Conservatives using Co-operatives as a Trojan horse

UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, today accused the government of using the co-operative ideal as a Trojan horse, to disguise their drastic cuts to public services.With budgets axed, the union is warning that breaking up public services, under the guise of turning them into co-operatives, would not deliver improvements. UNISON accused the Government of simply washing its hands of its responsibility to care for the most vulnerable in society, children, the poor and the elderly.Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:“The coalition is simply using the co –operative ideal as a Trojan horse to disguise the effects of their drastic spending cuts on public services. Pushing responsibility onto staff to try and do more with less money, is setting them up to fail. The Government is simply washing its hands of its responsibility to provide services to the most vulnerable in society.“In today’s unstable financial environment, small co-ops and mutuals will be highly vulnerable to take over by big business, which could quickly start to dominate the market. This backdoor privatisation suits the Tories down to the ground.“The public should not be fooled by the Government’s Damascene conversion to co-operatives and social enterprises. I can’t see them advocating them across the private sector.”The union also pointed out that some of the original pilots in children’s social work had failed and staff voted with their feet. One even shut down after children, parents and foster carers were not properly consulted.”