Build a fighting UNISON

By Jim McFarlane, Dundee UNISON branch secretary (personal capacity)

UNISON members in local government have voted to accept a revised pay offer after members in schools and co-located early years settings had taken three days of strike action in September.

The strikes resulted in the employers putting in an extra £17.2 million for this year’s deal as well as a framework for achieving a minimum wage of £15 an hour by 2026 or 2027, depending on the economic circumstances.

The Scottish Local Government Committee had recommended acceptance by a majority vote. The result was just under 70% vote to accept with a significant 30% rejection.

At least five branches had taken their own branch-based position to call for a rejection of the offer as they felt the revised offer was not enough to call off further planned action and that more could be won.

Many also felt the aim of £15 an hour, although welcome, is dependent on an upturn in the capitalist economy and council finances. The prospects for an economic upturn for the economy or council finances are bleak.

The recent comments by Shona Robison, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, that the size of the public sector workforce would have to be reduced and that there was a “relationship between head count and pay” is a clear warning to local government workers that any future pay rises will be paid for by more job losses and service cuts at a time when many council services are already cut to the bone.

Our strike action was significant for a number of reasons. Local government jobs and services have been decimated for years through cuts passed down to local councils from the Westminster and Holyrood governments.

Councillors of all political persuasion have passed cuts budgets every year with barely a whimper of protest never mind action.

Mass anger

There was an outpouring of class anger seen across Scotland when thousands of school and early years workers took 3 days of strike action.

Many taking part in strike action for the first time, as young workers in that sector flooded into UNISON membership and took bold and lively action on the picket lines and demonstrations.

There was a clear feeling that although this was about council workers’ pay it also reflected the anger against years of austerity, lack of resources, increased workloads and responsibility and feeling their job roles had been undervalued by employers and government for far too long.

The recent industrial action shows that taking action can be well supported and effective. 10,000 people are reported to have joined UNISON in local government over the last couple of months. Significantly, hundreds of new workplaces reps have come forward to.

These new members and reps need to see a fighting democratic union that is serious about winning on pay and other issues.

We need leaders who are prepared to build and sustain effective action when employers and government are not prepared to value its workforce or the services they provide.

The next round of negotiations and campaign for the 2024 pay deal should be taking place now. If there is no satisfactory pay offer in place by the settlement date of 1st April then balloting for strike action should take place then and not allow the employers to drag talks out for months.

That campaign should start now, the networks built up through the recent action can be strengthened. Local branches and reps have a key role in this.

Activists organised in the Scottish UNISON Socialist Network (SUSN) can help give a lead in building an effective leadership at branch and national level to strengthen the organisation and campaigning work of UNISON as well as holding politicians of all capitalist parties to account for the deliberate underfunding of public services.

Strike action has shown to build the union, to build the activist base and can go further in improving future pay settlements to what members deserve not more pay rises that are below the rate of inflation, join us.

Build a new workers’ party

With Keir Starmer dragging Labour to the right and praising Thatcher, and the SNP exposed as a pro-big business party, we need to build an alternative. And the trade unions are best placed to help build that alternative in the form of launching a new workers’ party.

Socialist Party Scotland supports that demand and we also fight to end the capitalist cost of living crisis with a socialist transformation, meaning nationalisation of the big banks, energy, supermarkets, industry and infrastructure under democratic working class control and management. 

• Come to the Scottish UNISON Socialist Network conference
• Tuesday 12 December, 6pm
• The meeting is online and open to all UNISON members in Scotland
• email: scottish.u.sn@gmail.com to register and get details of how to join the meeting