Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, which has 700,000 members in local government and 500,000 in the NHS, warned this is not the time for worker to fight worker or for trade unions to fall out with the Labour leadership.
In a barnstorming speech to his union’s annual conference in Manchester, Mr Prentis said it was time to remember who they were fighting. “We know who the enemy is. It’s the bankers who crashed our world. The venture capitalists who sucked the lifeblood out of Southern Cross. It is this coalition, who set our nation on a reckless course. They are the enemy, this coalition. With no democratic mandate, taking a chainsaw to our public services.
“We are told there is no alternative and as long as they keep preaching that mantra – that there is no alternative – I will state that there are alternatives. Clegg and Cameron could have the guts to go back to the banks, the spivs, the speculators, and tell them, ‘you created this mess, you clear it up.’
“If there’s money to bail out the banks, if there’s money to protect their bonuses, if there’s money for war and replacing Trident, then there’s money available for our local services and our NHS. If there has to be a pay freeze, make it for the bankers – get them to do more for less.”
The controversial attack on public sector pensions is the immediate cause of anger; but coalition attacks on pay and conditions and jobs, at national as well as local level, have provoked fury, too.
Mr Prentis said he was determined to fight the brutality of David Cameron’s Big Society. “Make no mistake, these are true blue Tories. Forget the PR, the smiling faces. They’re cutting further now than Thatcher dared. For them it’s unfinished business. They have declared war on our public services. With Tory donors, City firms, hedge funders back in the heart of government – financiers like John Nash, whose private equity firm, Sovereign Capital, who buys and flogs care homes for the fun of it.
“To those who say name the day, I say – a day won’t be enough. This coalition won’t move with one day. To those who say negotiate, I say anytime, anywhere, for as long as it takes. To Danny Alexander. Boffin or buffoon? He may have done us a favour. The world now knows what they’re about. It’s daylight robbery.
“We stand firmly behind our brothers and sisters from PCS, UCU, NUT and ATL on June 30. Their fight is our fight. Yes, we will negotiate, but if the Government fails to listen, to heed our warnings, to negotiate in good faith. I say, ‘David Cameron, you ain’t seen nothing yet.’ A campaign of strike action without precedent. Yes, we hope for the best. But we plan for the worst.”
Tony Phillips, branch secretary at the London Fire Authority, told conference: “This won’t be the miners’ strike. This won’t be the General Strike of 1926. This time we are going to win.”
