Leadership lack responsible for Unison council workers accepting pay offer

By a Cymru/Wales Unison Local Government member

Many trade unions have been and will be taking industrial action in the near future, however based on the outcome of the pay consultation ballot announced this week it does not appear likely that Unison Local Government Workers will be joining them on masse this year.

The vote in Wales was 66% to accept and 34% to reject the final pay offer. The vote nationally was 63.5% to accept and 36.5% to reject.

This result poses the question are Unison members in Wales and nationally less militant than RMT, CWU (telecoms and postal,) ASLEF and other trade union members taking strike action. Is it the case that Unison members are better off, and do not need pay awards matching inflation?

The answer is there is little difference between Unison and other trade union members that have been striking for better pay and to protect terms and conditions. Unison Local government members have suffered on average a 27% cut in the value of our pay since 2010. Before the cost of living crisis hit us over 60% of our local government members were struggling to pay their bills. We are all working harder for less, so our members desperately needed an actual pay rise.

So why did members vote to accept a pay award that for all represents another pay cut and for many another significant drop in the value of our pay?

Firstly, the pay claim was set far too low, and Unison socialist party members stated this at the time-the claim was for £2,000 or matching inflation, whichever was higher. The offer from the employers was for £1,925 it should be noted that this was a significant improvement on pay offers in previous years and amounted to just over ten percent for the lowest paid but for those further up the pay scale this in percentage terms amounted to less and less. So, another significant pay cut for many.

The significant difference between the above unions and Unison local government is leadership – they recommended action and their members had confidence in their trade union leadership to lead and organise strike action. In the case of Unison’s NJC committee (that has responsible for pay) they decided not to make a recommendation regarding the final offer from the employer on whether to accept of reject. Most Local Government branches in Wales and nationally followed this lead and did not make a recommendation. We think that members concluded from this that their branch and Unison did not want to fight on pay. Little wonder then that they voted to take what was on offer even if for most if not all members they would be worse off as a result!

There is clear proof that the above is correct because in Wales and nationally where branches (invariably where they had Socialist Party or left leaderships) recommended rejection of the pay offer and campaigned for this they achieved significant majorities to reject that were the mirror opposite of branches that did not make a recommendation. How otherwise can it be explained that Blaenau Gwent voted 82% to accept, that Swansea branch voted 74% to accept and Cwm Taf voted 75% to accept as examples but Carmarthenshire County branch voted 82% to reject and Cardiff 63% to reject. It is because the latter campaigned to reject.

In the case of Carmarthenshire branch Socialist Party members play a prominent role. The branch has organised industrial action and tenaciously fought and opposed cuts and mobilised members to defend their interests. Members have the confidence and trust in the leadership of the branch build through taking action and of being honest with members informing them of the need to take strike action to win pay increases.

The water is not different in Carmarthenshire, Cardiff or Wrexham (whose members also voted to reject) to the branches who voted to accept. Where resolute and determined leadership is given members in Unison will be prepared to take action. If the branches who recommended rejection and campaigned for this had been repeated across Wales and nationally, we would now be preparing to ballot for taking strike action.

It is true that there is an understandable feeling amongst some members of dismay and resignation that Unison will never take action overpay because of previous failures to take action or sustain it under the leadership of the right wing. Christine McAnea General Secretary of Unison has spoken of the need for branches to be strike ready but before and during this ballot there was little help for local government branches in Wales in this regard. For the first time in Unison’s history, we have a left NEC. But they need to get the message out to members about the need to take action on pay and to support and assist branches to convince members of the need to take strike action as the only way to win pay increases.