As election looms can we remember how bad it was before?

As the run-up to a General Election approaches, the temptation might be to say ‘a plague on all their houses’ but the risks for public service workers are too great to just stand on the sidelines. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/siu/oct09/10.html 

Scotland in UNISON has focussed on pensions recently for the simple reason that Tory leaders have been explicit that final salary schemes will go. So there’s at least one reason why public service workers should start thinking about the election. 

Make dual political strategy work for us

Come the elections, we have to face some very hard facts. And one of them is that, without dramatic action, the Tories seem on course to gain power with all that would mean for the destruction of public services, pensions and just about everything else – along with an NHS even more privatised than the worst of any of the current plans. http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-can-unisons-political-fund-be-more_13.html

Practical strategies to defend and invest in public services to bring us out of recession

UNISON Conference 2009: It was a Conference that took itself seriously. Most of the time.  

Detailed and practical strategies to defend public services and invest in them to lift us out of the recession took centre stage.

An inspiring call to take the movement forward from American trade unionist Tom Woodruff enthused Conference as we went on to launch a programme for action around ‘a million voices for change’.

MayDay Address: Night for Gaza – Newtongrange Miners Club 1 May 2009

National Mining Museum Newtongrange

From medieval times, Mayday was a big celebration in Britain – not for the unions at the time, mind you – more a pagan festival, that got more and more rowdy. http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/news/2009/0105.html  

So rowdy that the Government stopped celebrations in 1708 after writer Ned Ward wrote that he was shocked to find comedy booths and prostitutes doing ‘good business’.

Perhaps then, it was no coincidence that the 2002 London Mayday rally fell apart in disarray after a surprise demo by 300 sex workers.

Asylum and Human Trafficking

STUC 2009: Along with a range of organisations we have been campaigning for several years for all children in Scotland to have the same rights and protection under the Children Scotland Act.

That glowing beacon of legislation makes the interests of all children paramount. It doesn’t differentiate between those with a passport and those without one. It was meant to protect all children.

But, as the Glasgow Girls showed us, the reality was that displaced children were second class children and their welfare was regularly undermined.