STOUtOOK, PO BoX 1109, London N4 2UU. © 1995. All rights reserved. Printed by Newsfax International London E15. LAST - but not least, UNISON, the biggest NHS union, has now added its voice to the unanimous chorus of organisations rejecting the Tories' insulting one percent pay offer.
A prolonged consultation exercise in UNISON branches throughout the country has shown that health workers have grasped the need to throw out locally-negotiated deals -even where they appear to top up the increase to three percent.
Many of the Trusts with whom they would have to settle want to add productivity strings to help cover the costs of the deal. And even where the full three percent has been affered locally without strings, the acceptance of a deal with an individual Trust means the end of national pay agreements, leaving each Trust workforce isolated in future negotiations on pay and conditions.
That's why the Tories have been so determined to separate out the one percent payment from the 'top up'. But in trying to force home a new structure that would weaken the health unions it has succeeded only in antagonising health workers across the board.
99 percent It takes the special political talents of Health Minister Gerry Malone - the man who urged Margaret Thatcher to bring in the Poll Tax in Scotland and England at once - to have turned the docile donkeys of the Royal College of Nursing into ferocious tigers mobilising 99 percent of conference delegates to vote to drop their no-strike pledge and to adopt a resounding vote of no confidence in him.
The sudden radicalisation of the RCN and RCM has now turned the heat on UNISON, whose leaders had plainly been hoping to be dragged kicking and smiling into an RCN-led sell-out.
The TUC-affiliated union must at strike action. least match the militancy of the Royal Colleges and professional bodies if is not to face a wholesale defection of demoralised members.
Ballot
So far the leadership has been less than dynamic. Months after the original offer stirred the anger of health workers UNISON is still debating whether or not to ballot for Yet the issue, overlapping as it does with the fight against hospital closures, offers an opportunity for a high-profile and popular fight in which the Tories would be isolated. Unless the national pay agreements are defended, this could be the last chance for nationally co-ordinated action on NHS pay.
UNISON should be at the vanguard, not the tail end of the campaign. Its health branches must be convinced they will find full support from socialists in mounting a fightback against the Tories.