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Dave Prentis opened the Public Services International (PSI) congress this week with a speech stressing that the work of trade unions has never been more important.
PSI is a federation of public service unions that represents 20 million workers from 150 countries. As president, Mr Prentis spoke of the shared challenges public sector workers are facing, from rising inequality, to privatisation, growing racism and xenophobia, and corporate power.
He told congress that there was no better time to meet. “Our work has never been more important,” he said. PSI’s organising and campaigning, work on “growing our unions and building our power,” is essential in the struggle to tackle the greed of multinationals. “Our aim is to put people first.”
It was PSI that identified the Ebola crisis three months before everyone else, Mr Prentis said, outlining how it was an illustration of how public sector workers went above and beyond.
The outbreak saw health workers fighting against an “horrific disease in incredibly difficult circumstances,” many of them not being paid or not having the right to join a union.
PSI champions human rights, is an advocate for social justice and promotes universal access to quality public services.
Mr Prentis urged congress to be strong. “If we are bold, if we have hope, we can win. But if we try to play it safe and bow to the wishes and the whims of the rich and the powerful, then the results are dire.”
“By standing together – unified, dignified – congress, we can win this fight for fairness, for social justice. And for people over profit.”
To keep up with news from the PSI conference, follow UNISON international on Twitter and the hash tag #PSIcongress2017, or on Facebook.
The article ‘Now is our time to lead’ Dave Prentis tells PSI congress first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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Further education college members in England are voting on their employers’ pay offer in a consultative ballot, which closes on 17 November.
UNISON is recommending rejection of the Association of Colleges’ offer of 1% or £250 – whichever is more – in the online ballot which opened on Friday 27 October.
The union’s further education committee noted that the offer amounts to a pay cut in real terms – prices measured by CPI inflation are increasing by 2.9% according to the latest figures. RPI inflation is running at 3.9%.
The union called the offer “more than disappointing”.
“Our members are working harder, but they are being paid less in real terms,” commented national officer Ruth Levin.
“Many members have not had a pay rise for many years as colleges are not obliged to implement the Association of Colleges recommendation,” she added.
On top of that, “many support staff in further education colleges are work on term-time only contracts and many are part-time.”
A UNISON survey this year of members working in colleges showed that more than 16% are paid less than £12,000 a year and more than 29% get less than £15,000.
“Support staff are telling us that they are struggling to pay their bills, rent or mortgage and to pay for food,” said Ms Levin.
UNISON is calling for improved funding for further education and acknowledges the commitment from the Association of Colleges to jointly campaign with the unions improved funding for colleges.
The UK needs a well trained and skilled workforce, says the union, which makes it vital that further education is well resourced both in terms of college facilities and a workforce that is “valued, invested in and fairly rewarded”.
UNISON does acknowledge the commitment from the Association of Colleges to jointly seek improved funding for colleges.
Members who are eligible to vote in the online ballot will have received an email or text message with details on how to vote.
The article English college workers vote on employers’ pay offer first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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This week public sector workers from across the world will be packing their bags and flying to Switzerland.
Travelling from as far afield as Egypt, India, Niger, Jamaica, as well Germany, France, and Denmark and many more countries, representatives from public service trade unions are attending Public Services International’s congress, one of the largest gatherings of international trade unionists in the world.
Public Services International (PSI) is a global trade union federation, which means it brings together public service unions from around the world. PSI represents 20 million working women and men who deliver vital public services, in 150 countries. The organisation champions human rights, advocates for social justice and promotes universal access to quality public services.
So much has been going on in the UK lately that it’s easy to forget that there’s a whole world out there. And while some of our problems are unique – no one else is leaving the European Union – many of the issues we face as public service workers are also faced by our colleagues around the world.
The privatisation of public services, the siphoning off of public money into tax havens, the rise in hostility to refugees and ethnic minorities. These are issues for us in the UK, but they’re also issues being faced by millions of other people around the world.
The people who believe in privatising public services work at an international level: they lobby other governments who speak to ours, and they lobby powerful global organisations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Companies who avoid paying tax, and therefore take money away from our public services, can only do so because they work at an international level to move money into tax havens.
Why does this matter? If the forces we are up against work internationally, we must too. We must form allegiances with our public service worker counterparts around the world.
It isn’t all doom and gloom though. PSI congress is also about forming bonds, so that we can campaign for what we believe in together. It is a reminder that we are not alone, there are millions of people out there who believe that public services are vital and should stay public.
Andrew Anderson is a UNISON member who works in mental health. He is part of the UNISON delegation attending the PSI congress, and he thinks it’s hugely important to show solidarity and meet colleagues from around the world for many reasons, but “mainly to share good practice and support them with the challenges that they face because you never know when we may need their advice, support and encouragement.”
UNISON’s general secretary Dave Prentis is the President of Public Services International, and he will be addressing the conference on Monday. To keep up with news from the conference follow UNISON international on Twitter and the hash tag #PSIcongress2017, or on Facebook.
The article Why Public Services International is important to you first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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A Labour government will scrap the flawed disability assessment schemes that keep disabled people out of work and in poverty.
That was the pledge from Marsha de Cordova, elected MP for Battersea in June and now the shadow minister for disabled people, when she addressed UNISON’s disabled members’ conference in Manchester this afternoon.
Registered blind with a condition called nystagmus, Ms de Cordova (pictured), observed that like all those in the room living with a disability, she had faced problems “in education, in employment and in politics”.
Explaining that it was only down to the fight of her own mother that she had stayed in mainstream education, she said that, if she had been sent to a special school, she would not have achieved what she has so far and that’s why she is so committed to mainstream education for all.
But she stressed the need for schemes to help disabled people take their place in mainstream society had to be funded properly.
The “Access to Work scheme needs looking at – and proper funding,” Ms de Cordova told delegates, but the government’s austerity policies have disproportionately hit disabled people the hardest.
Figures show a massive 900% increase in complaints about personal independent payments assessments, she said, and the DWP must be held to account.
In addition to scrapping assessments, a Labour government would also reverse “the £30 cuts to ESA”.
The article Labour would scrap flawed assessments, says shadow minister first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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Today marks the centenary of the birth of Oliver Reginald – ‘OR’ –Tambo, the “quiet revolutionary” who led the African National Congress through the darkest days of apartheid, and laid the foundations for the liberation of South Africa.
OR Tambo dedicated his life to the struggle against apartheid, much of which he spent in exile, banned from his native South Africa by a repressive, racist regime, dedicated to defending the privilege of a white minority and the exploitation of Black South Africans.
His vision, leadership and values helped build the global anti apartheid movement which supported the liberation of South Africa. I am proud of the active role that our union’s predecessors and many thousands of UNISON members played in that movement, supporting those in exile and campaigning for equality, justice and an end to apartheid.
When he qualified as a lawyer in 1951, OR Tambo joined the first legal partnership run by black partners in South Africa. Thousands would turn to Mandela and Tambo to defend them against the apartheid laws which criminalised countless innocent people.
Like many stalwarts of the liberation struggle OR Tambo was regularly arrested for his political activism. In 1954, when he became secretary general of the ANC, he received a banning order. Two years later was detained on treason charges.
Following the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 peaceful protestors were killed by the South African police, and the banning of the ANC in 1960, Oliver and Adelaide Tambo and their children escaped to London. Many of the ANC’s leaders had been detained on Robben Island, so the task fell on OR Tambo to lead the liberation movement from exile.
OR Tambo was a visionary who never lost sight of a democratic, non-racial South Africa. He recognised the need to build an international movement, and travelled the world inspiring many thousands of activists and trade unionists to campaign against apartheid.
He rapidly won the respect and support of many world leaders, particularly in Africa; persuading them to isolate South Africa and contributing to it being forced out of the Commonwealth in 1961 and suspended by the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. Governments, like the UK and US, who continued to defend the apartheid regime, became lone voices.
In the 1980s, OR Tambo began laying the foundations for the talks that would eventually end apartheid. He balanced mass mobilisation, the armed struggle, underground organisation and international solidarity to bring the apartheid regime to the negotiating table.
Despite being in exile, his call to “render South Africa ungovernable” was heeded by millions of South Africans in 1985.
OR Tambo always recognised that the morality of the cause would eventually defeat the brutality of apartheid. He ensured that the values the liberation movement was fighting for – democracy, rights, justice and equality – were enshrined in a bill of rights. In 1987 he laid the foundations for South Africa’s constitution, which would place these values at its heart, making it one of the most progressive in the world.
Sadly, he died in 1993, little over a year before South Africans finally won their freedom.
OR Tambo was a selfless, visionary and humble leader. He inspired millions in South Africa and across the world to campaign against one of the greatest evils of the 20th century.
As general secretary, I am so proud of UNISON’s campaigning in South Africa over the decades. As we mark this important anniversary, let us all commit to continuing our international campaigning for peace, for fairness and for social justice.
The article Celebrating the life and legacy of OR Tambo first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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— Playground Markings (@playareamarking) October 27, 2017
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— Playground Markings (@playareamarking) October 27, 2017
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Over a thousand parents, teachers, school support staff and head teachers attended the school cuts lobby of Parliament on Tuesday, to bring the message to MPs that 88% of our schools are seriously underfunded.
The fantasy that emanates from the government – that there are huge efficiency savings still to be made, and that it is possible to make further cuts without having an impact on children’s education – is increasingly derisible.
While, understandably, teachers have been in the spotlight, it is school support staff that have borne the brunt of funding cuts in recent years.
Since 2013, teaching assistant numbers in secondary schools have dropped by 8% – and by 4% in 2016 alone. There has been a 10% reduction in the number of school technicians since 2012 and last year saw a further 1.6% decrease in other support staff – which would have been higher if huge numbers hadn’t already been outsourced.
In Scotland it is even worse, with 20% – yes one fifth – of support staff having gone since 2010.
More than 14,000 UNISON members responded to questions on cuts and redundancies in our 2016 survey, revealing a litany of woes.
Almost two thirds of schools had either made redundancies or left posts vacant and a third of schools had cut their SEN budgets, with a similar amount cutting their maintenance budget.
Office staff are under particular threat as the Department for Education specifically asks schools to consider merging their roles.
Government seem to think that such workers are easily dispensable – so-called “back office savings”. Yet office workers perform vital front-line work.
In a recent UNISON survey, almost 90% said they dealt directly with parental concerns, 71% ran vital ID checks, two-thirds managed attendance, and a similar number were directly involved in pupil welfare.
Helping parents fill in forms – a hugely underrated task – was a key role for 56%. Interestingly, 55% administered medicines and 53% performed first aid.
If these staff go, the impact will be felt by other support staff and teachers, through increased workloads and higher stress levels.
8% fewer teaching assistants in secondary schools since 2013
10% fewer school technicians since 2012
1.6% cut in other support staff in 2016
20% of Scottish support staff axed since 2010
A year ago, more than half of our members reported work-related stress, anxiety or depression. But work pressures meant 40% of these people felt unable to report workload concerns and, most worryingly, 56% said they had reported concerns but nothing had been done.
How much worse will it be now after another year of cuts and more to come?
Our surveys regularly show huge numbers of staff working additional unpaid hours each week, reporting excessive workloads, struggling on low pay and lacking training opportunities.
One office worker put it well: “I’m frustrated that the workload has increased but pay remains the same.
“Jobs that redundant colleagues used to do have ended up on my desk and my job description says they can be done by me even though they were someone else’s responsibility.”
All the time the government hides behind its mantra that it’s spending more money on schools than ever before, and that schools could cope if they were just a bit more efficient.
This is nonsense. The only thing that is going to save schools, and ensure that pupils get the decent well-resourced education they need is more money.
The “new money” promised by the government just won’t be enough. Also, it will be taken from other parts of the Department for Education’s budget, undermining vital initiatives that could have helped schools.
The real-terms shortfall as a result of high inflation and other unfunded costs will force senior leaders to make hard choices and we know that they have already cut easy savings to the bone.
Now is not the time for shilly-shallying. The Chancellor needs to stop snipping away at children’s education and properly invest in their future.
The article School support staff have borne the brunt of funding cuts first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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