Morning Briefing Wednesday 20th June

Stand and deliver

Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, was left in no doubt by Conference that UNISON would fight for public services in Labour's second term.

"We welcome debate with the government but it will need to understand our position on our public services”, said UNISON President Adrian Dilworth.

Adrian had to call for order when Stephen asserted, "..we do believe that it is right to consider the part that the private sector can play in delivering quality public services”.

That argument failed to convince delegates who were daily fighting the damage to services, jobs and conditions caused by PFI, Best Value and voluntary tendering.

Services, said Stephen, "must be about putting the interests of the patient, schoolchild, elderly person or passenger first”.

Many delegates would be itching to echo the words on the City of Edinburgh Branch website. "If you show no respect for the people who provide these services, you show little respect for the users of those services”.

Disappointment there may have been. Anger perhaps. But sections of Conference did little credit to UNISON by shouting and heckling.

Luckily, to warm applause, Adrian Dilworth brought dignity back to the proceedings. He reminded delegates about respect for each other and about putting our case constructively for our members.

The apparent headlong drive to lecture us on private versus public, on organisation and change, ignored the fact that most public service problems are resource-based.

UNISON members want progressive change. They know what's wrong with the services they provide. But they need the tools to do the job.

It was unfortunate that the rammy about the private sector overshadowed the list of achievements Stephen was able to list.

- debt dramatically reduced
- £10 billion more on schools than on debt interest
- health and education spending rising at twice the rate than under the Tories
- 11,000 more teachers, 44,000 more classroom assistants
- more doctors and nurses
- infant class sizes down
- unemployment down in all categories. Youth unemployment at lowest level since the 1970s
- legal right to four weeks paid holiday
- right to be off work for family emergencies
- statutory union recognition
- statutory minimum wage
- £50 billion more to go into public services.

Also welcome was Stephen Byers' comments that front line staff should be allowed to come up with solutions.

"That means engaging staff and trade unions in reviewing services and assessing alternatives”, he said.

He also promised measures to tackle the ‘two-tier' workforce by giving local authorities powers to take conditions into account in bids.

"We want to see diversity in public services but not at the expense of a labour force which feels it is left out and has nothing to contribute. Those on the front line of public services are part of the solution, not the problem. I want to make that a reality”, said Stephen.

Stephen had opened by saying that the people of our country "voted overwhelmingly in favour of high quality public services. Investment in public services was their priority.

They are our priority too. Stephen said now it was ‘time to deliver'.

We agree and we expect that.

The missing amendments

No line was given in the conference pack on one or two amendments. We will attempt to address these through the daily briefings.

Support amendment 18.1 (Objective One Funding in Wales), which is likely to be accepted by the movers of the main motion.

Support amendment 148.1 (Resource Allocation)

Branch Funding

The Branch Funding proposals to be debated this afternoon have taken two years to develop.

The proposals are a package. For this reason the working party have asked branches to look at the overall effect of their proposals rather than concentrating on single items in the package.

Obviously branches will need to look at the effect of the proposals on their own finances. However it is important to recognise that many branches with large numbers of low paid members lose out heavily on the current arrangements. At the same time other branches are embarrassed by large reserves.

The creation of the regional pool will provide a new method of targeting extra money to branches that can demonstrate how they will spend the money on developing organisation and recruitment.

Devolution of funding decisions to Scottish level will be to the benefit of most Scottish Branches.

A Scottish amendment 163.8 provides a mechanism for increasing the pool in future years and should be supported.

Amendment 163.2 recognises the effort on branch finances of the Local Government Industrial Action and should be supported.

Amendment 163.7 proposes that all branches should get more money year on year irrespective of whether or not the branch needs the money or not. It is a crude attempt to undermine the underlying philosophy of the proposals and should be opposed.

Support 163, 163.2 and 163.8

Oppose 163.7

The General Election and the Next Government

Motion 13 would benefit from the following positive amendments, setting out the roles of the APF and GPF in pursuing the agenda, a higher profile for regional economy issues and a clearer description of how we can work with employers to deliver common goals in improving services and addressing the range of ways for delivering truly public services.

Support 13.1 - pedantic proposals on how to conduct the Positively Public Campaign but should not be opposed.

Support 13.2 - Scottish amendment looking for a change to Treasury rules governing public expenditure and a better use of GPF resources and promoting UNISON policy.

Support 13.3 - new developments in the social economy and methods of funding and managing public services. Support 13.4 - illustrates complimentary roles of the respective political funds. Support 13.5 - an amendment which recognises that private ownership is a major cause of inequality in Britain.

Support motion 13 and all the amendments.

Privatisation

The NEC's amendment to motion 25 should be supported. 25.2 which calls for another conference should be opposed. What is this conference for if not to determine our policy on PFI?

Highway Robbery

Comp D, Fair Wages and a Two-tier Workforce was carried overwhelmingly, calling for re-introduction of a fair wages clause into contracts to address the effect of privatisation and TUPE.

Gerry Crawley, Glasgow City, highlighted the problems faced in Scotland earlier this year when the Trunk Roads contract was lost to private contractors AMEY and BEAR Scotland Ltd.

Gerry said "Our members were disgracefully treated by the Scottish Executive as the contracts for trunk roads did not contain reference to comparable pension provision. One of the companies involved, AMEY had a comparable pension scheme, which they had previously set up under PFI. AMEY would not allow our members to join this scheme unless they accepted the new contracts and gave up their TUPE rights.

He continued with reference to the Government's planned review of TUPE later this year, "We must use that opportunity to ensure that the workers transferring under TUPE will receive a comparable pension scheme to that enjoyed in their public sector jobs."

Double whammy on privatisation

UNISONScotland's Robert Rae and Simon McFarlane took on Andy Kerr MSP on BBC Radio Scotland's Lesley Riddoch show yesterday.

The issue was privatisation and bringing services back in-house. the Health Service and Trunk Roads contract were two examples raised.

The highlight came when it was revealed that the cook-chill food for Hairmyres Hospital was being trucked in from Manchester.

Up spake Simon, "No wonder it is luke warm by the time it arrives - and that's in June. Just wait ‘til the lorries have to try to get it up the privatised trunk roads in January!”