‘We need our union to be stronger than ever’ Dave Prentis tells NEC

As the health crisis turns into an economic crisis, UNISON needs to be stronger and more united than ever, so it can be in a better position to look after all its members, general secretary Dave Prentis told the union’s NEC on Thursday. Mr Prentis told the online meeting: “The economic outlook is grim. My meetings with other general secretaries is a salutary reminder of the huge scale of job losses already happening in retail, aviation, hospitality and manufacturing. “We are already seeing the effects. In many councils, in the charity sector, across higher education, we are seeing redundancies, cuts, changes to terms and conditions.” He continued: “We have to make it clear from the outset that we won’t be the ones to carry the can again for an economic crisis. “That’s why pay will be so important for those who risked their lives to protect us during this pandemic. “And that’s why I condemned the divisive and distracting announcement on pay this week. It is a smokescreen and sinister, as it masked the holding down of pay for our people, with its increases for teachers but not teaching assistants, for the police but not for police staff.” Still the UK’s biggest union – and growing Mr Prentis also told the meeting that, for the third year running, UNISON was the UK’s biggest trade union and that there had been a huge increase in new members joining recently. “This year, 114,183 new members have joined us. We have a clear strategy for gro...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News austerity Covid-19 dave prentis general secretary election NEC Source Type: news