Motions AGM 2013
MOTION 1
End the growing inequality and fight for a fairer society
This AGM is deeply concerned about the growing inequality in this society as a result of this government’s economic and social policies. Under the guise of dealing with the deficit, the government has, in fact, presided over a mass transfer of wealth from the majority into the hands of a small super-rich elite.
Save The Children calculates that currently in Britain 1.6 million children are living in what they describe as severe poverty.
Households mired in severe poverty are forced to make a choice between heating and eating on an income of £15,000 or less. The extent of child poverty in Britain is a badge of shame in the world’s seventh largest economy.
A the same time the rich have never had it so good. 2012’s Sunday Times Rich List confirmed that the 1,000 richest people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £155 billion over the past three years of the recession – enough to wipe out the entire deficit with around £30bn to spare.
Yet thanks to the government’s decision to reward those with an income of £1m a year or more with a £42,000 tax cut starting this spring, the rich can look forward to their wealth increasing still more. Meantime, cuts to welfare benefits will hit the poorest and most vulnerable and the cap on benefit increases will hit those in work hardest, further increasing in-work poverty.
This government has engaged in a concerted and determined propaganda campaign designed to demonise the unemployed, people on disability benefits, and public-sector workers as the main targets of its attacks with the objective of turning what was, and remains, an economic crisis caused by private greed into a crisis in public spending.
And as we predicted, the government’s austerity measures are not working. The deficit has grown.
Yet these messages are not getting out to our members and the public. Too many are still unaware of the impact of this government’s policies on the poor and the vulnerable and have been taken in by this government’s propaganda that it needs to cut public services and welfare benefits to reduce the deficit. Too many still believe we are all in this together, despite the fact that only the super-rich are benefitting from the government’s policies. And many more are just keeping their heads down and hoping that they will be okay.
This AGM welcomes UNISON’s campaigns at Scottish and UK level against the cuts but believes that the union needs to do more to get the messages out there and to combat the government’s policy of divide and rule amongst ordinary working folk.
It calls on the branch to take a motion to Annual Delegate conference calling the NEC to work with the regions and branches to:
1. Step up UNISON’s campaign against public service cuts and cuts to welfare benefits and to get the key messages out to members and the public that the austerity measures are not working; are damaging the economy; and have created the greatest inequality we have seen for generations.
2. Provide campaigning tools to show our members and the public the real impact of this government’s policies, and how it has presided over a mass transfer of wealth from the majority to the super rich.
3. Work with the TUC and the STUC to promote the alternatives to this government’s disastrous economic strategy, including fair taxation which ensures the wealthy and the banks pay their share; investing in growth; and a living wage.
4. Continue to support branches to build alliances locally with other UNISON branches, trade unions and community groups to get out the key messages; to oppose the cuts; and to lobby politicians about the impact of the cuts and for their support to oppose cuts to welfare benefits and public services.
5. Work through Labour link to promote and maintain a political strategy against the cuts.
Branch Committee
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MOTION 2
Living Wage
This AGM welcomes Aberdeenshire Council’s decision to implement the Living Wage at £7.20 per hour, backdated to April 2012, and their commitment to uprate this in April 2013. This will provide a welcome boost for our lowest paid members and will also benefit local economies by putting some extra spending money into the pockets of these workers.
This decision brings Aberdeenshire in line with most other Scottish Local Authorities, though they still lag behind some, like Edinburgh, who now pay the living wage at £7.50 per hour as of Jan 2013.
However, it is UNISON policy also to seek the Living Wage for all employees who work for private and voluntary sector employers from whom the council commissions services. There are serious concerns that in tendering for contracts, these employers depend on paying minimum wages to their workers in order to keep costs down. This AGM believes that Aberdeenshire Council should not be colluding with such a race to the bottom.
This AGM calls on the branch to:-
1. Continue to use the negotiating and bargaining machinery within the council to press for payment of the Living Wage to be a requirement for any employer tendering for council services.
2. Campaign through all means available to us, for all public and private sector employers commissioned by the council to pay their staff the Living Wage.
Branch Committee
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MOTION 3
Recruit and organise to challenge myths and defend jobs and services
This AGM notes UNISON Scotland’s strategy to build towards co-ordinating any industrial action that arises across services and employers to achieve maximum impact.
However before workers find the confidence to take action on issues like pay and cuts, they need to believe that there is an alternative to the damaging austerity measures of Westminster and Holyrood.
Recent surveys show that our member’s immediate concerns are job security, living standards and workloads. Union campaigning needs to reflect these concerns, link them to attacking the myths about public spending and austerity and getting that message out to members, their families and the wider public.
For example UNISON warned that cuts would bring a double dip recession and it was right. It warned that job cuts in the public sector would damage local economies and would not create growth and it has been proven right.
Aberdeenshire UNISON need to underline those messages as well as the fact that the country is not broke, it is just that the money has polarised with the gap between rich and poor widening. Aberdeenshire UNISON needs to continue working with service users, and local communities to prevent further cuts and to highlight the need to have locally accountable, effective public services being delivered to all Aberdeenshire’s residents.
UNISON therefore needs to redouble its efforts in campaigning, along the lines of the STUC’s ‘There is a Better Way’ message. It also needs to recognise that recruitment is an essential part of the campaign if any action is to deliver the desired effect.
This Branch therefore resolves:-
1. To make recruiting new members its first priority and to commit resources to a rolling programme of recruitment initiatives
2. To issue regular briefings and organise stewards and membership events to challenge the myths about austerity to build the confidence to mount an effectivedefence of pay, conditions and services.
3. To urge similar measures at Scottish and UK levels in the union.
Proposer: Kate Ramsden
Seconder: Steve Gray
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