THE BATTLE for union recognition at Brent highlights the importance of organising public sector workers. Brian Gardner spoke to Geoff Martin, newly elected Convenor of UNISON London Regional Committee about the union's ruture.
The merged union brought workers together from many different areas, not only the public and voluntary sectors but also industrial sectors such as gas. ciccincity and waier. one of the principal jobs for the convenor was to de. velop common themes which would unite all of the membership. What were these? The key issue was jobs. That brings in so much: competitive tendering. short term contracts, use of agency staff, casualisation.
It is the major political issue. The feel-bad factor means that many people don't know if. in 12 months time. they ! have a job or not The union needed a strong campaign against job insecurity. Employers claim that short-term contracts equal efficiency when in fact the reverse was the case. "Definitely. In the Health Service, no-one's got any stability in their life, so why are well-qualified nurses are bailing out of the NHS in droves. A demoralised workforce isn't efficient." I don't see any sign of was the Labour Party making any real commitment towards repealing many of the Tory reforms in health and local government. Labour was committed to market testing—privatisation by another name. Shouldn'e UNISON demand that under a labour government, all services be returned to demo cratic control! "Iknow exactly what you're saying. At a meeting recently I was banging on about these Labour councils who've embraced competitive ten• dering, and someone who works in one of the South London boroughs got up and said "Embraced it? They' ve taken it to bed and shagged it!" Labour had made a very clear commitment to abolish Compulsory Competitive Tendering but it still wanted all councils to tender the UNISON's progressive policies on such issues as the minimum wage, full employment, defence of the welfare state, were often not adequately promoted or defended Was the real problem the fact that the paid officials were often in ca. hoots with the Labour bureaucracy? How can you in your new job could make sure that these issues were placed at the forefront of the union's agenda? Along with a lot of other unions, UNISON had been willing for far too long to take a back seat and leave the modernisers in the Labour Party to make the running. This had all got to change.
UNISON had been established as a lay-led union and this needed to be re-asserted continuously.
Part of the problem is that we do bos at the moment an effectively merged Why did you support Rodney Bickerstaffe in the election for General Secretary earlier in the year as against other candidates who were further to the left. The major broad left grouping in the union, the Campaign for a Fighting Democratic UNISON, which includes supporters of Socialist Outlook decided to stand Roger Bannister, a supporter of Milicant Labour. "I just thought it was wrong. The way it was handled allowed Militant to dictate the terms without any real consideration about wider issues in terms of the Labour Party or anything else. It is really dangerous to ask people on the left in the Labour Party to vote for someone who supports running against Labour candidates." Is this really the problem? Roger Bannister is part of the left in the union and has fought consistently Cantainn Geoff Martin for the sort of policies which he himself supported. "We were staring down the barrel of having a an "ex"-Tory, as the leader of the biggest union in the country."
As for backing someone from Milicant, if we did that we might as well disaffiliate from the Labour Party. Bickerstaffe has been one of the better union lenders in terms of supporting the campaign against the Asylum and Immigration Bill. lit an advantage that he can now be pushed to do things around such issues? "Bickerstaffe is distinct from the Pista stee hemey rest of the upper echelons of the Your relationship with the CFDU is now somewhat tenuous "The CFDU is never going to break out of its ex-NALGO ghetto. It is simply not capable of reaching out to ex-NUPE and ex-COHSE members who were pissed off with Blair agenda and who were getting hammered day in and day out.
The UNISON Labour Left Network is going to be a potent force." Isn't it better to have one organisation and try to build ourwards?
Socialist Outlook 100 • April 6, 1996.