Time for Real Change in the 2024 UNISON SGE Elections
For Real Change in every UNISON Service Group!
Whether you work for the NHS, a School, a Council, a Care Home, a Charity, a University or College or in another service, chances are your work is harder than it was last year, and harder than the year before that. Staff cuts, higher workloads and the constant uncertainty over budgets and service levels take their toll on all of us.
Our members are in the front line across every part of our public services. We believe that UNISON should be at the forefront, defending members and organising to improve our lives.
Inflation is still a threat, especially to low paid members and energy prices are starting to rise again. We are still in a cost-of-living crisis.
Our members face racism, anti-disablism, sexism and anti LGBT+ discrimination, bullying and harassment. Black and migrant workers are heavily overrepresented in the lowest paid jobs and are often scapegoated or face uncertain futures because of racist government legislation.
UNISON needs to effectively defend members, wherever we work - and our union needs a clear strategy to win back what we’ve lost in wages, terms and conditions over these years of austerity.
The experience of the last two years is that we can’t always rely on dealing with issues and problems on an individual basis. UNISON needs to be able to deliver when it comes to fighting low pay. This means not just fighting for a pay rise, we also need to be able to deliver on opposing outsourcing and privatisation which inevitably leads to pay cuts to pay for private profit.
We need full union recognition across all of the union’s service groups, with negotiating rights on pay, terms and conditions. All these are part of the struggle for better wages and conditions and against low pay. But we also must be able to deliver on our pay campaigns. That means building our activist base and convincing our members that we can win if we stand up and fight for a decent pay rise.
Every Service Group within UNISON has its own issues to deal with and will have its own priorities, but across the whole of our union its evident that things need to change. UNISON must be an Organising union fighting at every level and in every service to defend and advance our members’ interests at work and in the communities where they live.
Since 2010 Local Government members have lost more than 25% of their pay in real terms. We’ve lost more than a million jobs over the same period. The growing cost of social care means that many services are barely surviving, or have disappeared altogether, often with big impacts on the very people we are meant to be supporting. More than anything we need an end to austerity and fully funded services which meet the needs of the people and communities we serve.
In Health the various pay campaigns in the NHS involving all grades of NHS staff have thrown the crisis in the Health Service into sharp relief. It is evident that the staffing crisis is having a massive knock-on effect on members’ health and wellbeing, on workloads and patients care. Instead of dealing with the central issue of funding, the government seems fixed on undermining the NHS with further privatisation and “involving private providers”. We need the right level of funding, the right type of provision and an end to the threat of privatisation. We need a fully funded NHS which is safe for our members and for the patients they care for.
In Higher Education many members took industrial action last year, but many issues still remain. Outsourcing, restructures and redundancies, workload, low pay and uncertainty driven by “fire and rehire” all add to the growing pressure on our members. UNISON needs to organise to deliver for our members in Higher Education.
In Community perhaps more than in any other Service Group UNISON must be an organising union. Many members work in small charities with no union recognition, poor working conditions and low pay. Almost a quarter of the way through the 21st Century and our members rely on the yearly increase in the Minimum Wage to get a pay increase. UNISON needs to transform the way it works in the Community and Voluntary Sector.
Police and Justice members have been particularly hit by austerity over the last 14 years. UNISON estimates that Police Staff pay would be 52.4% higher than it is had pay rises matched inflation since 2011. Poor terms and conditions, inadequate pay and second-class status all impact on our members. UNISON needs do more than pay lip service to its Police and Justice members.
Our members in Water, Environment and Transport and the Energy service groups have huge issues to face. Privatisation has led to crumbling infrastructure and a lack of investment. Severe weather events linked to climate change all impact on our members working in these services. We need real change across all these service groups, a just and fair transition to green jobs and a serious plan for the future of the essential utilities that we all rely upon.
The 2024 UNISON Service Group Elections give you the opportunity to vote for Real Change. It gives you the opportunity to vote for candidates who are part of a campaign to transform UNISON in to an organising, fighting union. The experience of the last two years illustrates that we can’t simply rely on solving problems on an individual basis, one at a time.
Sometimes we need to fight to defend our pay, our pensions, our terms and conditions and ultimately our jobs. UNISON needs to be relevant to our members. To do this it needs to deliver on pay and to be seen as a serious Organising Union. In Health in particular we’ve seen new layers of workers standing up for themselves and being willing to take action to defend their pay and conditions. Likewise we need to organise to deliver on issues of equality. Our members are entitled to respect and to freedom from all discrimination. More than anything else we need things to change.
That’s why we are campaigning in these elections. Because it's Time for Real Change!
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