Statement from Anne Speed, Head of Bargaining & Representation, UNISON calling for sustainable budgets in Health and Education.

23 June 2017

 

DETERMINED TO DEFEND SERVICES, PROTECT JOBS AND SECURE INVESTMENT

 

As UNISON prepares to gather with trade union members at work in Northern Ireland at a specially convened meeting on 

Saturday 24 June, Anne Speed, Head of Bargaining and Representation pledged full support for a call from the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for a united strategy and campaign to secure resources, achieve better pay and defend workers against more austerity.

 

Speaking to the UNISON delegation who are attending this meeting she said:

 

“We rely on politicians to make the right decisions and we rely on our own strength to influence these decisions and to ensure that promises made are delivered.

 

On behalf of UNION members in Education Support Services, we applaud and wholeheartedly support those school principals who have declared they will resist pressure to implement cuts across school services.  Despite the very recent warning from the Department of Education that schools won‘t be allowed to overspend and that educational schemes for disadvantaged children are likely to be cut, UNISON members stand ready to join with our teaching colleagues to resist the imposition of  more austerity on the school community .

 

UNISON members in Health are demanding they are paid what they are owed, having fallen behind other NHS workers on pay, and are determined to challenge and lift the 1% pay cap imposed by the Tory Westminster Government. This cap has forced staff out of jobs they love.  Those who stay are overstretched and under pressure to do ever more with less. It is having a profound and detrimental effect on the ability of existing staff to deliver standards of care for people where our health service is struggling with staff shortages. They want guaranteed safe staffing levels across all services and the real term loss of earning addressed.

 

We are sending a message to politicians that our NHS across the UK, and especially here in Northern Ireland, now in its seventieth year, should be protected and supported with adequate and sustainable funding”.

 

Ends 

 

For further information, please contact:    Anne Speed on 07904 427 133 or UNISON on 028 9027 0190