Scottish Unison backs one-day general strike call

By Socialist Party Scotland reporters. Posted 1st December 2012

Unison’s Scottish Council has voted to instruct the union to “immediately take the necessary steps to promote with all STUC affiliated unions the need for a coordinated industrial action strategy, beginning with a one-day strike across Scotland.” All 200 delegates representing 160,000 Unison members working in local government, health, education, charities, Quangos and police support staff, unanimously supported a motion from the Glasgow City branch.

Brian Smith, Glasgow City branch secretary and a member of Socialist Party Scotland explained that the trade unions “must step-up our campaign to defend wages, jobs, pensions and services by organising coordinated strike action across all sectors of then economy. At a time when Unison members are facing yet more pay cuts, further attacks on pensions and tens of thousands of jobs losses its clear the ConDem government will not stop unless they are forced back. A 24-hour general strike must be organised urgently to stop these attacks.”

The motion also called on the STUC to coordinate the one-day strike in Scotland with action by trade unions across the UK. This passing of this motion must be repeated in other unions to force the STUC to name the day for a one-day strike of all affiliated unions as early as practical in 2013.

There is no shortage of issues that unions can ballot on. The SNP government this week agreed to impose a second year of pension contribution increases for 250,000 workers in the NHS, police, fire service and the civil service. CoSLA, the local government employer dominated by Labour and SNP politicians, offered a miserly 1% pay rise for 2013/14. This fourth year of effective pay cuts would mean local government workers will have seen a 16% drop in income since 2009.

The Scottish local government conference the day before agreed to go back to the employer telling them the offer is “unacceptable”. A recall conference will be held in January where a strategy to reject the 1% and a ballot for industrial action will be debated. Unison local government branches should pass motions calling for rejection of the pay offer and for a strike ballot to be organised.

The key role played by Socialist Party Scotland members in formulating a fighting policy against austerity was clear from both Friday’s and Saturday’s conferences. A special bulletin for both events calling for a 24-hour general strike, a fighting policy on pay and highlighting the recent victory of the Unison four were enthusiastically received.

The outcome of these important conferences also indicates the mood and desire for effective action by the Unison membership in Scotland against the savage attacks members face on a day and daily basis.

Socialist Party Scotland members and the left generally should use these victories to increase the pressure for urgent coordinated strike action as a first step in taking head-on the cuts agenda pursued by the ConDems, aided and abetted by the SNP and Labour in Scotland.

The full motion passed is as follows.
This meeting notes that the political parties in the Scottish Parliament and local councils are making the overall level of cuts in public spending asked of them by the UK Government. Much of the UK Government’s policy programme is a direct or indirect attack on jobs, wages, pensions and services which UNISON can never agree to. The UK Government’s wider austerity measures, attacks on welfare benefits and overall management of the economy represent further attacks on working people and the most vulnerable in our society. The trade union movement must now step-up its campaign to defend jobs, wages, pensions and services by organising co-ordinated strike action across all sectors of the economy. This meeting therefore agrees that UNISON Scotland immediately take the necessary steps to promote with all STUC affiliated trade unions the need for a co-ordinated industrial action strategy beginning with a one-day strike across Scotland, and to co-ordinate the strike with any action by trade unions at a UK level as appropriate. In addition to the above, this meeting agrees to produce written material and publicity in support of this policy for distribution amongst members and the wider community in line with UNISON industrial action procedures.