Branch delegates represent UNISON at STUC
21st - 23rd April 2008
Bob Revie, Branch Secretary and Kate Ramsden, Branch Chair were
nominated by the branch and elected by UNISON's Scottish Council
as delegates to this year's STUC held in Inverness.
Bob and Kate both played an active role at the STUC speaking on
motions on behalf of UNISON Scotland. Reports are below. In her
role as member of the Communications and Campaigns Committee, Kate
also reported on the participation of UNISON delegates for the UNISON
Scotland website and Scotland
in UNISON, the newpaper for activists in Scotland.
PFI costing £2 billion more than public funding
Congress will press the Scottish Government to use the Scotland
Act to end PFI and to review existing contracts. It also called
on the government to award grants for capital projects on the basis
of a level playing field, regardless of how they will be funded,
and to give health boards prudential borrowing powers.
 UNISON
Scotland's Bob Revie told congress of UNISON's work on the true
cost of PFI detailed in the report, At What Cost? which shows that
PFI contracts could be costing around £2.1 billion more than conventional
funding of new schools and hospitals. "UNISON Scotland's analysis
of 35 PFI schemes showed that public sector comparators were on
average 6.4% cheaper. This means that for these 35 schemes alone
£720 million is being wasted - nearly enough to pay the whole PFI
bill for Wishaw General Hospital," said Bob. "On top of that an
incredible £3.5 billion "insurance" policy is paid to the private
sector to cover the risk of things going wrong with the contract."
On a brighter note, STUC General Secretary Grahame Smith welcomed
the announcement by the First Minister Alex Salmond that the new
Southern Hospital in Glasgow will be entirely publicly funded at
a cost of £842 million. Grahame said, "This announcement by the
First Minister is a clear endorsement of the STUC's view that PFI
and other finance models for public sector projects are flawed.
We have consistently argued for public funding for projects such
as the Southern Hospitals to provide value for money for Scotland.
We are delighted that the Government have now reached the same conclusion."
But he warned, "whilst welcoming this announcement we hope, expect
and will continue to campaign for this form of funding for public
sector projects to become the norm."
Bob Revie expressed UNISON's disappointment that despite their
manifesto commitment to get rid of PFI the SNP government had set
up the Scottish Futures Trust, which has been slammed as "PFI Lite!"
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Human rights of every child must be respected
The rights of all children must be respected and they must be protected
from child labour, prostitution and exploitation, demanded the STUC
Congress in a call for effective legislation and support for trade
unions campaigning for these rights.
Supporting a motion from a teaching union and the STUC Black Members,
UNISON's Kate Ramsden called on the General Council to bring together
all interested parties in Scotland to co-ordinate a campaign for
the proper protection from abuse and exploitation for all children
in this country.
 Quoting
Gordon Brown's speech earlier, Kate said, "The Prime Minister today
quoted Martin Luther King as saying the American Constitution was
a promissory note to black Americans. Well, the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child is a promissory note to all our children.
"
"Pressure must be brought to bear on the UK Government to lift
its reservation on Article 22 of the UN Convention to ensure that
all the rights in the convention can apply equally to refugee and
asylum seeker children, including those trafficked."
For some time now, UNISON had been campaigning on the principle
that our progressive child care legislation, which states that the
welfare of the child is paramount, should apply to all children,
regardless of their immigration status.
"This has been accepted by the Scottish Government and we now need
to campaign to ensure that it informs the action taken by the immigration
authorities to support and protect displaced children", argued Kate.
The Home Office itself had admitted that many unaccompanied asylum
seeker children will have been trafficked into this country and
face abuse and exploitation. "It is surely one of the greatest disgraces
of our modern society that the cruel and inhumane exploitation of
women and children through trafficking is allowed to go on", said
Kate.
Even when these children come to the attention of the authorities
and are placed in care they remain vulnerable. "Government figures
show that 183 out of 330 suspected child trafficking victims went
missing form care in an 18 month period" explained Kate.
Trafficked children will have experienced abuse, including both
sexual and physical abuse, and are vulnerable to further exploitation.
Kate added, "It is a national disgrace that the UK government continues
to prioritise immigration concerns over child protection and UNISON
has been campaigning for some time now for the reservation to be
lifted and for the welfare principle to apply to all children."
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Resources needed to reduce class sizes
The STUC Congress backed teaching unions' call for the resources
to make reducing class sizes a reality.
Smaller classes "can play a significant part in improving pupil
motivation and pupil behaviour, as well as attainment", said the
motion, as it called for the Scottish Government commitments to
be backed by the funds.
And UNISON's Bob Revie reminded delegates that the whole education
team needed to be taken into account, not just teaching staff. "The
resources needed to reduce class sizes have implications for technicians,
classroom assistants, auxiliaries and other school staff. Increases
in resources have to cover all these groups as well", warned Bob.
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