UNISON Scottish Community and Voluntary Sector

Death by a thousand cuts

(from Voice@Work Issue 20 Spring 2009)

Come along to the UNISON Voluntary Sector Lobby of Parliament – Tuesday 17th March

UNISON members are being asked to get involved in a lobby of the Scottish Parliament on 17th March 2009. This is to coincide with the presentation in the afternoon of a petition on fair funding for the voluntary sector to the Petitions Committee of the Parliament.

The petition calls on the Scottish Government to agree to the Fair Funding Pact UNISON signed with other unions, the STUC and Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Community Care Providers Scotland. The key demand of the pact from UNISON’s point of view is that frontline staff in the community and voluntary sector should enjoy pay and conditions equal to those of public sector workers doing similar jobs.

The activities at the Parliament will start at 11.00 am with a procession outside the Parliament building. The theme of the day is ‘death by a thousand cuts’ so there are plans for a horse drawn funeral carriage to lead the march to highlight the many redundancies that have already taken place and the further dangers if funding is not improved to the sector. So please come along and join us wearing mourning black. Following the procession there will be a press conference and then a lobby of MSPs.

UNISON will be involved in hiring a room and laying on a buffet to attract MSPs so as we can speak to them about the need to protect jobs and improve pay in the voluntary sector. We need members working in the sector to come along and buttonhole their own and other MSPs to tell them what is really going on on the ground.

If you can come on the day it would be great if you could contact your MSPs to let them know you are coming and to say that you would like to discuss the issue with them. Remember you have a constituency MSP and six regional MSPs, the more you can contact the better. You can find your MSPs by entering your postcode under the MSP tab on the Parliament website: www.scottish.parliament.uk or by visiting your local library.

The formal presentation of evidence to the Petitions Committee will be at 2.00pm.

Stephen Brown, Vice Chair of the Scottish CVS Committee and Quarriers Branch Secretary, says of the lobby: “during a recession the demand for the services that we provide increases dramatically. It is important as many people as possible turnout at the Parliament, to say to the Government that the sector needs to be paid the full cost of those services. Cuts in public funding just mean that the Community and Voluntary Sector suffer knock-on job cuts.”

Simon Macfarlane, UNISON Lead Officer for CVS said: “redundancies are now occurring on almost a weekly basis in the sector and it is typically the lowest paid providing services to the most vulnerable who are affected. The continuation of the Council Tax freeze will only accelerate this process. Our lobby and petition of the Scottish Parliament is about getting the message over that our CVS members can no longer be expected to subsidise the provision of public services through poverty wages and inferior conditions.”

So please get in touch if you can come along to our lobby so we can ensure you get smooth access to the Parliament. Please contact Robert Rae on 0141 342 2882 or r.rae@unison.co.uk to let him know you are coming.

Voice@Work Issue 20 Spring 2009 (1MB download)