thriough Leeds on Noo 18 in opposition to the privatisation of education services Victory over Private Finance Initiative: Campaigners from the Campaign for State Education (CASE) and teaching unions marched Thousands of council workers are preparing to fight plans by Bradford Council to privatise services. More than 1,000 people packed into a meeting in St George's Hall on 23 November and were urged by unions to fight a strong, united battle to stop the "lunatic" plans.
The council, lead by an alliance of Tories and Liberal Democrats, is proposing to hand over a wide range of its activities including education, housing and building maintenance services.
It is also proposing to sell off old people's homes and start commissioning services from the "not for profit" sector -whilst slashing the budget. All of this will be paid for by cutting the number of staff who actually deliver the services, and putting up charges such as council house rents.
Meanwhile the salaries of top bosses will go up. Mohammed Taj of the TGWU summed up the arguments against privatisation in one word: "Railtrack".
lan Murch, branch secretary of the NUT, warned if the council hived services off to external organisations more than 7,000 people would no longer be employed by the local authority, threatening job security and conditions. The meeting, made up predominantly of council workers, heard calls to go out and make common cause with the users of services as well as between unions. The organisers, unprepared for the scale or attendance, came without a clear plan for the campaign. However, encouraged by it, they did put forward a next step. It was agreed to call a mass lobby of the next full council meeting at Bradford City Hall on 12 December from 3.00 onwards.