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Labour Let Rich Run Riot

THE NEW Labour government has let the wealth divide in Britain run riot. Even our normally subservient union leaders can sense the rising anger at this and say they will attack the government for letting 'fat cat' bosses prosper.

They plan to resurrect the "snouts in the trough' campaign they ran under the Tories. That campaign concentrated on British Gas executive Cedric Brown who earned £471,000 a year - that's very small beer compared to bosses under New Labour.

Labour Research magazine says that 138 directors in Britain now earn at least £1 million a year! Last year there were 79 millionaire directors, so they've nearly doubled in 12 months.

Top executives' pay is speeding way ahead of that of workers. Britain's employers received an average 16% pay rises last year, over four times the average. The highest paid directors of companies quoted on the Stock Exchange got on average 21% rises.

Over the last six years, top executives' pay has risen each year by between 10% and 21.2% - top bosses' pay is now 130% above the 1994 figure.

Brian Ashford-Russell of Henderson Technology Trust "earned" £6,389,000 after a 719% pay rise. The richest bosses also get shares and share options. Even if they're sacked or retire, they'll get a golden handshake or a huge pension.

What joy do pensioners or working-class people approaching retirement age get from this government? Peanuts, that's what. Meanwhile councils are short of teachers because they pay such low wages.

The obscene capitalist system promotes riches for the bosses and low pay for workers. The unions have resurrected the anti-fat cat campaign after workers have suffered three years of blatant capitalist policies from Labour.

If union leaders like John Edmonds are angry at the wealth gap (see page two), how about fighting for the unions' demand for a £5 an hour national minimum wage for workers? This should be the first step to the £7 an hour which is the European decency threshold.

Trade union members should campaign to stop union funds going to the Labour Party and join our fight for a new mass party of the working class.

If you agree with us, join the Socialist Party.

   

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Defend the right to Asylum

ON CHRISTMAS eve 1999, when most youngsters were awaiting a visit from Santa, five-year-old Patrick received a visit from a Home Office official who handed him a deportation notice.

Last week Patrick attended court in an attempt to stay in the UK, the country in which he was born. Patrick has the support of the local community who are horrified at the treatment he has received. Over 1,500 people have signed a petition, and 30 local residents took time off work to attend court to support him.

Patrick`s mother, Mary Njuguna Wandia, fled to England six years ago to escape possible imprisonment or death after uncovering corruption in Kenya. Her colleague in the legal department where she worked as a secretary "disappeared". The Home Office denies that Mary is in danger, but only last week a Jesuit priest, Father Kaiser, an outspoken opponent of government corruption in Kenya, was found murdered.

The vast majority of the 82,000 people seeking asylum in Britain also face similar oppression. Many, despite having committed no crime, are imprisoned in detention camps. Under Labour's new Asylum and Immigration Act asylum seekers are prevented from working and are denied benefits, instead being forced to survive on food vouchers. (see letters page) Mary, a legal secretary, retrained as a nursery nurse after coming to England and worked in a school until being ordered to stop working by the Home Office.

The Home Office's racist policies make it virtually impossible for asylum seekers to legally enter Britain, forcing them to take desperate measures to seek refuge here. Witness the Bangladeshi man who is in intensive care after risking his life jumping from a freight train near the Channel Tunnel, or the 58 Chinese people who suffocated to death in the back of a lorry. These are the people branded by New Labour's Barbara Roche as 'bogus migrants'.

How ironic that now Barbara Roche admits there is a shortage of workers in Britain and up to 100,000 immigrants may be invited into the country each year to serve the capitalist economy.

The Socialist Party backs the right of Mary and Patrick and other asylum seekers to stay in this country. We also back the rights of workers to move and seek employment in the country of their choice. There are few restrictions on the free movement of capital. Already the British government allows those setting up a business or those with £250,000 in the bank to stay in this country; here money speaks.

We must not allow asylum seekers or immigrants to become the scapegoats for the economic ills created by capitalism. We will organise black and white workers in a fightback to end capitalism and fight for international socialism.

  

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Defend Glenn Kelly

Drop All Charges

GLENN KELLY, branch secretary of Bromley UNISON was suspended by the council on 31 July on trumped-up charges. The suspension has now been lifted but the false charges against him remain. The campaign to have all the charges dropped must continue.

Bill Mullins

Glenn was only doing his job, defending the jobs and conditions of 25 UNISON members who are night care workers in sheltered accommodation for the elderly. Bromley council admit that Glenn spoke to the elderly tenants and their relatives at their invitation, in his own time and not even on council property. The council want to cut the night care service they rely upon.

Even the local newspaper thinks that Glenn should be "commended" not disciplined for his actions. And Kathy Smith, branch chair of Bromley UNISON has written to every member listing the recent successes of campaigns run by Glenn and the branch: "Let me state quite clearly that Glenn has done nothing wrong.

"He has followed the same path that the branch always follows when jobs and services are under threat.

"That is to recognise the need to link up those whose jobs are under threat with those who stand to lose a service. The branch and particularly Glenn has a proud and successful tradition in this work over the last ten years.

"The proposal to cut domestic home help wages by 20% - defeated. The privatisation of the home help service - defeated. The privatisation of the library service - defeated. The proposal to tear up our national terms and conditions - defeated.

"I personally feel privileged to have been involved with Glenn at negotiating meetings when your jobs and conditions have been under attack. Glenn represents you tirelessly and fearlessly sometimes against the most vicious personal management style that I have ever witnessed.

"I have never seen him take a step back and think of his own position, his own livelihood or his own future job prospects. The members have been his first, second and only concern."

The campaign continues amongst UNISON members to tell their managers that if they try to sack Glenn they will stop work immediately.

• Protest to: Jeremy Ambache, Director of Social Services, Bromley council, Civic Centre, Bromley, BR1 3UH. Fax: 020 83813 4620.
• Send messages of support to: Bromley UNISON, Civic Centre, Bromley. Tel: 020 83813 4405. Fax: 020 83813 4885.

 

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The Police's racist agenda

THE NOTTING Hill Carnival has become the latest battleground in the Metropolitan police's media war against the Black community.

Ever since they realised the Macpherson report would seriously expose the racism and corruption built into the police force, the Metropolitan police have been conducting a propaganda war against the Black community. The false idea that the police are too scared of accusations of racism to deal with crimes committed by Black people is constantly pushed by the police and sections of the media to cloud the issue.

Police stop and searches of Black and Asian people remain disproportionately higher than for white people.

The increasing commercialism of Notting Hill Carnival is one of the factors opening the door to the current police media offensive. Carnival should be enlarged, but community control should be increased, and police involvement should be reduced. The police presence this year was intimidating and over the top. As long as community stewarding is properly organised, this would enormously improve the event.

Police forces have also completely failed to deal with the issue of Black deaths in custody. How can they expect anyone to take their "concerns" over the deaths of Greg Watson and Abdul Bhatti at the Notting Hill Carnival seriously when not a single police officer has been prosecuted for the seven unlawful killings of Black men in custody during the past decade.

The Met's attacks on the Carnival were made in the same week as senior police officer John Grieve arrogantly refused to apologise to Gurpal Virdi. Virdi not only suffered a vicious campaign of racial harassment during his time as a police officer but was then accused of lying and having written the racist threats he received himself.

He was publicly sacked after a flawed internal police investigation accepted these allegations. Now, after an industrial tribunal supported Virdi, evidence has come out that even the internal investigation discriminated against him on grounds of race. But the Met are still refusing to apologise or drop their legal opposition to Virdi's claim against them.

The police's real agenda is to prevent community events like the Carnival being in control of the streets. They see Carnival as a threat to their authority and are determined to see this broken.

This is not only due to the deep-seated racism which permeates the police from top to bottom, but also their role as a repressive state force that serves the interests of the government and the bosses, at the expense of working-class people and the rest of the population.

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Labour's new threat to campaigners

 ANIMAL RIGHTS activists are being targeted by police and politicians, who are threatening a clampdown on their activities. Government ministers are looking at introducing new legislation, strengthening harassment laws and using anti-social orders, after pressure from big business.

Molly Cooper

The president of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Bill Fullagher, has urged the government to clamp down on what they call "economic terrorism" .

These proposed new measures are in addition to Labour’s new anti-terrorist legislation which potentially targets all protesters and opponents of capitalism, including animal rights protesters.

Pharmaceutical companies have also announced that they are unwilling to invest in this country due to pressure from animal rights activists. This was linked to the firebombing of five cars of employees working for Huntingdon Life Sciences(HLS), Europe's largest contract research organisation, which carries out research on live animals. Last year, police claimed 1,200 incidents involving animal rights activists, including six with explosives and eight arson attacks.

A group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) have been the main organisers behind the campaign to close down HLS. Responding to the recent allegations they say: "Ours is a peaceful non-violent campaign. Causing damage to property is not our chosen method of campaigning. But we can understand the feelings of fustration and anger which may prompt an action like this".

What has differentiated SHAC from other animal rights campaigns is their main tactic of targeting shareholders and company bankers to persuade them to drop shares and put financial pressure on HLS. They have organised demonstrations outside city offices and individual shareholder’s homes. They have put lists of company directors on their web site, and organised phone and fax blockades of shareholders.

This campaigning has so far paid off. Some argue it is only a matter of time before HLS closes down.

Shareholders Phillips and Drew have offloaded their 11% stake in HLS. In June, HLS broker WestLB Pamure resigned as shareholders, and The Royal Bank of Scotland refused to renew their £24 million overdraft facility for HLS. Although, according to SHAC, they have now extended HLS's overdraft for a further two months.

A demonstration organised in the city this week will be accompanied by a phone blockade of financial institution Merrill Lynch, whose subsidiary, NY Nominees, owns 8.5 million shares in HLS.

As a result, Huntingdon Life Sciences are having to refinance their debt with privately owned US investment firm FHP Realty LLC. Huntingdon will sell some research centres to FHP and lease them back on 20-25 year agreements.

Huntingdon Life’s second quarter results for the three months to June, included a pre-tax loss of £2.47 million, up 8.4% from £2.28 million in the 1999 period, on turnover up 11.7% at £15.9 million. The stock has been on a continuous decline from mid-1990.

Labour in its role of defending big business interests see animal rights activists as an obvious target. But even if ‘violent’ acts are dealt with under Labour’s proposed new laws how will they be able to counter the effects of campaigns such as SHAC’s, which shows that if you want to hurt the capitalists the best place to do it is in their profits.

 

  

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Michael Davis, of the M25 Three, speaks to The Socialist

 "The justice system is corrupt"

IN JULY, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis and Randolph Johnson, the M25 Three. They were wrongly jailed for life in 1990 on charges of murder and armed robberies around the M25 motorway.

These three young black men always protested their innocence. The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction because the defence weren't told that a key prosecution witness had received £10,000 reward money. But the judge claimed that this decision had not proved the M25 Three innocent!

MICHAEL DAVIS spoke to Molly Cooper of The Socialist.

"THE JUDGE'S comment is illogical. Because the jury heard in the first appeal the victims say that two white men and one black were responsible, the court says you cannot use that evidence again.

But identification of the perpetrators was the most important part of our case. How can you defend yourself if you cannot use this most powerful evidence in this appeal?

It's a complete whitewash. I thought judges were there to actually correct what was said at the trial, not to say the police did a "good job" and call that justice.

The justice system's corrupt isn't it? Police 'procedure' seems to be to stitch people up, to hide evidence. Then when you get to court the prosecution can run circles round you knowing full well that the police have hidden most of the evidence to prove your innocence.

The justice system should find out who really did do these crimes instead of accusing people who they know full well didn't do it.

There are no safeguards covering police gathering evidence. The police should gather the evidence and pass it to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who makes a decision.

In our case they collected the evidence then lost some because it didn't fit into their theory of things. The police central command seemed to be hiding things; the ones underneath just do as they're told.

It's called procedure, but hiding evidence which will prove a person innocent is a stitch-up in my book. Officers in command of the Cardiff Three and Birmingham Six cases are retired, the ones underneath them are in charge. The cycle goes on, the stitch-ups go on.

The bosses show the ones underneath their procedures of hiding things, of beating people up, tampering with evidence and conspiring with witnesses and with victims and getting a conviction.

How can you fight against something like that if nobody is watching them? I think the police are out of control. Since the McPherson Inquiry, they use PR to make themselves look good. I haven't seen any real changes.

People still die in police stations, get beaten up in prisons, get stitched up. We now get police sound bites but at the sharp end it ain't pretty.

The police should be watched much more closely. Community groups should get involved because nobody knows what's really going on. A group with the power to expose people for what they're doing could bring them to book and charge them if their practices are terrible.

PRISON IS petty and stupid. How can it rehabilitate anyone? The only time you can rehabilitate is if education is available, and they are cutting back on that. You're just locked up in your cell, it's like going back to the Ice Age.

If you're going to rehabilitate somebody, you must at least give them the education or some qualification which will help them when they get out, not these cleaning jobs which they hand out to people. It's as though cleaning the prison is a big plus to your life, it's a complete waste of time. Years and years of cleaning prisons doesn't get you qualifications.

When I first got to prison there were more facilities. I started off with music and bought my own clarinet. After that cut-backs meant you got nothing. The next best option I could find was art. I passed a GNVQ.

The message in prison is "do what you're told or get your head kicked in", it's legal thuggery. It's about power and suppression, anything you want to do, they show you they can take it away from you and destroy you at the same time.

As I wouldn't be a grass or a person who is constantly kissing arse, I was set upon for not going along with the rules. I will never stop complaining against something I have never done. So my campaigning for my innocence was a hindrance to them. And what they had to offer was nothing I wanted. So I was a thorn in their side.

As a black prisoner, you face institutionalised racism every single day. I just took no notice. Knowing full well that you aren't getting things because of your colour, it does get on your nerves but you just walk away. The bigger picture was the need to prove my innocence, that's what I kept focusing on.

People I met in prison showed that it can happen to anybody not just to black people. The system doesn't care, they will roll over anybody, if they put you away and they have got the means to do it they'll do it, no matter what colour you are.

Politicians are about getting votes and looking good. They don't think through the effects of their actions. If Jack Straw expects people in prison to rehabilitate and lead a wonderful life he should dream on. There is no money in prison to rehabilitate people.

The distribution of money in society is the main problem. If people haven't got any education, they cannot get a job. So what is that person left to do? You seek an alternative way to make money.

So the cycle's starting already. Even a person with no qualifications still has skills, I had no education yet I still had skills, but they weren't recognised because I had no qualifications. If you don't give people a chance how are they supposed to live? If you're going to do that to people, you're always going to have problems, always going to have prisons.

You're going to have to change society, change the way the system thinks about people. Finding alternative work for people with no qualifications but a skill, instead of ignoring them completely. Everyone can do something, that's how communities come together. If you destroy that coming together then people just don't care.

Finally I would like to say that if it wasn't for my sister Valerie campaigning against the people who stitched me up, I would have found it hard to get through this. All I could see was a nightmare never ending. It really is down to Valerie.

 

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Mobilising to stop Nazi terror in Germany

THE TRIAL of three Neo-Nazis, who had beaten and kicked Alberto Adriano to death, has ended with their conviction and sentences ranging from 16 years to life. This coincided with German Chancellor Gerhard Schršder warning, on a vist to east Germany, that neo-Nazi violence could damage Germany's economy.

Socialist Alternative member Wolfram, from Stuttgart, Germany looks at the recent violence and the Left's response.

On 11 June Adriano, of Mozambican origin, was beaten and kicked by the three Nazis in Dessau until he lost consciousness. They dragged him to a nearby park, undressed him to humiliate him, stole his watch and his money, and mistreated him again.

In hospital he reported, that he tried to calm the Nazis by telling them that he had lived in Germany for nearly 20 years and that he had a wife and three children who depended on him - in vain. Three day later he was dead.

The judge excluded the public from trial to avoid 'exposure' of the defendants. According to reports they showed no signs of regret. Instead, Adriano's widow suffered telephone terror by Nazis.

This is not a unique incident. For example, three homeless people were killed by Nazis during the last weeks: one in Ahlbeck on 23 July, one in Wismar on 9 July and one in Greifswald two weeks earlier.

Additionally, the Fascist party NPD organised a number of marches in several German towns. Several convicted Nazi criminals in recent years were members or even functionaries of this party. Also, there is a close co-operation with so called 'comradeships', more loosely and more open violent Nazi groups on a local or regional level.

Government, police etc, have ignored or played down the Nazis for years. At the same time they whipped up racism themselves.

For example, in many towns police consistently harassed blacks and other foreign-looking people under the pretext of fighting drug pushers.

But they protect Nazis (for example, on the weekend of 26-27 August, 2,000 police protected a NPD demo of only 50 against anti-fascist demonstrators in Halle).

NEW LABOUR'S racist asylum laws are mainly carbon copies of German laws. The new Schršder government refused to relax these laws. As they attempted to liberalise naturalisation of immigrants living here for decades the opposition CDU (Tories) started a racist petition campaign against it.

A few years ago the CSU (Bavarian Tories) organised a protest demo against an exhibition on crimes by the Nazi army during World War Two, which became the biggest manifestation of Nazis for many years.

This summer Nazi violence became a major issue in the media. Politicians demanded a ban of NPD. (See The Socialist, 18 August)

One of the first to do this was Bavaria's home secretary Beckstein (CSU), who is notorious for his ruthless deportation of refugees. They are worried about Germany's image internationally and of an anti-fascist movement from below which could lead a layer of youth to socialist conclusions.

They 'fight fascism' by repressive laws, which will be used against left-wing youth or trade unionists tomorrow. We have to rely on our own strength and to combine the fight against Nazis with the fight for a socialist alternative.

Socialist Alternative (German CWI-Section), YRE and other organisations are mobilising for a national demonstration against NPD's new headquarters in Berlin on 7 October.

More information:

Sozialistische Alternative (SAV)

- Bundeszentrale -

Littenstra§e 106/107, 10179 Berlin

Tel. 030/24723802 - Fax 030/24723804

 

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 French Lesson to TUC

AS DELEGATES to the Trades Union Congress prepare to go to this year's conference, a leader of the French fishermen's blockade reportedly said: "If we don't take this action, people will walk over us - but we cannot allow this to happen. The English do not strike any more because they are cowards." What is the truth about British workers' willingness to strike?

Bill Mullins, Socialist Party Industrial Organiser

The British right-wing union leadership try to convince the bosses to do business with them through so-called partnership agreements. At the same time the union leaders are racing each other to use the new trade union recognition laws to get into unorganised workplaces.

There has been some increase in union membership but the overall growth in membership of TUC-affiliated unions is only creeping ahead to around 29% of the total workforce.

The real growth in union membership is not through new laws but when there is action. In one local government branch of public-sector union UNISON, over 500 workers were recruited in the run-up to the first national strike of Scottish council workers since 1988.

Union-organised workplaces have significantly better conditions than unorganised ones. 63% of organised work places get 25 or more days holidays per year compared to only 32% of unorganised ones.

Organised workplaces have half the occupational health problems of the unorganised. Unions also act to bring down pay differences between men and women and black and white workers.

Though actual disputes still remain at a low level compared to previous decades, there has been a doubling of strike ballots from May 1999 to May 2000.

Peugeot workers in Coventry show the increasing number of trade union members who are critical of the 'do nothing' union leaders and are prepared to do something about it. (see below)

This is an indication of how union leaders who have the same outlook and ideology as the Blairites, will increasingly come under pressure from the rank and file.

Conference agenda

THE TUC agenda is usually a pale reflection of the temper and mood of the organised working class in Britain.

Most resolutions are drawn up by the union leaders. But they do occaisionally cover some of the key issues facing workers, such as a decent minimum wage.

The TUC are calling for the minimum wage to be uprated to £5 an hour. But they are so frightened of upsetting their relationship with New Labour that they say this should only happen next autumn 'around £4.50 to £5 per hour'. By then inflation will mean £4.50 per hour would not be much more than the present rate of £3.70.

UNISON calls for the minimum wage to be uprated to £5 an hour and an end to the discrimination against young people. But even this is amended by the shop workers' union, USDAW who call for the level to be set at 'between £4.50 to £5 per hour', half male median earnings.

The minimum wage debate is due whilst Gordon Brown is waiting in the wings to speak. No doubt he will argue that a £5 minimum wage will 'damage industry' and admonish the TUC as irresponsible. He will make no mention of the obscene salaries, share options and tax write-offs that the bosses of British industry pay themselves.

Many of the resolutions welcome the new union recognition laws but no union calls directly for the repeal and defiance of the existing anti-union laws brought in by the Tories and enthusiastically adopted by Labour. Employers are busily consulting their lawyers and professional union busters to find loopholes in the recognition laws. These laws also give the perfect excuse to the right-wing union leadership not to do anything 'illegal'.

They have condemned the Left for using the official Certification Officer for challenging the witch-hunts in unions like UNISON and civil service union PCS. A resolution from the Musicians' Union calls for this part of the legislation to be removed but it does not mention what should be done with the rest of the anti-union laws. This is no accident.

The right-wing have ruthlessly used their control of the apparatus and financial resources of the unions to witch-hunt the left. UNISON’s leadership have engaged expensive barristers to attack the left in the union.

The same thing has happened in the CPSA, now the PCS. Right-wing mavericks have used the Certification Officer but the majority of appeals have come from the Left, when they have faced discriminatory and arbitrary interpretations of the union rule books by national leaderships.

Whilst the TUC takes place in Glasgow, 80,000 Scottish local government workers are due to take their second wave of strike action over wages.

This is the real movement of the organised working class which will affect the future outlook and activities of the trade union movement as a whole.

 

 

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Peugeot workers say: "Reclaim the union"

PEUGEOT MANAGEMENT have made their third 'final' offer to workers at the Ryton plant, near Coventry. They have made some concessions in their attempt to speed up production and extract more and more from the workforce, clearly because of the workers' willingness to take action.

This offer is being put to the ballot, with the result to be announced after we go to press.

Many workers are angry at the company and at the union for continually putting management's position. A group is campaigning within the factory as Reclaim Our Union, producing a bulletin called "Trackworker" from which these extracts are taken:

"So much for the union telling us that there was nothing else on offer…We must keep up the pressure, and push for an acceptable alternative proposal, not accept a company bribe of a mere £100.

"The shorter working time negotiations have been farcical. From an initial recommendation to accept the company's proposals, to the now familiar, ballot, ballot and re-ballot until the company gets its way. We call for a 'No' vote in the ballot and a total rejection of the current proposals.

"Peugeot who made over £454 million profit last year, wants to buy us off for only £30,000. Less than the price of four cars or eight minutes production!

"Reclaim our Union demands that during any negotiations there must be full reports to regular gang meetings and full minutes produced so that we know what's going on. We can't ever have a situation where our views are not fully represented to the company or to the public and the union remains unaccountable.

"We demand a union which listens to the shop floor, not just the officials and a stewards' committee and convenors who are willing to stand up to the officials and force them to fight for our demands. We want the regular re-election of union officials to keep them accountable to those they represent and union officials to be paid no more than the average wage of the workers they represent.

"The'Trackworker' is produced by growing numbers of Ryton workers who feel our union is not standing up for us. Reclaim our Union: c/o PO Box 121, Coventry, CV1 5DA. "

The Socialist Party supports those workers and whatever the outcome of the latest ballot they will continue to build support for accountable union representation. Many workers are so disgusted with the negotiations, the third 'final offer' might be accepted. But that is not the end of the fight to reclaim the union. Pay talks are due in the autumn.

 

 

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Scottish council workers' strike

Action builds the union

THE STRIKE by UNISON members in Scotland’s local councils on 29 August was absolutely solid. All services apart from emergency cover were severely disrupted and over 90% of members took part in the action.

Jim McFarlane, Senior UNISON steward (personal capacity), Dundee

This was the first national strike in Scotland’s local authorities since 1989. For many workers it was their first experience of industrial action and picketing. It was their first chance to express their anger over the derisory first and final pay offer of 2.5% and to protest over the chronic underfunding of public services first by the Tories and now by New Labour.

In Dundee, as across Scotland, members of general unions TGWU and GMB, who had originally balloted not to strike, and the EIS, teachers' union showed their solidarity by refusing to cross picket lines. This meant that the strike was even more effective in preventing refuse collection, closing leisure facilities and closing schools.

Members of other unions were asking UNISON members to make sure they had a picket at their workplace as they wanted to support the action. Picketing was very effective in closing workplaces that management had hoped would be working normally. There were well-attended rallies and demonstrations in many towns and cities across the country.

At a social work office in Dundee, the few scabs who had dared to cross the picket lines went hungry. Not having the bottle to cross the picket at lunch time, they thought they would be smart and phone for a delivery of rolls and sandwiches from a local shop.

The van turned up and was faced by a picket. After discussion with the pickets the delivery driver showed his support for the strikers by handing over the food to them.

The strength and success of the action not only surprised management, it has also shocked most of the union leadership. They showed little confidence in the members being able to deliver on the action. This success shows that local government workers can fight and win, not only on the issue of pay but also over the wider issue of local government funding and against cuts in services.

UNISON has also recruited hundreds, if not thousands, of new members. This shows that by taking action trade unions can attract members prepared to fight for their pay and conditions as well as campaigning for better public services.

Pressure must be stepped up to ensure the full pay claim of 5% is won. Further action will be necessary.

The UNISON leadership should not see this as members just 'letting off steam'. The members are determined to win this, it remains to be seen whether the leadership has the same courage and confidence.

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