(Secretary, Islington NALGO) WHITE COLLAR local government union NALGO as launched a E2 million publicity campaign in defence of local government servie The campaign, which follows in the wakeof its 1983 and 1987 'Put People First' and 'Make People Matter' campaigns, is bound to draw fire rom the Tories in an election year.
But NALGO members will know that, with tens of thousands of local government jobs on the chopping block when this year's budgets come into force, a publicity campaign will not save them from he sobs axe In the election campaign so far, no party is making local government central wonder. The Tories are tryin to repair the fiasco of the no tax and Labour's plans won't do anything to resolve the nightmarish chaos in the coun cil chambers.
Through the Citizens' Charter, the Tories are determined to finish off democratically-elected councils with any real powers, through fight restrictions and privatisation.
Meanwhile a whole bunch of loony right Labour councils are bravery wys to out-tory the Tories by cutting jobs and making massive numbers or Setting Labour policy? Heseltine redundancies. In Camden, where social workers have entered their eighth month of indefinite strike action, council seems set to cut zul more site Joining the fashion of slamming the workforce, Hackney plannin a ruthless new fuct, which makeit codeof cone a disciplinary offence to squat, not pay your poll tax, and to refuse to inform on colleagues guilty of similar disciplinary offences!
Crunch
Crunch time for NALGO comes this spring when up to 40,000 jobs could go, mainly through voluntary redundancies, to add to the up to 20,000 jobs which went last year.
Some NALGO branches are fighting back. The union's NEC has been forced to back escalation in Camden, while 1,600 workers are on indefinite strike in the huge Strathclyde region, to win the right to not have to cover for posts made vacant by redundancy But local fightbacks can't NALGO's anti-cuts strategy bert working. l It isn't working because SUCCEASIYE strategies over the a pledge to back branche that fight back But in the absence of nationbranch officer and steward knows that it's extremely dif ficult, outside the most militant branches, to get a vote for industrial action to fight the of the problem; people are afraid of defeats which will make the situation worse.
The real policy of the NALGO leadership is to take election victory. NALGO is deep. merger discussions with NUPEand COHSE which strengthened the lines of comleadership.
But a Labour victory will not mean the end of the dismemberment of local government. Labour has no plans to stop Tory councils privatising everything in sight or end the cutbacks in jobs and services campaign will people to public services when they decide who to vote for. It should also tell people to prepare to fight whoever wins.