Everyone who works in the NHS has a vital role to play in our health service, and this strike action has shown that those subjected to the subco regime are still NHS workers, and willing to fight for the pay and conditions that entails.
General Secretary’s blog
UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea’s blog.
Further education colleges play a vital role in the fabric of our local communities. They are one of the key building blocks of our education system, yet they are being chipped away by a government who profess to care about education and yet underfund and cut it every chance they get.
There’s no good reason to pay staff a pound less than others doing the same job, just because they’re employed by a subco. UNISON will stand with these striking workers – and others fighting unfair subcos – every step of the way as they fight for the wages they deserve.
One of UNISON’s greatest strengths is our diversity. That includes our presence outside what some might consider our core public sector employers. A great example of that is the energy sector. Our long-standing representation of energy workers is something I’ve always been passionate about, having once been the national negotiator for the electricity sector when […]
Half of local government workers – vital providers of services we’re all reliant on – thinking about leaving their roles because they’ve become too stressful. The vast majority fearful for the future of local services. This is a disastrous situation – but it’s one that UNISON has long warned about, and which the government have chosen to exacerbate at every turn.
Whether you’re working in a town hall or a private care home, you are a public service worker and you need the strength of UNISON around you – and every voice we add to the chorus makes us all stronger, able to demand more and win more. That’s why we’re making November about growing our union – and we’re calling it Grovember.
All these UNISON members want is to be able to earn a wage that allows then to support their families and. NSL need to get around the negotiating table, and come up with an offer that meets our members needs – because this group are strong, they’re sticking together and they have the resolve to fight and win.
The past few days at Labour conference have been great for both our party and our union. Few Labour conferences would provide such a strong argument for the importance of the Labour Link to UNISON than this one
I was pleased to hear John McDonnell note our fight against PFI last week in his speech to the TUC, but our party can and must go further still, by bringing all public services back in house, ending privatisation once and for all.
Now, more than ever, we have a chance to push back against private profit and in favour of public need. In Manchester next week, we will continue to fight for just that.
As a Labour member, I’m appalled to see a Labour council put these incredible public service workers in such an impossible position. And as your General Secretary, I’ll stand with home care workers every step of the way, demanding the council recognise their mistakes, and get this sorted once and for all.
Public services have been put through the wringer thanks to austerity, but despite everything we’ve had thrown as us, we are still standing. Still defending rights at work. Still fighting for better pay and better conditions. We won’t be chased out of our workplaces and we won’t step back for the fights to come.
People are suddenly finding that their Universal Credit payments either stop completely or fall dramatically simply because of the way they are paid. What’s more they can lose hundreds of pounds.
Like on the Employment Tribunal Fees case, we believe that we have a strong case, with both the facts and what’s right on our side.
Our whole union stands by our members in Northamptonshire as they fight for their jobs, their pay and the services they provide. We will continue to do so, through whatever challenges they face next. And we will never stop fighting for better funding, better management and better pay for all our public services.