UNISON QUARRIERS BRANCH

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Message from the Branch Secretary:

2011 was undoubtedly the hardest year for our members ever. We faced a situation where our employer wished to cut our wages by up to 37%. Our members were faced with hard choices but the fight that came out of this was fantastic. In the end no-one gained a victory as members voted democratically to accept cuts up to 17%. Lessons were learned from that period and we will take this forward.

2012 will be another tough year as the UK Government continues it's austerity (CUTS) measures. The Scottish Government has also been cutting and it looks as if these will continue. Whilst everyone welcomes a freeze in Council Tax what people do not realise is that with rising costs Local Authorities have no choice but to look for cuts of their own and as we have seen the procurement (tendering) process has been used to drive down costs. This year our aim is to continue our fight against cuts and we will be examining this procurement legislation and campaigning to change it so wages will be paid at a comparable rate to Local Authorities.

Last year our Branch was at the forefront of campaigning in UNISON and at the Scottish Parliament. We did tremendously well and using that campaigning focus will benefit us as we take forward our Procurement campaign.

UNISON has shown that by members uniting we can be effective and can bring change. This will be very important this year. I wish everyone a very prosperous New Year.

Stephen Brown

Branch Secretary.

 

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