Fred Leplat from spoke to JON ROGERS, National Executive member and Lambeth UNISON branch secretary who is the candidate of UNISON United Left in the current General Secretary election campaign SR: You are standing against Dave Prentis, the current General Secretary who says he is not a Blairite. So why has the United Left decided to stand against him? JR: Prentis isn't a Blairite, but his approach to New Labourthe approach of the "big four" General Secretaries as expressed in the Warwick accords - is wholly inadequate.
Warwick expressed the hope by the trade union bureaucracy that they can get something back for their continued backing of the Government. The other side of this coin was the way in which support for the war in Irag was engineered.
However, New Labour is a qualitatively new development and there is no route back to the sort of influence which the trade unions could exercise over past Labour Governments, even if such shabby deals could be justified (which they can't).
The United Left sees the need to develop independent organisation of the rank and file in order to hold our leadership and representatives to account.
This is the central purpose of our challenge in the General Secretary election. We need a perspective to build the influence and organisation of the socialist left in the Union over the next five or ten years. SR: Pension reform is an issue which concerns all public sector workers The new arrangements are due to start this April in Local Government. UNISON is now balloting its members for a day's strike in the week before the new scheme is due to come into force. Is this not leaving it bit late? What do you think should be done? JR: Better late than never! The proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales come in this year - in Scotland and in the Health Service it is next year.
The real Blairites at Mabledon Place (UNISON HQ) wanted to avoid strike action before the General Election, but the leadership don't have that option even if they wanted to take it, which I don't believe they do.
We should aim for the widest possible strike action on the earliest possible date, whilst preparing our members for the likelibood that further action will be required. We have to avoid defeatism if April 1 passes by and the first tranche of pen sion cuts come into force.
This is a war to defend our pensions against an attack by New Labour. It starts now and carries on beyond the General Election if necessary. SR: What other issues are facing UNISON members in the various services, and how has the current leadership responded? JR: I'll focus on just one issue. Across most services there is a growing crisis because of the slow pace towards equal pay for women workers.
This has been exacerbated following a UNISON-won legal precedent which increased the amount of back pay which workers can receive if they win legal claims under the Equal Pay Act.
This has opened the way for firms of "no win no fee" solicitors to try to clean up by taking some relatively simple equal pay claims, without worrying about trying to win a global solution for the whole workforce.
The employers and the Government should be made to pay for the implementation of equal pay on the basis of levelling up - not by redistributing income between different groups of low paid workers.
This would require an all out assault upon public service employers. Instead our officials have been trying to negotiate pay "modernisation" on the model of Single Status in Local Government, using job evaluation as a tool to justify pay cuts for some workers to fund equal pay for others.
The worst example of this approach was the agreement on remodelling the workforce in schools, agreed without properly involving the membership. The officials have been trying to avoid implementing a Conference decision overturning UNISON's support for this agreement.
The approach of our current leadership to Equal Pay Led by Dave Prentis, UNISON delegation to Labour Party Conference ditched the union's conference policy calling for a timescale for withdrawal of Troops from org
"I fully support
democratising the political fund. I don't think it is acceptable
that we are not
allowed to even consider supporting candidates who are
not in the Labour
Party. Even as a
Labour Party member, I think this
is undemocratic." VION
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