'No to public service cuts which harm women' - Angela Lynes, UNISON President

The UNISON 2011 Women’s Conference, meeting in Harrogate Yorkshire, yesterday heard a fighting speech from UNISON President Angela Lynes.

Angela outlined the devastating impact of Con Dem public service cuts on working women, their families and communities.

Her speech in full follows:

“It’s also a great privilege to be in this conference hall with so many like-minded women. Women who believe, as I do, that we can make a difference – not only in our union, but in our society – and as we all know, that has never been more crucial than now.

And what we also know is that once again, it is women who will be asked to pick up the pieces, and women who will bear the brunt of the cuts.

Every single day we hear news of yet more cuts to our services. Pick up any local newspaper and you will see that your local library, swimming pool, sure start centre, after school club – the list is endless – is under threat of closure or of being outsourced to a private company – a company where profit will matter so much more than either the level of service provided or the way that staff are treated.

Because let’s face it, there are not too many people in business because of their golden hearts or their commitment to public services.

Unlike those of us in this conference hall, who take such pride in the work we do, and who care so much about what happens to those we care for.

Particularly when this government has made it so clear that it is those so have so little who will be asked to give so much.

Eileen mentioned that I have two children – Jack who is 14 and Rachel, just 13.

So inevitably, one of the things which is closest to my heart is what this government’s cuts are going to do to our young people.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have absolutely no experience of what it is like to be a young person on the minimum wage.

They have never had to worry about whether or not they could afford to go to university.

Or whether they would ever be able to buy their own home, or find an affordable home to rent.

My children will not have a trust fund, or a million pound inheritance to look forward to – I’m afraid my gold plated pension won’t quite stretch to that.

And I have spoken in the past of the struggle I have had to get Jack, who has specific learning needs, the support he needs at school. How much harder will that be, with services being cut, and so called efficiency savings being made to the very services the most vulnerable people in our society need?

People like my dad, a man who worked hard all his life to support his family, who suffered a head injury as a result of an industrial accident and now lives in fear that the benefit payments he relies on will be taken away, and that he will be accused of fraud, or be called a cheat and a scrounger.

These are my personal battles, but I know that many of you share them, or very similar struggles, with your own families.

That is why it is not enough just to be proud of our work and be proud of our public services any longer. We now have to dig even deeper into our reserves and our energy, our talents and our commitment, and we have to fight for what we believe in.

Your agenda this week, and the opening speech by your chair, make it very clear that our work must be focused on trade union issues.

Issues such as the loss of vital jobs and services in the women’s voluntary sector – those supporting the victims of rape and domestic abuse or escaping forced marriage;

Or working women being penalised under sickness absence schemes just for being women, or getting pregnant;

Women being forced to work longer for poorer pensions;

Cuts in education which mean that young women have even more obstacles to climb just to reach that glass ceiling, if they ever get off the sticky floor.

I pledge my support for your campaigns and your demands. UNISON will also support those demands – we are supporting those demands.

We are saying loud and clear – no to public service cuts which harm women.

No to benefit reform which cuts the support women rely on to stay in work and to feed their children;

No to cuts in health and social care so that we women are forced to fill the gap when our elderly, frail and dependant relatives are sent home from hospital too early, or the meals on wheels service becomes too expensive for them to afford ;

No to cuts in the routine operations which health authorities say they can no longer afford to carry out – the operations which may not be life saving, but they are life changing, and it is women’s lives which are changed.

And no to public sector job cuts.

You have heard Cameron, Clegg and Osborne tell you that there is no alternative. That it was all Labour’s fault, and they are just doing what is best for the country.

Well, I’m known for being a plain speaker, so I shall say this plainly – that is total and utter nonsense.

These cuts are not in my interest and they are not in your interest. Half a million of us may lose our jobs, and the truth is that the Tory-led government is pursuing cuts in this way because they do not believe in public services, they believe in business and bankers.

They fiddle around at the edges – making their banker friends pay a little more – well eight hundred million more. It’s a lot of money to you and me – but to the banks it is chicken feed, a drop in the ocean of their 24 billion pounds or so profit in 2010.

So I won’t be weeping too many tears for the chief executives on their multi-million pound bonuses, I will save my tears for those who truly deserve them - like the one in four children who live in poverty in the UK.

Some of you will know that I am raising funds through my presidential project this year to enable branches and regions to organise days out for children who come from low paid families or underprivileged backgrounds. Maybe a trip to seaside, a theme park – anything which will give them a happy memory and make them smile.

The fund will be organised by UNISON welfare and branches and regions can apply to it for financial support for events or trips they want to organise.

I hope you will take the time to find out a little more, and perhaps even organise some fund raising for the project – you will find all the details on the welfare stand in the exhibition hall.

And that’s the plug over – other than to tell you that the project is called “Make a Child Smile”.

Although I worry that there will be so little to make our children smile in the coming years.

My mother knew about hardship. She was a single parent, raising two girls and working three jobs to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table.

The Labour government worked hard to improve life for single parents like my mum, in fact for all parents.

But this government is going to cut working tax credit, so that in already low-paid families, there is even less money to go around;

They are going to cut out of hours childcare services provided by our schools and play schemes, so parents have stark choices – leave work, pay money you cannot afford for private care or let your kids come home to an empty house.

And something else – something that we do not talk about so much - is the impact of poverty on domestic violence.

Those of you who were here last year will have heard me speak of my own experience.

That was a long time ago, but it will never leave me. And it will never leave the women and children who are going to suffer because of this government’s cuts.

Research has shown that where there is poverty, the incidence of domestic abuse increases.

Where there is unemployment, the incidence of domestic abuse increases.

Where there is domestic abuse, there is often child abuse – the two go hand in hand.

Women who have no access to personal income have no easy escape route, whilst the very organisations set up to assist them and their children to escape are all too vulnerable to cuts in funding from central and local government.

Yet again, the most vulnerable have to pay the price for banker’s greed and government ideology.

So, what can we do, what can you do?

We need to persuade this government that they need to invest in the amazing work done by people employed in the public services. People who are not motivated by profit, but by the desire to make other people’s lives better.

And it must be you doing that persuading, taking that lead, campaigning and working for a better future.

A better future which means a fairer economy, based on social justice, good jobs and quality public services.

A better future which means help for those who need it most, not tax breaks and bonuses for the super rich.

There are UNISON staff here at this conference who can help you to argue for that alternative – along with all the information you can possibly need – myth busters, training materials, leaflets, posters - it’s all there for the taking. It’s of no use at all in a cupboard at Mabledon Place, we have to be taking it out into our communities and shouting about our Million voices campaign.

There is a great deal of talk about the coalition who currently govern our country, and who are responsible for the devastating cuts which face us. We want you all to be part of a different coalition – the Million Voices coalition.

A coalition of trade unionists, community groups, charities, women’s organisations, your family and friends – all the people who use, support and rely on public services – to get the message across to this government that there is an alternative to the cuts.

And – you probably know what’s coming next – the loudest way to get that message across is to join what we hope will be our biggest march for public services ever.

It’s in London and it is on Saturday 26 March – a date which is already engraved on my brain and, I suspect, will be engraved on yours too by the time this weekend is out. It promises to be a great day, an amazing day. A day for families to say loud and clear to this government that enough is enough, leave our public services alone.

And maybe, just maybe, when we are back in a hall very like this in a year’s time, our future will not look quite so bleak.

So conference, thank you for letting me have my say.

I look forward to spending time with you over the next couple of days, and of course I look forward to seeing you on 26 March.

Thank you for listening to me.”