Time for Real Change in the UNISON SGE Elections
For Real Change in every UNISON Service Group
Everywhere you look in the public and community sector UNISON members are in the frontline. Our members have shouldered the burden of more than a decade of austerity and the impact of the pandemic. Whether on the covid wards, in the care homes or supporting elderly and vulnerable people in the community UNISON members have been at the forefront of the struggle to save lives and care for people.
Public services are under enormous pressure, Years of budget cuts mean services have been stripped to the bone, but the work doesn’t go away. It gets harder and more difficult every year. Many Councils face the real threat of bankruptcy, Hospital Trusts face the threat of privatisation and cuts in services. Government have sought to impose pay freezes with insulting pay offers across the board and even 0% “offers” in Higher Education and the Police and Justice Sector. Inflation is a growing threat to all workers while hikes in energy prices and uncertainty simply make the situation worse. Every sector represented by our union faces threats and uncertainty.
Racism, anti-disablism, sexism, LGBT+ attacks. Inequality, backed up with bullying and harassment, are rife in the public sector. Too often Black and migrant workers are scapegoated. There must be a bigger voice for Equality.
It is evident that this is a crucial period for our members and we believe that it requires an appropriate response from our union. UNISON cannot afford to pay lip service to the fight against low pay if inflation is pushing 7, 8 or 10%. We can’t simply rely on servicing our members individually to solve the problems that we will face in the future. Privatisation and outsourcing pushes workers and the services they deliver into the private sector. In services which are so labour intensive, privatisation means cheap labour and bad working conditions. Our Community members need UNISON to fight for union recognition, rather than just representation at disciplinaries and sickness monitoring meetings. Across every Sector, each Service Group within UNISON faces its own challenges and needs to establish its priorities. But the common feature is that our members need the union to change. We need to become an Organising union which fights at every level to defend and advance our members interests at work and in the communities they serve. It is indeed Time for Real Change.
In Local Government we need a serious, high-profile campaign fighting for the industrial action we need to reclaim the 25% loss in real terms and to reverse the near 1 million jobs lost in the past 12 years. Our members need to feel empowered; they need a voice and to know that they can make a difference. We need properly funded services. Many of our members are “Covid weary”. The pandemic has revealed the importance of our members role in society. They need Real Change.
In Health over 75% of our members voted for strike action over pay, but turnouts were low. As in Local Government we need to prioritise a more serious campaign fighting for the industrial action we need to reclaim the 20% loss over the last 12 years. Meanwhile there are 100,000 unfilled vacancies. This cannot be allowed to go on. It is making us all ill. During the pandemic the government has consistently done too little, too late. We must campaign to provide care that is safe for staff and safe for patients. We need Real Change
In Higher Education pay freezes, redundancies, “fire and rehire” as well as the impact of covid and workload pressures on our members are just part of the problems members face. Add to that the threat of outsourcing services, restructures and redundancies and threats to our pensions, its clear why we need Real Change
In Community the impact of covid has been dramatic, many of our members work for small charities without union recognition, often with low pay and bad working conditions. We need UNISON to be an Organising union that doesn’t simply rely on servicing our members. We need a Real Change in the way that the union works in the Community and Voluntary Sector.
Police and Justice members are facing a pay freeze and feel the direct impact of shifts in Government Policy, with greater and greater pressure and fewer and resources. We need Real Change
Water, Environment and Transport and the Energy Industries face their own problems at a time of great uncertainty and where recent events have revealed the state of the UK’s infrastructure. Lack of investment and the impact of climate change as well as the huge hikes in energy prices will inevitably impact on our members. We need Real Change across all these sectors.
The forthcoming Service Group Executive Elections represent an opportunity for members to vote for candidates who are prepared to fight for the changes we need. The next two years will be very difficult for our members. The union needs to change to meet the tsunami of austerity that is coming. The Government will seek to shift the burden of the cost of the pandemic onto Public Sector workers in particular. We can’t defend our members with the same old, same old methods. Servicing the members isn’t sufficient. We need to organise our members, empower them and build a leadership at every level that is prepared to struggle to defend wages, terms and conditions. A leadership that doesn’t merely pay lip service to the issue of low pay; but one which struggles to end it once and for all. We need a Union that doesn’t merely pay lip service to Equality but strives to achieve it.
That’s why we are campaigning in these elections. Because its Time for Real Change!
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