There was a fringe meeting against the witch-hunt of activists in Unison set for Thursday lunchtime at the conference. The decision by Unison to appeal recent judgments by the Certification Officer in favour of Tony Staunton and Yunus Bakhsh meant their cases were excluded from discussion on the conference floor.
The battle over public sector pay and anger against the Labour government shaped the debates at the Unison union local government service group conference in Bournemouth this week.
Members of the Unison union working for the NHS have voted, disappointingly, by 64 percent to accept a three year pay deal. This offers 2.75 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.2 percent for the next three years.
College workers held a national day of protests on Wednesday of this week to demand fair pay. Workers in six trade unions – the UCU, Unison, GMB, Unite, ATL and ACM – have rejected an initial below-inflation offer of 2.5 percent.
Unison union members now have an increasingly good prospect of a fight over pay in local government, this year. Our members are among the lowest paid public sector workers, and are really feeling the pinch.
Leaders of the Unison union were delivered two shattering blows last week when the trade union certification officer ruled that a crackdown on two of the union’s best known left wingers broke the union’s own rules – and in one case even broke the law.
The Trade union certification officer found that Tony Staunton, a member of the Unison union’s south west regional council for more than a decade, was "unreasonably excluded" from being a candidate in the 2007 national executive elections.
