Trade unions launch public sector improvement campaign against Scottish Government cuts and closures
Scotland’s largest trade union body has launched their campaign on the future of Scotland’s public services, as the STUC establishes their ‘Workers’ Inquiry: Public Services for the People of Scotland’ campaign.
The campaign, which will canvass and collate the views of public and private sector workers across Scotland, seeks to develop a set of worker-led demands for public service improvements as an alternative to the Scottish Government’s proposals.
The STUC has warned that the Scottish Government’s reform agenda could see “reckless” changes to the way public services are delivered, including the proposed abolition or restructuring of health boards and local authorities and, according to trade union analysis, the potential loss of up to 20,000 public sector jobs.
The Workers’ Inquiry will form the basis of public service improvements that invests in services, values the workers who deliver them and improves outcomes for communities – without using what trade unions have labelled as “barbarous programme of public sector cuts”.
Developed by the STUC and public sector trade unions, the consultation will close on 30th November, with the findings used to develop trade union demands and recommendations for the Scottish Government throughout the campaign.
The STUC is calling on the Scottish Government to engage meaningfully with the Workers’ Inquiry and to put worker experience and the needs of communities at the heart of its approach to public service reform.
The launch comes on day one of the SNP Conference in Aberdeen.
Commenting, STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “We have been clear that trade unions will not allow 20,000 jobs to be thrown on the scrapheap in a barbarous programme of public sector cuts.
“The Workers’ Inquiry is our alternative.
“We are reaching out to workplaces and communities across Scotland to ask the people who deliver our public services every day what needs to change, what works and what doesn’t and what a better future for our public services should look like.
“We want to build a worker-led vision for public service improvements – one that values, not cuts, the people who deliver our services, strengthens provision and builds world-class public services for everyone in Scotland.
“The Scottish Government has said that trade unions must have a meaningful role in shaping its reform agenda. We intend to hold them to that commitment. If ministers are serious about improving public services, they should welcome this consultation and publicly commit to encouraging workers, employers and public sector agencies to take part in the campaign.
“We do not accept that the only way to reform public services is through job losses, cuts and closures. Investment, proper planning and using the experience of Scotland’s public service workers offer a better way forward.
“The clock is ticking. As SNP Conference gets underway in Aberdeen, trade unionists are mobilising across Scotland to show the party of government that investment, not cuts, is the way to build public services we can all be proud of.”
