Union plans pay strategy

With privatisations and reorganisations, pay freezes and attacks on pensions, "we have a constant fight on our hands, a fight that's a bit like trench warfare, that goes on and on and on," UNISON NEC member Jane Carolan declared as she opened the union's pay and bargaining seminar this afternoon.Welcoming activists and negotiators from across the union to two days of discussions at the UNISON Centre in London, Ms Carolan continued: "But occasionally we need to get out of the trenches and think strategically. And that is what this seminar is about."The meeting came the day after Chancellor George Osborne's "desperate budget for the desperately wealthy" and Ms Carolan noted: "The key problem in the economy is lack of demand - and one factor in that is the public-sector pay freeze."Our members know the true cost of pay cuts: they don't give up a luxury, they struggle to afford a necessity."As general secretary Dave Prentis noted, in local government, UNISON members are facing the third year of a pay freeze, and the second year in the NHS, at a time when inflation averaged 5%, food prices have been going up by 7% a year and energy prices by 15%."And the people on the lowest grades suffer most," he stated: "They spend more of their income on these necessities."And while pay is frozen, employers are attacking terms and conditions, while ministers talk about introducing regional or local pay - cutting the amount of money our members actually get."Our first priority has to be to stop the decreases in our members' pay," he declared."We have to be the ones to say: 'Enough is enough. We will stand in the way of this'."There is no hope, no vision, unless we provide it to our members," Mr Prentis told the gathering of activists and negotiators.UNISON needs to articulate members' concerns on pay, and turn them into action, said Ms Carolan, but also needs to decide whether desperate times need a new strategy.With that question in their minds, members taking part in the seminar broke into detailed discussions on outsourcing and procurement; attacks on terms and conditions; negotiating with private and voluntary sector employers; and maintaining bargaining strength.The discussions will continue tomorrow, when a final session will also look at the strategic conclusions that can be drawn from the union's shared experience.