Little known fact #9

The Audit Commission estimates we will need 350,000 more care workers over the next 10 years to meet the needs of a growing elderly population

Posted via email from UNISON (East Midlands)

No arms company holdings in our pensions

John Sharman, Lincolnshire County UNISON branch secretary and a pension fund employee rep has been leading a campaign for the Lincolnshire County Council pension fund to divest itself of the £11m held in arms company shares.

The investments form part of the shares portfolio within Lincolnshire CC’s local government pension scheme, which also invests cash on behalf of local districts and parishes. John Sharman has urged the county to ditch all arms firms from their portfolio saying:

“I think we should be guided by ethical principals. We should have no investment in the arm’s trade.”

In recent times the pension fund has reduced the holdings in arms companies by £2m. Congratulations to John for this partial victory. We know we can rely on him to be persistently raise this issue until all of the arms company holdings have been divested.

Pay Matters

Last week the latest inflation figures showing retail price inflation rising to 3.7%, spelling misery for local government workers hit with a pay freeze.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"News that inflation is again on the up spells misery for local government workers. A pay freeze is a real pay cut for teaching assistants, care workers, refuse collectors and school caterers working for local councils. They are already among the lowest paid staff in the public sector, and they cannot take another pay hit.

It is time for the local government employers to get real and get into talks on pay. We know that in England alone, councils have £12.7 billion stashed away in reserves. The majority of councils are Tory run, and the decision to give staff a pay freeze is a political choice, not a financial necessity. They can afford to give workers a decent rise."

Robin Hood Tax Video

We've blogged before about the growing campaign for a Robin Hood Tax that would be levied on all speculative banking transactions.

Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy have produced an excellent campaign video that explains the concept very simply. Once you've seen the video you will wonder why it has not been introduced yet. This is a simple and effective way of raising money to protect vital public services and tackle climate change. And it gives the banking industry a chance to repay the debt it owes to the world for the recklessness that caused the global recession.

To support the campaign click here and sign up.

Little known fact #8

The right wing press and the Taxpayers' Alliance (aka the paramilitary wing of the Tory Party) would have you believe that taxation is a bad thing and that the average person gets little in return. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The average UK household gets benefits and public services worth more than £10,000 a year - which is more than they contribute in direct and indirect taxation.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - A Tale of (two very different) County Councils

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Councils have many things in common that are not just about geographical proximity.

Up until June 2009 both councils had been Labour run for a very long time and both then became Conservative controlled following the June elections. In Nottinghamshire they are proposing cuts of £28m to balance their budget, however, in Derbyshire they have identified they only need to make efficiency savings of £6.12m.

Obviously if job losses or service cuts happen this is not good. But in the scheme of things this is a modest amount given the size of the overall budget, and it is small compared to cuts being made by Notts County Council.

What a contrast!

We've said before the Notts do not need to make these cuts as we've identified for them over £28m of "easy money."

Unlike Notts, Derbyshire have not taken the irresponsible decision to freeze Council Tax, they are raising it by a modest 1.5%.

The council has estimated the General Fund Reserve (they can spend this on anything they want) to be £30m to £35m which is quite a high amount relative to the overall spend of the council. So they have "money in the bank" to protect services in future years.

Derbyshire have shown that there is at least one Conservative council in the region that is not reckless with its approach to protecting vital services. The worry is that Derbyshire are the exception rather than the rule, as we've reported previously about savage cuts being made by Tory run Leicestershire and Northamptonshire County Councils.

Will the approach at Derybshire change after the general election? Given what is going on in Tory councils around the country, sadly it probably will.

All together now

An interesting article on the UNISON Active website about how UNISON can, and should stand up for public services, both before and after the general election.

The article makes the case for UNISON campaigning both in the workplace and in the community, working alongside community groups in order to defend public services.

Well worth a read.

Bassetlaw branch victory on agency workers

Regular readers of this blog will know we've been campaigning to get councils to control what they are spending on agency workers and consultants as it is clear there is signifcant waste. If you've missed our campaign you can find out about it here, here and here.

Bassetlaw branch (who incidentally won the region's Branch of the Year award a few weeks ago) have been doggedly pursing this issue for 2 years.

There have been agency workers working at the council in both refuse and street cleaning. In some cases this was in excess of 5 years. For the past 2 years or so they have raised this subject at the council's negotiating forum and they have also written to councillors about it.

Following lengthy negotiations the branch are now able to report that 22 of the agency workers have been made permanent employees of the council from this month.

This is a win-win. The council will be saving money by not paying the agency and the workers will be getting proper rates of pay with access to holidays and sick pay.

Congratulations to the branch for being so persistent and not giving up.

Little known fact #7

There is a myth circualting in the mainstream media that public spending has to be cut because it is too large and is contributing to the economic problems of the country. Public spending did not cause this recession - greedy bankers did.

Investment in our public services is exactly the sort of thing we need to help us get out of the recession. And for those who believe we spend too much on public services, here's a little known fact

The UK spends less (21% of GDP) on public services and social security than France (29%), Germany (25%), Italy (27%) or Sweden (29%)

The solution to the recession without cutting public services

The TUC along with Tax Research UK, Tax Justice Network, Christian Aid and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development recently submitted a report to the IMF in response to its consultation on the future taxation of the finance sector.

The submission is available here. The document is 60 odd pages and rather technical, but it can be boiled down into quite a simple set of ideas.

The submission reminds the IMF that the bank and the financial services sector caused the current recession - and they can actually be the source of the additional revenue needed to tackle current problems in the economy.

The submission demands the creation of financial transaction taxes. Basically this means a small tax of say 0.05% is levied on all speculative banking transactions. This would raises hundreds of billions of pounds. You can read more about it on the Robin Hood Tax campaign website.

It's an ideal solution as the banks got us into this mess - and they can help get us out of it. And best of all it will ensure that much needed public services are properly funded.