Hugo Pierre, Local government SGE member (personal capacity)
Unison members will be glad to see the back of the Tories in this general election. But many members are also asking: ‘Will Starmer’s Labour make any difference’?
Our public services, and the jobs our members do, have been viciously attacked over the last 14 years. The NHS has become a brand to be plundered, as it was during the Covid crisis.
Local government is in crisis and chaos. At the start of this year councils were underfunded by nearly £3.5 billion. Many councils face Section 114 notices (see right).
Unison members will be faced with many battles under a Labour government. The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away. For at least two years, Starmer has sent his representatives to our conferences to let us know that a Labour government will only spend what the Tories are spending, so don’t get your hopes up.
Starmer-led government
Our general secretary now says: “If you don’t vote Labour, you’re giving a vote to the Tories”. But Starmer has backtracked on all of the 2019 manifesto commitments, and already watered down his agreements with the trade union leaders over the ‘New Deal for Working People’. His promise of economic growth will disappear in a puff of smoke and he will turn to attacking our public services, pay and conditions.
Unison’s cautious approach to defending public services, relying on lobbying parliamentarians, including the Lords, cannot succeed. In local government, a militant approach of setting lawful needs-based budgets, defying spending restrictions and building mass campaigns around them to demand extra money from an incoming Labour government is the only way forward.
The biggest battle that still could unite us all is over pay. During the cost-of-living strikes only small numbers of Unison members took action – in ambulance branches and selective groups across Scotland and Northern Ireland (where the restrictive Tory strike legislation does not apply). But even this minority forced the Tories to break their pledge to stick with the maximum offered by the pay review bodies.
However, in health, this lack of substantial action resulted in an unsatisfactory improved offer being accepted before more members, who voted to strike, could take action.
NEC must lead
While the general secretary is still from the old right wing, in 2021 members voted for a left-majority National Executive Council (NEC). Members will no longer tolerate a leadership that does nothing to organise a mass mobilisation to defend their jobs, pay, terms and conditions. So far, however, many members will not have seen much difference between the left-leaning NEC and the previous right-wing leadership.
We have seen, particularly with younger workers, that health workers will look for all avenues to fight, even if it means looking for another union. The left leadership must develop strategies that members believe are capable of winning for them, and not just get bogged down in internal battles with the bureaucracy.
Political strategy
With the evolution of the Labour Party under Starmer it’s clear that democratising the Labour Link is no longer a viable avenue for political change. The trade unions have even less power in Labour than under Blair over policy, and the conference has very little power over policy or direction of the party. Unison’s small voice in the Labour Party rarely represents our members’ interests and will have little or no influence on a Starmer-led government.
Because of Starmer’s support for big business, his lack of support for the Palestinians facing genocidal attacks in Gaza by the Israeli state, and his ruthless suppression of any vestiges of a left opposition within the Labour Party, hundreds of anti-war, anti-austerity candidates are standing in this general election.
That this is happening now, before the election, gives a glimpse of the pressure that will come from union members for a new party that represents our interests when a Starmer government doesn’t deliver and attacks our public services, pay and conditions.
That half a million joined Enough is Enough during last year’s strike wave also showed the potential for building a new workers’ party, based on the trade unions, which could rapidly become a significant political force in Britain.
Unfortunately, the trade union leaders who launched Enough is Enough did not organise it into a force that could challenge in elections with a socialist programme.
We need to draw the lessons and support building a political force that can give a real voice to workers and defend our interests.
Section 114 notices: Put all cuts on hold!
Jean Thorpe, Chair, Nottingham City Unison (personal capacity)
Fourteen years after Tory chancellor George Osborne spoke about the “hard road” of austerity leading to a “better future”, council funding has been slashed by around 60% and council services lie in tatters.
Last autumn, Birmingham and Nottingham City Councils became the seventh and eighth councils in the last six years to issue ‘Section 114’ notices. These mean that a council cannot commit to any new spending unless approved by the chief finance officer and must hold a special meeting to plan what to do within 21 days.
In February 2024, the Local Government Lawyer survey reported that 51% of councils were warning that they were likely to issue a Section 114 notice over the next five years, and 9% within the next financial year. This shows the scale of the problem – illustrated by a trail of closures of libraries, care homes, children’s centres, swimming pools and countless other council services.
Since 2010, Labour councillors have wrongly claimed they are powerless. When Section 114 notices are introduced or where government commissioners are sent in, councillors say there is nothing they can do as decisions are taken out of their hands.
What these councils should do is draw up legal no-cuts budgets, using reserves and borrowing powers, and expose the role of commissioners and the government, as part of a campaign to get local people involved in a fight to demand that central government fund the services we need.
At a recent Nottingham City Council library closure consultation meeting, to gasps of incredulity, officers informed us that councillors had received legal advice that they could not attend the consultation during the general election. The local anti-cuts campaign is demanding they therefore immediately pause the cuts until after the election!
Councils should put all cuts on hold, and demand that an incoming Labour government provides immediate financial support.
Unison’s national strategy on fighting council cuts has echoed this weak approach by Labour councils. Motion 25 to Unison’s national local government conference should be agreed. But three key amendments, by Nottingham City, Hackney, and Surrey branches, have been ruled out of order and not even printed, on the advice of the union’s legal officer.
Nottingham City’s ruled out amendment says: “Conference believes we need a mass organised campaign of opposition to cuts based on the trade unions and community-based campaigns supported by councillors committed to putting forward lawful ‘no-cuts’ needs based budgets and not voting for cuts. Such a campaign could force this weak and fractious government to back down. It would also be a bold message to an incoming Labour Government to find the funding for Local Government now and not wait for potential future growth.” We are appealing this decision.
Local government pay – demand Starmer improves the offer and prepare to fight
James Robinson, Secretary, Knowsley Unison (personal capacity)
The Tory local government pay offer is £1,290 – £700 less than last year – while council and school workers have seen a 30% cut in wages since 2010!
Socialist Party members argued for a fighting strategy from Unison’s leadership. This included:
- Move straight to a disaggregated industrial action ballot
- Target resources to those areas that achieved a turnout of more than 40% last year
- Consider selected action by specific groups
Unfortunately, this view was not shared by the majority of Unison’s reps on the NJC committee [national negotiating body of unions with local authority employers] and instead we have been asked to consult all local government members throughout June.
In 2023, the only large employer with more than 1,500 members to hit the 50% ballot threshold was the Socialist Party-led branch in Knowsley. The work must be done now to ensure the highest possible turnout in the consultation, to force Unison’s leadership into action. A fighting strategy would increase pressure on a Starmer government to come back to the negotiating table with an improved offer, or be met with an industrial action ballot in the autumn.
Service Group Elections
In the elections to Unison’s service group executives (SGEs), Socialist Party members Adrian O’Malley and Steve Bell were elected to the Health SGE, and Helen Couchman to the Community SGE. These will be important positions from which to argue for a fighting strategy under the new government.
See here for our Unison conference bulletin including articles on the NHS and Gaza
- Socialist Party fringe meeting at Unison conference Wednesday 19 June, 5.30pm or end of conference, at the Old Ship Hotel, 32-38 Kings Road, 5 minutes from Brighton conference centre
- Fringe meeting on fighting council cuts called by several Unison branches Monday 17 June 12.30 at the Old Ship Hotel
