No one working within Public Services needs me to tell them that we are facing a difficult and uncertain future. The facts are all around, staring us in the face.
Vicious spending cuts. Pension reform. Creeping privatisation.Outsourcing. Health & Social Care Bill.
Within the London Ambulance Service we can add to that list the idea of A&E Support Staff being put on front-line ambulances with a paramedic, and we can all see where the Coalition Government is seeking to make the Public Sector (and the public) pay for their financial crisis.
At a time when UNISON and staff have been urging a re-evaluation of the role of A&E Support so that their skills and knowledge can be properly rewarded, what do we get: an Ambulance Service on the cheap by exploitation on the one hand, and down-grading and de-skilling front line ambulances on the other.
It is not just the union that has to resist those things that we know will damage our Service. It is not just the union that has to argue against changes that are proposed solely to down-grade and de-skill staff.
All staff have a responsibility to also resist and argue against damaging changes. Management sometimes justify these things by stating that staff had asked for it, or volunteered for it, or even suggested it in the first place.
UNISON is not against change. We welcome it. We have been at the forefront of good change within London Ambulance and we are proud of it.
We support change for the better – not change for the worse.
It is difficult sometimes to see past the immediate problems that face us in our day to day work. It is easy (and justified in a lot of cases) to simply blame management, but, if we are to get through these difficult times we all have to have a much clearer political understanding of who the real enemy is.
We cannot simply wear our ‘blame management’ blinkers. If we do, we are doomed and the government will find it much easier to force through wider damaging change behind our backs.
London Ambulance management have not made the decision to withhold £53 million of funding from us over the next 5 years: The Coalition Government has.
London Ambulance management have not begun the process to sell off the National Health Service to the highest bidder: The Coalition Government has.
London Ambulance management have not tried to steal our pensions: The Coalition Government has.
The ideology of the Coalition is our enemy.
It is our job as a union to make sure that London Ambulance management make best use of the available funds, and use them in the interests of staff, patients and the future.
Bad managers making bad decisions do not help of course.
It is our job as a union to hold to account those managers who ride roughshod over staff and collective agreements. We do that at Staff Council, Partnership Forums and through our Senior Sector Representatives.
We are sometimes accused by other unions of ‘working too closely with management’. I do not understand the complaint!
We work within a Public Service. We are a Public Service Trade Union. We support and defend Public Services. We have a responsibility to work together where we can to improve the London Ambulance Service in the best interests of everybody, and we have a duty to make sure that the London Ambulance Service remains a Public Service.
If that means working when, and where we can, with management, then what is their complaint. There has always been an ethos of partnership working within the Health Service, unlike the private sector where the other unions are maybe more at home. The LAS is a public service – let us keep it that way.
But let me be very clear: UNISON works in partnership, not pockets. We are in the pocket of no one, be that management or other unions.
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It used to be said that the National Health Service was the third largest employer in the world. This was behind the Chinese Red Army and the Indian Railways.
How times change!
New research published on the BBC website recently show the shift between public/private in a fascinating way.
The NHS is now the fifth largest employer in the world (down two places pop-pickers!) with an estimated 1.7 million employees.
In fourth place with 1.9 million employees is McDonalds! There’s irony for you!
Third with 2.1 million employees is Walmart (who own ASDA).
The Red Army takes second spot with 2.3 million employees (although they do not count the civilians who work for them).
In top spot (wouldn’t you know) is the U.S. Department of Defence with 3.2 million employees (although they do count civilians!).
The Indian Railways are down in eighth spot with 1.4 million employees. They are just ahead of the Indian Armed Forces who employ 1.3 million people.
So the down side is that more people work for McDonalds than the NHS (worldwide of course) but the positive side is that more people work for the Indian Railways than work for the Indian Armed Forces. Tank Engines before Tanks!
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I learnt a new word last week! There was a report in the London Evening Standard about the Coalition Government scrapping the Trade Union Modernisation Fund (there’s a surprise) that was set up under Labour. This fund gave unions about £7 million from 2005 to help with various projects including new IT systems.
This is a waste of taxpayers money according to the many Tory members of parliament who lined up to give a quote to the newspaper.
One such MP was Dominic Raab who said “hard pressed taxpayers will be shocked to learn that Labour threw millions of pounds of their money to subsidise this union boondoggle”.
Boondoggle!
I had to look it up! It means ‘a scheme that wastes time and money’.
So next time your local manager approaches you with yet another barmy idea, you know what to say!
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Information of all issues can be found elsewhere on our website.
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We are stronger together.
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary.
