The Women’s Conference #stucwomen19 backed a public sector pay campaign, co-ordinated by the STUC Women’s Committee and the General Council, to push for pay restoration for public service workers.
Delegates heard of the impact of 9 years of austerity, not only on our members, but on the communities they live in and serve. With less money for workers to spend in shops and businesses, many have closed. With fewer harder pressed staff, services to our most vulnerable have worsened.
UNISON’s Davena Rankin brought the debate back to the here and now, as she highlighted the Higher Education pay ballot, due to close on 30th Oct. She called for conference to support them in their call for a decent pay rise.
“The 1.8% pay offer is well below inflation and will create further hardship for our members across Higher Education,” said Davena.
“It falls well short of our pay claim and does nothing to tackle either the gender pay gap or the ethnic pay gap, both of which are rife on campus.
“This year the four big campus unions: UNISON, EIS, UCU and UNITE are balloting along the same timeline to allow for joint industrial action at the end of November.”
Davena called on conference to show support for the campus trade unions and the picket lines in November.
STUC Women’s Conference 2019 Home
Reports by UNISON Scotland Communications and Campaigns Committee from Kate Ramsden in Perth.