Campaign against the Cuts
updated 26th July 2011
Open letter to Kay Cutts - future impact of service cuts on council tax
"In it for the fight -Notts County and Nottm City on the March - 26 March 2011 London"
Strike message from Joint Branch Secretary and Branch Chair
Notts County Council Members on strike 24th February - includes letter to members and Q&A re Strike
UNISON calls on Council to reject cuts and protect 1,000 jobs (download 515kb)
Saturday 26th March National Demo in London (download 661k)
Council Members to be balloted on Strike Action to save jobs and services
Ballot now underway 27th Jan 11 Press Release 27th Jan 11
Lobby the Council Budget Meeting 24th February - County Hall (download pdf 329k)
Message to members from Joint Branch Secretary Martin Sleath JAN 2011
MEMBERS SHOULD RESPOND TO COUNCIL CONSULTATION TO SAVE JOBS AND SERVICES – THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO HELP OUR CAMPAIGN.........
Nottinghamshire UNISON is encouraging our 10,000 members to take part in the council’s own consultation on their plans to cut jobs and services. This will help as part of our wider campaign to stop the cuts and to stop massive hikes in fees charged to vulnerable service users.
The council public consultation runs only until 21 January 2011. Full details are at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/servicereviews <http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/servicereviews> You can use the web site to REJECT plans and provide alternative ways of saving money to protect services. We believe the reliance on using the web to gauge the views of voters is flawed – but we encourage all our members to take part to ensure a more balanced view is heard by Cllr Cutts, not just one-sided comments from the few.
Martin Sleath, UNISON Joint Branch Secretary says:
“UNISON continues to lead the fight against the council plans which will see thousands of jobs axed, cuts to vital services, and massive increases in fees to users of council-owned care homes and adult care centres. UNISON members are urged to take part in the consultation as they are local tax payers and service users too.”
UNISON members (and their families!) can further support our campaign by: ·
* Put 24 February in your diary and join the UNISON demo – the same day the council meet to set its budget for 2011. We wil be arranging coaches from across the county
* Lobby your own councillor now – tell them why you are against the plans. If you get any commitments from them then let us know!
* Making sure your membership details are up to date. Call us on 0115 9810405 to update your details
* Asking colleagues to join UNISON, and to appoint a contact for your workplace. Call us on 0115 9810405
* Making sure you use council services (such as libraries) on a regular basis, or help neighbours or your families to do so. This will save jobs and keep services open
* Tell UNISON where you think the council is still wasting money. We can use these savings to protect services and jobs.
* Tell your friend to join the national ‘Million Voices for public services campaign’ AGAINST government cuts (they don’t even need to be a UNISON member to do this) by going to www.unison.org.uk/million <http://www.unison.org.uk/million>
* Encourage all County Council workers to join Notts UNISON via the web at www.nottsunison.org.uk/applicationform <http://www.nottsunison.org.uk/applicationform> or by calling 0115 9810405
Open letter to Kay Cutts - an alternative to the cuts - pdf download 62k
UNISON pledges £20 million to fight savage cuts
Workplaces meetings arranged to discuss possible Industrial Action - the branch has arranged a widespread series of meetings over the next few weeks to gain members views on possible industrial action early in the New Year - full details
Letter to members re Industrial Action Indicative Ballot
Branch newsletter
- November 2010 - includes lobby report and branch officers/stewards elections nomination forms
Photos from the Council Lobby on 21st October
UNISON Press Release - Outrage at latest proposed cuts- Massive reductions to every area of the Council
21st Oct Council Lobby flyer - 'This isn't budget cutting it's a clearance sale'
Coaches to Lobby have now been arranged - full details and how to book your seat
Notts Save Our Services campaign launched to fight the public service cuts
Schools News - INCREASE IN TEACHING ASSISTANT WORKING HOURS AND AN END TO ALL YEAR ROUND PAY IN NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
Branch Workplace meetings re Budget cuts
There are various issues that we need your views on but most importantly over the next 6 weeks or so we need to discuss the proposed Council Budget cuts, staff redundancies and the massive cuts to our local services and how we will be campaigning against them. Please come along to one of the arranged workplace meetings and give us your views on the situation.
We will be building for a mass lobby of the Council meeting on 21st October at County Hall and will provide transport from those workplaces requiring it. The lobby on the 21st will be the day after the Government announce the general spending review and will be the perfect time to show the strength of feeling at the severity of both national and local proposals that will decimate our local communities unless we can show real opposition to them. These meetings are your opportunity to air your views and help build the campaign to defend our jobs and local services. Please do your best to attend. Workplace meeting details
National Campaign to Defeat Coalition Cuts
Schools redundancy notices going out soon - more info here
COUNTY COUNCIL CUTS – THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE!
If you listen to Tory Councillors and senior Council managers, you may well be thinking by now that there is no alternative to massive job losses and wholesale privatisation across the public sector. This is simply not true.
The cuts we face are a matter of choice not necessity and both the Government and Notts Councillors could make different choices if they wanted to.
Nationally, the Government has decided to continue to support the banks, without even insisting they adopt policies that benefit ordinary people. At the same time, they are intending to raise VAT, which affects poorer people rather than richer ones, instead of putting up Income Tax for those “earning” more than three times the national average wage of about £25,000 a year, people who can well afford to make a fairer contribution to the national economy. Then there’s the strange obsession with pouring (our) money down the drain in Afghanistan, where British soldiers kill and are killed for absolutely no visible benefit to anyone, least of all the Afghans. In addition, millions are to be wasted on new private (Academy) schools at public expense and billions on replacing Trident nuclear weapons, which will be of no use whatsoever against Al Qaida (or anyone else, for that matter).
Locally, the Thatcherite Councillors are determined to finish Notts off completely, having already wrecked our industry and closed our pits. Even though the County Council is the biggest employer by far and incredibly important to the local economy, thousands of jobs are planned to go and thousands more are at risk through privatisation and the attacks on pay and conditions that always brings. Even profitable and potentially profitable services are at risk. Why? Because this is about ideology, not money.
Since being elected in 2009, the Tories have pumped millions of pounds into Council reserves rather than into services and are refusing to raise Council Tax, even by an average of 50p a week: the services and facilities that will go as a result are worth far more than that to ordinary people, though perhaps not to rich – sometimes very rich – Councillors. And of course, the more people that are made redundant, the more is paid out in redundancy money, benefits and pensions – it’s just economic illiteracy.
Unison says to County Councillors: Don’t cut jobs and services.Work with us locally to improve efficiency and nationally on a campaign uniting ALL Councils – red, yellow and blue – against this Government’s spending priorities. We don’t want crocodile tears, we want action and some sign of a genuine commitment to local services and the public sector in general. If you can’t even show that, why on earth did you stand for election in the first place?
See UNISON's presentation on the June Budget
Previous articles on Redundancies and the cuts