Whether you are a nurse who’s been offered a 3 year deal starting with 2.75% or a council worker with 2.45%, you are on the receiving end of Gordon Brown’s pay restraint squeeze. As threatened last year the government is desperate to try and stick to its 2% target for pay costs. At the moment UNISON the GMB and other unions are consulting and despite the down beat mood of the UNISON Local Government Service Group executive, there are a lot of reasons why members will vote to reject the offers.

Young workers

On the back of the financial crisis and the collapse of Northern Rock, there is huge uncertainty with respect to house prices and mortgage costs. UNISON members are in general low paid and even the higher paid ones are relatively low paid compared to other industries.

Many particularly the younger workers, especially in the South East and London where house prices have risen most dramatically, are going to get hit with a double whammy - falling house prices and increased mortgage costs. Together with the huge increase in the cost of fuel and increases in food and petrol even the 6% claim in local government looks modest.

Cuts

At the same time cuts in social services and care provision, efficiency savings and privatisations are threatening jobs and services throughout the country. Voluntary redundancy schemes and early severance might seem like a way out for some workers, but the outcome is more pressure on existing staff and hard pressed services.

In the health service, despite big increases in funding for certain things many trusts are in trouble and a whole number have made big redundancies when they found themselves in deficit. Staffing crises remain in both the health service and local government as low pay reduces the number of people applying for jobs.

Creaking

The system is creaking and it’s not going to get any better, Gordon Brown’s spending targets are a huge threat to UNISON members throughout the public sector. At the same time £ billions are being poured into unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, £ billions more, were wasted by not nationalising Northern rock straight away and £ billions more are being siphoned off in profits by the PFI parasites.

Squandered

The political fall out from the war, the financial crisis and 10 years of right wing Blairite policies mean that it’s far more likely that the Tories will get in at the next election. The right wing of the Labour Party have squandered the best opportunity that UNISON members could have hoped for under capitalism, ten years of landslide Labour government in a boom! At the same time the UNISON leadership have bent over backwards to maintain a cosy relationship with Blair and the rest of the Labour Leadership. As we have explained many times before, this inevitably sells the members short. Worse than that instead of defending the members the bureaucracy are spending increasing amounts of time either attacking activists inside the union or colluding with management attacks on key individuals. The effects of this debacle are being felt throughout the country in hospitals, schools and offices delivering essential services to the sick, the young and the old. The camel’s back is bending under the weight, sooner or later it’ll snap. Maybe over pay, maybe over cuts, it depends on events.

The burden of the crisis is placed on the back of UNISON members as well as Civil servants and many others within the public sector. We need a fighting democratic union with a leadership worthy of the members.

The first priority:

Reject pay restraint, fight for the full claim!