“Members were angry about the cuts to the services they provide and how the projected 400 job losses would devastate loyal hardworking employees who work for the council and throw them onto the scrapheap through no fault of their own because of the banker’s greed and their unregulated cavalier practices”, reports Mark Rayner, the branch’s communications officer.
Mark explained how the event was planned with the branch leadership speaking to officers and members to get their views. They looked at the traditional method of lobbying outside the meeting and handing out leaflets to the public outside the Town Hall.
Some doubted that a silent protest would have the impact they wanted, but others felt that the sight of hundreds of members in complete silence would have a dramatic effect on the councillors and make their point.
The branch also had to take another protest into account. On the same night a community group was protesting against the closure of a big secondary school in the borough.
“The branch felt that if we disrupted the meeting in any way it would undermine a legitimate protest of parents who were campaigning against the closure of such an important local asset along with the job losses of our members and teaching posts within the school”, said Mark.
The decision taken, the branch had to swing into organising to make the event a success.
“We wrote to all our members within the branch informing them of the event and what time and where to meet if they wanted to attend the protest and we chose our marshalls for the evening.
“We had leaflets printed showing how the cuts would affect the public of Stockport and how much it would cost each family in lost services and the economic cost of the job losses to the local economy. Every public sector job loss has an effect on local business and the private sector too as the spending power is cut within the community”.
The event was a huge success. “Hundreds of members turned up on the night, and we had over 150 members outside who couldn’t get in on what was a very cold evening”.
The local press covered the event as assistant branch secretary Angela Bowen addressed the UNISON members and members of the public on the steps of Stockport Town Hall, she explained the impact on services and our members jobs the cuts would have. Angela asked for a calm and dignified protest against the cuts.
“Once inside the packed hall our members conducted themselves with absolute calm and dignity despite the very heated exchanges that were taking place around them between the campaigners against the school closure and councillors on the executive, it vindicated our earlier concerns that we might have undermined the community groups protest if we hadn’t had a silent process”, reports Mark.
"Finally as the meeting drew to a close, the leader of the council Councillor David Goddard acknowledged and praised UNISON’S handling of the protest and stated that its members had acted with dignity and he respected their right to protest and that he and the council wanted to continue to work closely with the Branch and its senior officers to mitigate job losses as much as they could."
The feedback from members has been extremely positive and the branch is now are planning the next phase in the campaign to save jobs and services for its members and the people of Stockport who rely on public service.