Unison health workers accept cut in real wages

Health workers in Unison have decided to accept the current pay offer of a staged 2.5% deal by a margin of 2:1.

56,045 voted in favour, 25,453 against. This result is a massive disappointment for those hoping for action against a pay cut. The immediate effect will be that this vote will be used to pressurise Unison’s Local Government Service Group Eexecutive, meeting this afternoon, Thursday 13th, to overturn the decision to move to a ballot for industrial action on local government pay.

The Unison leadership is clearly working effectively across the sectors to limit any dissent. If the ballot in health had been held on the back of an open discussion, we might still have lost, but at least we would have won some confidence from the membership to fight on other issues, such as the continuing battle against privatisation.

Now the only winners are going to be Brown and the RCN (Royal College of Nursing, a quasi-union which competes with Unison to organise among nurses). RCN has a special conference on Saturday 15th to discuss action on pay. Now RCN leaders will denounce Unison for backing out of a fight. Since Amicus had already accepted the offer, RCN will abandon talk of action.

The ballot result, on a small turnout, was biased towards a yes vote by the literature sent out. Despite saying that it was not making a recommendation, the Unison health Service Group Executive allowed the most positive spin possible to be put on the deal. They did the same on pensions. It is now a recognised technique for getting through a deal without “officially” endorsing it. The GMB has adopted the tactic to get a yes vote on local government pay.

The left started to organise for a no vote early on, only to find that they were being threatened with disciplinary action for daring to challenge the leadership‚s position. It went beyond the usual threats to branches and committees to include individual members who could not but be involved in workplace discussion about pay. We must also remember this was all done against the backdrop of a clear policy from Unison Health conference mandating the union to move to industrial action if faced with a pay offer a below inflation.

Next up will be a battle against a three year two per cent deal which the leadership are eager for us to sign up to next April.

In the short term we can regain some momentum by focusing on the 3 November National Demonstration for the Health Service, and make it a rallying point not just for the NHS but also all workers sick of attacks. Unison have tried to weaken the bonds between workers and local campaigns. In the next few weeks we have a chance to rebuild that alliance.

Even if health workers are not to take industrial action themselves they can still be involved in the growing number of local public sector alliances. There will be action this winter. Through solidarity and support we can still help others to break the 2% limit now, making our task in health easier next year.