Prentis issues battle warning !

"Class still divides. Geography still divides. Working people – our people – are taking the hit. It’s immoral – and it’s got to change."Addressing UNISON's national delegate conference this afternoon, general secretary Dave Prentis rallied members to prepare for strikes across the public sector.The union will know on Monday whether its local government members in England, Northern Ireland and Wales have voted to strike over this year’s below-inflation pay offer – an offer in line with the government's "iniquitous and unjust" pay policy.But UNISON members did not elect a Labour government to watch its core supporters suffer, Mr Prentis said. "How can it be that in New Labour’s Britain, it is the working poor who pay the price?" he asked.UNISON members want fair pay increases that will allow them to "live their lives without worrying about putting food on the table or the next gas bill," said the general secretary, telling conference he had placed ads in all the major newspapers today and tomorrow, calling on local government members to vote … and to vote Yes for industrial action."We need to prepare for battle," he said. "And I give this commitment: if our union decides to approve industrial action in local government, we will campaign with all other public service unions to break this pay policy."It was not too late to listen, Mr Prentis warned the government: "Raise our people up, or our people will bring you down."UNISON wanted a government that would stand up for working people, he said, promising this was a fight the union would not back down from."And while I am general general secretary, we will be at the forefront of that fight."This union, our union, will organise the most powerful campaign ever seen in support of our public services and those, our members, who provide them," Mr Prentis said.It would be a campaign to unite all public service workers, and all public service unions, "a campaign that turns our anger into aspiration… and makes justice for all a reality."UNISON’s activists would be the key to its success, he added, calling on delegates for their hearts, time and energy, because "that's when we’re strongest and that is how we will win."