SAC! HOSPITAL PALL Rank and file support for Hillingdon strikers: but not from the NEC
B'STARDS
26% INCREASE 26% CUT FOR • CLEANERS Fred Leplat UNISON's conference in Brighton during the second week of June will indicate the mood of trade union activists in the public sector after the Labour's landslide election Local government and health, the two main areas where UNISON organises, have suffered acutely during 18 years of Tory government cuts and privatisation. The defeat of the Tories has been welcomed by all those who dedicate their working lives trying to deliver a public service, and there is clear disappointment that Labour will not break from Tory policies - instead sticking to their cash limits for the next two years.
Although the conference agenda was finalised before the election, there are some resolutions, including some from the NEC, calling on a Labour government to rebuild public services, introduce a minimum wage and abolish Compulsory Competetive Tendering.
The mood of conference is likely to be cautious and that there will be little support for a direct confrontation with Labour. Conference may well reiterate a list of progressive demands but fail to demand that the NEC organises serious national campaigns to achieve them.
UNISON does not need to restate its existing policies, such as taking the privatised utilities back into public control, abolishing the No sign of fight: Bickerstaffe Private Finance Initiative and Compulsory Competitive Tendering, or for a minimum wage at £4.42 an hour.
Conference delegates and activists back in the branches need rather to ensure that UNISON fights for its policies and that Labour in government breaks from the Tory economic targets.
The decision by NUT conference at Easter to organise a demonstration before the autumn budget to call for further spending in education should be welcomed and supported by other unions as the start of a campaign to rebuild the welfare State.
UNISON should demonstrate alongside the NUT to demand extra money for local government and polarised of the two unions,