Pass the banner and make it shine more brightly

At this year's UNISON Conference, retiring General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe gave a special interview to SiU editor John Stevenson. In it, one of the most significant union leaders in the last 35 years, shares his analysis of the past and his vision of the future.

We stand on giants' shoulders, said Rodney Bickerstaffe as he spoke of how the trade union movement had got to where it stands today.

Big bad UNISON - we must be getting it right!

UNISON is a big bad thing if press reports, councillors comments and even other unions are to be believed. http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/un/unsep98.html 

We are accused of being locked in the past with quaint ideas like protecting jobs and conditions, fighting for publicly funded and accountable public services and trying to save the taxpayer from the £billions wasted on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and privatisation.

The Schools Private Finance Illusion

Would you pay a mortgage for 30 years, and then let the bank keep your house? Opinion piece Evening News 7 July 2008 http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/pfi.html 

That, astonishingly, is what the public private partnership (PPP) for Edinburgh's schools will really mean. PPP and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is not new money, it replaces public funding, it costs more and it takes away our say over our service.