HAVE A HEART FOR PUBLIC SERVICES – Valentines to the NHS in Glasgow and to police teams in Tayside

Theatre staff at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, members of UNISON's
NHS Glasgow and Clyde branch

14 Feb 2013 

From Durham to Dundee, Gateshead to Glasgow, around Scotland, down to SW England and over to Northern Ireland, UNISON members are today gathering for a Valentine's Day blitz.

Hospital theatre staff in Glasgow, police staff in Tayside, health workers in Belfast and council workers in Edinburgh are all taking part in the union’s ‘Have a Heart for Public Services’ day.

With a predicted 1.2m public service jobs under threat - giant Valentine's Day cards are being taken to hospitals, schools, day centres, libraries, leisure centres, town halls and police stations, to highlight the variety and value of work carried out every day across the UK.

Theatre staff and other health service UNISON members at Glasgow Royal Infirmary sent a Valentine to the NHS.

While in Tayside, members of the new UNISON Police Staff Scotland branch, showed their hearts are on the side of local police stations and the local police team.

PC Bob Cowan, PC Ashley Lee, Sheila Mitchell & Fran Benison (Crime management),
Leanne Meldrum (Warrants), Mandy Robertson (Staff Development/Training)
and Fiona Christie (Divisional Admin)

Branch secretary George McIrvine, who will lead the new UNISON Scottish police staff branch when the single police service comes into operation in April, said: 

"The photo of 'We love our local police team' is one which shows the importance of the current ‘Police family’ structure that ensures effective and best value policing for Scotland and the taxpayer.

“The threatened cuts that face up to half the police support jobs (3000) across Scotland will inevitably hinder this process, with the only alternative for the employer being to backfill with police officers at greater expense to the public purse.

“We continue to call on the Scottish Government to revisit their commitment to the artificial manifesto pledge of 1000 extra cops on the beat.”

Part-time shift worker Louise Phinn

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: "The hearts may be different - but the message is the same, have a heart for your public services - they are too valuable to lose.

"Since the Government came to power it has declared war on public services with savage cuts and job losses expected to rise to 1.2m.  This means that the services in hospitals, schools, libraries, elderly and children's care and many more that the public rely on, are disappearing fast.

"With 2.49m people unemployed, axing more public service workers makes no sense. It is time for the Government to have a change of heart and think again about pursuing its failed economic policies that are leading to rising inflation and threatening to drag the country into a triple dip recession.

"What the country needs from Government is a coherent plan for investing in jobs and growth in order to boost the money available to spend on improving and providing public services, instead of devastating them." 

Other branches taking part in the Valentine’s Day events in Scotland included Edinburgh City branch and members at Glasgow Caledonian University, where the big card said ‘We love our support staff’.

George McIrvine, Police Staff Scotland branch secretary.