets to pay for a council tax freeze. Elderly persons homes in prime building land are being sold off, day centres closed, service charges to the most vulnerable drastically increased and 1400 redundancies threatened over the next three years.
David Cameron said in the run up to the election that if you wanted to see what a Tory Government would be like look at his Tory Councils. Well David I’ve looked and it’s a frightening sight’.
On local government pay ‘in England and Wales the Tory controlled Employers on the NJC have refused to even meet to discuss our pay claim and there are noises being made of a 3 year pay freeze. We are currently involving ACAS to try to force the Employers to come to the table. In Scotland the Employers have offered a derisory 3 year deal if the 2nd year 0% can be called an offer!’
Chris referred to developments affecting members in social work members, schools and libraries and concluded with a call to arms ‘we all face the biggest challenges to our public services that we have ever faced in our lifetimes and it’s going to hit our members and our services in Local Government harder than anywhere else.
The Tories in England can’t believe their luck. They have a pathological hatred of the public sector and are using every opportunity to overstate the financial deficit the Country is in and that the only way out of it is to savage public sector services and public sector workers jobs and all the time using their Lib Dem puppets as front men. Conference we are up to the challenge.’