Statement by UNISON Scotland Labour Link on Scottish Labour Leader, Jim Murphy

Tuesday 12 May 2015

"The scale of Scottish Labour’s defeat in the General Election result last Thursday indicates the need for a radical change in approach. The problems of Scottish Labour long pre-date this election and the current leadership.

"It is unprecedented for a party leader not to stand down after such a defeat, particularly when he loses his own seat. The campaign may have been energetic, but it lacked focus and clearly voters do not regard Jim Murphy as a credible messenger of Scottish Labour values.

"Scottish Labour has a limited period of time to reorganise itself to provide a credible challenge in the Scottish Parliament elections next year. There is very little time for a new leader to take the necessary actions, which require more than simply a change of leadership. Against that is the risk of further damage being done in next year’s election if no change takes place.

"The current leader was elected fairly recently by a clear majority of members. However a majority of UNISON Labour Link members did not share that view. Given that, we do not believe it is UNISON’s place to initiate a change in leadership. However, if there is a wider movement proposing change UNISON Labour Link would not oppose it."

UNISON Scotland Labour Link Committee

UNISON react angrily to Scottish Government claims that they have maintained 1000 extra police officers

Tuesday 5 May 2015

UNISON Scotland condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the Scottish Government putting out a press release celebrating that they have maintained 17,234 police officers, just hours before the General Election 2015.

UNISON members who work hard to keep our communities safe take a completely different view to this arbitrary statistic being re-released today.

Gerry Crawley, UNISON regional organiser said, ‘Scottish Government Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, fails to mention the fact they are making £1.1bn cuts to the police force in Scotland by 2020 and that 1300 police civilian staff have lost their jobs in recent months.  Meaning more and more police officer are being taken off the streets and are working in the back office covering for our members who have lost their jobs. And police staff do vital jobs to fight crime like finger print officers, intelligence analysts, forensics, scenes of crime officers, photographers, emergency control room staff, mechanics, custody officers, finance controllers and many others. These jobs are being cut.’ 

Gerry continued ‘The 17,234 police officer target is a political statistic from 2007. It is not based on any strategic analysis of the skills we need to build a modern effective force to fight crime. Scottish Government, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, and the Scottish Police Authority should have issued a press release to say they are reversing their policy to direct all the  £ 1.1bn cuts at skilled police staff as it’s taking the Scottish police service back to the 1970s.’

ENDS
 
Notes to Editor

·         Scottish government press release is here: http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Police-target-maintained-189f.aspx

·         UNISON represents police staff in Scotland who has been subject to significant cuts. Local police stations, local 999 emergency control rooms, local community police desks and other parts of community police services have been closed.  

·         Police Officer numbers in England and Wales have been falling but interestingly so has crime.

·         Scottish Government ministers demand that Police Scotland make £1.1bn cuts by 2020. As police officers are protected (17234 police officers, target set in 2007), it is the police staff who are wholly subject to these £1.1bn cuts. 1300 police staff have lost their jobs so far, undermining all the work done to build a modern police force. It also means that police are stuck in offices doing the work previously done by skilled civilian staff that police officers are not trained to do, or are overpaid to do. This is not best value for money or strategically effective in keeping communities safe.

·         Other documents giving analysis of the Police reform process and UNISON’s campaign for a balanced, modern police force – rather than cutting thousands of police staff jobs – are available on UNISON’s police pages (http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/police/index.html)

May Scotland in UNISON now online

Election special, Health conference reports, Glasgow strikers and reports from UNISON at the STUC on TTIP, local government, pay, union rights, poverty, environment, child care, BME workers, ethical care charter, flexible working, pay and much more. Take your copy into your workplace and share it or see it online at at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/siu/index.html and on issuu at http://issuu.com/unisonscotland along with back issues.

Make work fair for parents and give children decent childhoods, say UNISON and Child Poverty Action Group

CPAG, Scotland’s most high profile child poverty charity, and UNISON, Scotland’s biggest trade union have joined together to call on political parties to lay out policies to tackle in-work poverty.

The call comes as the two organisations release their report Fair Work and Decent Childhoods – policies for those who work to live lives free of poverty. They call for investment in the social security system and say we must not allow a race to the bottom on skills, pay and insecure work.

John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland said ‘“The new UK government will inherit a child poverty crisis with a shocking 59% of poor children in Scotland living in working families. For the future of our children and our economy we need urgent action to make work fair for parents and allow them to give their children the decent childhoods they deserve. That’s why as anti-poverty campaigners and trade unionists we have united in setting out three key priorities for the new government – decent pay, family friendly workplaces and investment in in-work benefits.”

Key questions in The Public Services Election

In the third of a series of articles, UNISON Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby lays out UNISON's plan to get our members' issues at the centre of the election debates.

 "This is the Public Services Election. The outcome will have a huge impact upon UNISON members, their families, communities and the public services in which we work, to protect the disadvantaged and provide a better quality of life for all."

In Scotland the 2015 general election marks the start of a three year programme of elections with the Scottish Parliament in 2016 and the Scottish local government elections in 2017.

It is not uncommon for election to be described as “the most vital in a generation”. However, given the Tory plans for public spending there can be little doubt that the outcome of this election will have a huge impact upon UNISON members, their families, communities and the public services in which we work.

Last month we published a full scale poll undertaken by Survation, for UNISON Scotland, that asked Scottish voters to explain their priorities. They said that public services, welfare, jobs and pay were the most important issues for them in the coming general election.

Public services are the number one election issue for the majority of Scottish voters. They were also clear about their spending priorities. If the next government was to raise £2bn by cracking down on tax avoidance, 58% of respondents believe that the money should be spent on improving public services, compared to 19% who think it should be spent on reducing public borrowing, and 17% who think that it should be used on income tax cuts.

People provide the services. Our people and our jobs are at risk.

The latest workforce statistics for Scotland have been published. They cover the period up to December 2014.

The headline figure shows a massive 24,000 reduction in public sector staff last year. However, this is misleading as it includes a reclassification of mostly bank staff back to the private sector. The adjusted cut was 1,000 jobs; from 532,000 down to 531,000. This means a total of 62,000 jobs have been lost from the public sector in Scotland since the post-crash high point (2009 Q1), reducing public sector jobs as a proportion of the total workforce from 24% to 20.5%.

Last year, local government employment fell by a further 600 jobs from 247,100 to 246,500. 40,000 jobs have been lost in Scottish local government since the post-crash high point (2009 Q1). The largest percentage cut last year was in South Ayrshire at 6.4%.

Last year, health staff increased by 2,400; from 158,100 to 160,500.While that’s an increase of 809 jobs since 2009(Q1), it is a drop of 1091 jobs since the 2010(Q1) highpoint.

FE colleges recovered 300 jobs last year increasing from 13,600 to 13,900. That’s still 3,000 jobs lost since 2009.

Police and fire lost another 700 jobs last year taking the total cut since the national services were created to 1600.

The other public bodies group gained 600 jobs last year. However, they have still lost 2,900 jobs since 2009.

Wherever you work, it is vital that you start the conversation with colleagues, that you challenge candidates of all parties.

Suggested questions for members to ask candidates:

• What will be the consequences for public services of the Conservatives proposed job cuts?
• If elected as my MP, how will you protect these threatened jobs?
• How will you ensure my pay makes up lost ground in the next parliament?
• How would further cuts to public services help me and the local economy, exactly?
• Personal debt is rising again, how do you expect low-paid workers to make ends meet?
• How will you ensure rich individuals and corporations pay their taxes like the rest of us?
• How will you use further devolved powers to support and protect Scotland’s public services?

Main healthcare union to quiz candidates and Cabinet Secretary

UNISON - Scotland's largest healthcare union, will hold its annual health conference today (Friday) in Glasgow, and will hear from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, who will give the keynote speech.

In addition the group conference, involving representatives of the 50,000+ UNISON members working in Scotland's Healthcare, will hold an election hustings, where candidates from the four main parties in Scotland will put forward their policies on healthcare, and other issues.

Chair of UNISON's Scottish Health Group, Tom Waterson said "We are taking the opportunity of this election, to promote our Public Works campaign, and quiz candidates on their party's policies to defend our public services and those who provide them, in the teeth of the business campaign to cut them.

"We know that our Health Service is vital, that its spending actually boosts our economy, and that we can afford to provide decent care."

Nicola Sturgeon MSP will also address the conference on the current issues facing Scotland's NHS, she will answer questions from the delegates UNISON is Scotland's largest Healthcare union and has continued to increase its membership for the third year running.