Speaking ahead of the union’s annual conference in Manchester, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “We are on the road to industrial action and this will not be a one-day action as we know that will not change anything.
“This is long term industrial action – region by region, or employer by employer – to prevent the destruction of public services in this country.” It is a war, he said, the union has to win and a war that the will would win.
Two teachers’ unions – the NUT and ATL – have already voted overwhelmingly to walk out (see the story on page 5) and as we went to press the PCS civil service union was confident that its members, too, are ready to strike.
Unison, with 700,000 members working in local government, and 500,000 in the NHS, is now poised to join the fight. Mr Prentis believes that delegates in Manchester will endorse the leadership’s call for a ballot for strike action which, in turn, will be backed by members furious with attacks on their pay and conditions, jobs and pensions.
Mr Prentis said: “The coalition is hell bent on making the public sector pay for the failures of the banks and it is having a devastating effect on people and public services in this country. Their front-loaded cuts are biting deeply and having a catastrophic effect on local government and a catastrophic effect on local communities.
“The Government wants to attack public sector pensions to make it cheaper and easier for private firms to pick up public services. The best firms want to maintain the quality of the pensions; the cowboys don’t and won’t and these plans will only help those cowboy private companies.”
Mr Prentis believes there is deep unease about the coalition’s attacks on schools, local government and the NHS and believes a strike will not be unpopular.
“It’s about protecting public services, not just our members’ jobs, because these cuts are striking at the very heart of our communities right across the country. It’s all about getting public services in a state for wholesale privatisation – and that is not what the public in this country wants.”
Unison says it has a £30 million war chest set aside for what it believes will be a prolonged – but ultimately successful – battle against the Conservative-led coalition.
