04.04.1996

Labour and Tory onslaught: Council workers under attack

Plans by Tory-controlled Brent council to press ahead with the de-recognition of Unison need to be answered loud and clear

Members of Unison, Britain’s biggest trade union, have given a firm rebuff to Brent’s plans to rob them of their union rights. After a council committee voted without discussion to put their scheme to the full council - despite noisy opposition from Brent union members and supporters - a membership meeting the following day voted to organise a massive protest march and rally outside the town hall to force the council to back down.

The Tories intend to launch even more vicious attacks on council workers in order to push through deeper spending cuts. The axing of services has not only meant that the most vulnerable sections of the working class have been hardest hit, but jobs have gone and terms and conditions of the workforce have been undermined. This has now reached the stage where national agreements must be swept aside and the union must be broken.

Using the excuse that they can no longer deal with an individual ‘trouble making’ Unison official, the Tories gave the nod to the anti-union move at last Monday’s meeting of the council’s policy and resources committee, despite the fighting mood of the 200- strong lobby. About 100 noisy and determined protesters crammed into the council chamber, but the committee chairman refused the request by Paul Daisley, leader of the Labour group, to bring forward the de-recognition vote, and most union members had drifted away by the time the item went through. It will now go to the full council on April 22 - to be met by an even bigger Unison demonstration.

Union members in the chamber did however have the chance to observe how the entire business of the committee is dominated by the question of how best to cut back. The Labour ‘opposition’ consists largely in querying the monitoring of the cuts and unsuccessfully attempting to get council officers to admit that services are declining and statutory minimum standards may be breached.

At the earlier rally, however, it was a different story. Labour deputy spokesperson Richard Harrod referred to the chairman of the council’s personnel subcommittee, Sean O’Sullivan, as a “Tory scum” and the Conservatives as “evil people - murderers of Brent”.

This impression of the Labour Party as staunch defenders of the working class was reinforced by the SWP-led chants of “Defend our union: kick the Tories out”. However, Brent Unison branch secretary Brian Butterworth, himself an SWP member, reminded the rally: “It is not only the Tories who attack workers. Some Labour councils can be bad too.”

He was referring to Camden, whose Unison representative, Mandy Berger, told how the Labour council there planned to sack 4,000 members in order to impose worse pay, terms and conditions. The workers have given their answer there too - by voting for strike action, despite attempts by the regional Unison official to call the action off. Mandy said: “If the union leaders are willing to go with us - fine. If not, we will go it alone.”

Unison reps from Barnet, Hounslow and Lambeth were among those bringing messages of solidarity, and the rally heard how O’Sullivan had just lost his job in Lewisham after Unison workers there refused to work with him.

Speakers from other disputes, including Hillingdon hospital, addressed the demonstration and added to the enthusiastic atmosphere before the council committee meeting.

Such enthusiasm can, however, easily be dissipated by council delaying tactics or through relying in any way on Labour councillors to help prevent these attacks. Camden shows only too clearly that Labour is just as likely to hammer its workers. The significance of Brent is that it opens up a new line of attack - a precedent for others to follow.

The way to avoid demoralisation is not by sowing illusions that it is just the wicked, mad Tories of Brent who could think of hitting union rights. Labour and Tory councils alike are attacking workers throughout the country and a common front of all those under attack needs to be made. Workers will fight if they see a road to victory - and that will not come through placing any hope in Labour.

Peter Manson