Demand for funding of public services

Last month’s Congress backed a call for investing fair funding in public services. Moving the motion, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said that 13 years of Tory austerity had left services reeling and had “fractured and smashed the economy”.

She said: “The longest NHS waiting lists in history, huge cuts to police forces and councils going bust.

“Care services are unable to deliver for patients, their families, or the workforce, but generate huge profits for offshore private equity trusts.

“Inmates are escaping overcrowded prisons and unsafe schools are crumbling.”

She said tax loopholes for oil and gas giants, booming corporate profits, and tax cuts for the wealthiest are driving inflation, not public sector pay increases.

The motion was seconded by the PCS public and commercial services union and supported by the CSP physiotherapists’, Unite general, Prospect and FDA civil service, RCM midwives’ and BDA dietitians’ unions.

It included a call for co-ordinated action between unions to give full support to public servants striking to fight back against cuts.

It also called on the TUC general council to campaign for Labour to commit to funding pay increases for public sector workers that at least match inflation, provide for pay restoration, and “to abandon its outdated economic policies” and adopt a policy of major investment in public services “to fix our broken Britain”.