their position on Civil Service redundancies.
Candidates that are unwilling to support the PCS stance, should be exposed to the electorate as supporting the destruction of public services. PCS activists should be encouraging support for RESPECT and some principled Labour MPs that do fully support the Union's campaigns.
Civil Servants are under no illusion they are facing a difficult struggle.
However on November 5 the strike was tremendously supported and the PCS became a national Union. A giant was woken and the pygmies in Government better start running. Fred Leplat UNISON members will be voting early next year to elect their General Secretary, a ballot that will coincide with the run-up to the general election. Jon Rogers, currently on the union's NEC, will be the candidate for the United Left. Jon is also a supporter of Labour Briefing and a Labour Party member.
The left in the union will, in the election, take up the record of the New Labour government and whether the current General Secretary, Dave Prentis, has been able to use the union's link with New Labour to defend public services and members' jobs. UNISON has supported too many policies which have made privatisation more palatable, such as Best Value, Arms Length Management Organisations and even the agreement putting a halt to a Two-Tier workforce.
UNISON has gone along with the government's discourse of modernisation and partnership, thereby allowing the government to set the agenda, rather than campaigning with the membership for the union's own agenda.
The recent agreements, such as Agenda for Change in the NHS and Remodelling the School Workforce for nonteaching staff, although benefiting many staff, do not provide adequate protection for those that will lose out with increased workloads or even cuts in pay.
UNISON has acclaimed the agreements reached at the Labour party policy forum in Warwick in July and reaffirmed at the Party conference in October.
A close look at the agreement reveals that the measures are very modest, such as increasing protection from dis12 weeks, and do little to protect services and members against privatisation.
Despite promises to make the Link with Labour work for UNISON members, and Dave Prentis even saying that he is "not New Labour and will not keep his gob shut", UNISON has failed to take the union's policies with any vigour into the Labour Party.
The latest climb-down was carried out by the union's delegation to the Labour Party conference who endorsed the NEC statement on Iraq.
This expressed support for the occupation while the union's policy, unanimously agreed at this year's conference, is for a rapid withdrawal of troops like that carried out by the Spanish government. Immediately after this shameful event, Jon Rogers along with other NEC members, coning to abide by the clear policy of the union and called on the its NEC to campaign for that policy alongside the Stop the War Coalition.
Although still the largest union in Britain with over 1,2 million members, UNISON faces a long term decline with a drop in participation of members and an average age of the membership at 48.
UNISON needs to embark on a different strategy to that of partnership in order to rebuild itself and recruit among young workers.
Unions who have taken a militant and determined stand to defend services and jobs, like the PCS and RMT, have been rewarded by a significant rise in recruitment.
The election for UNISON's General Secretary will be an opportunity for a debate about the future of the union and how Prentis: soft on New Labour to fight on key issues facing members such as pensions, privatisation and low pay.
Jon Rogers told Socialist
"UNISON has been too soft on New Labour and is not delivering its potential as a union. UNISON should not be quiet during the run-up to the general
"On the contrary, it is only when we "reck the boat" that we get anything from Labour." • Jon Rogers for General Secretary of UNISON Campaign, c/o 34 Pioneer House, Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JH.
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irst steps towards consolidating as a real party