‘The work you do saves and transforms lives’

Labour shadow education secretary and UNISON member Angela Rayner outlined a number of key public sector aims of a future Labour government, in a rousing speech in Brighton today. These would include introducing a “genuine” pay bargaining body for all education staff, bringing back the NHS bursaries for nurses and restoring the Union Learning Fund to pre-Tory government levels. “The Tories will always thank you for the work you do,” she told delegates. “But Labour will always pay you for the job you do.” Remembering her days as a UNISON activist, Ms Rayner joked that in her first national delegates’ conference, “I thought a standing order is what I had waiting for me at the bar.” But she added that she was proud to be attending this conference in  the union’s 25th anniversary year. “The values of the union when it was founded remain as relevant today as at any time in our history,” she said. “Unity is strength. United we stand, because divided we fall.” She then praised Wigan members who are striking against outsourcing and to remain within the NHS, and UNISON’s Supreme Court victory against employment tribunal fees, last year, which she called “a famous, landmark victory for UNISON members and all workers.” The Ashton-under-Lyne MP said that public service workers remained “at the sharp end” of Tory cuts. She then quoted John F Kennedy, when he once recalled meeting a janitor at NASA. When the US president asked the janitor what...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article 2018 National Delegate Conference education labour link Labour Party NDC 2018 Source Type: news