03 Apr Labour has nothing to fear from trade unions, says UNISON leader
LABOUR should not be afraid of dealing with trade unions, according to the leader of UNISON.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Christine McAnea also said that unions want businesses to be successful.
She told Gloria De Piero: “I can see why some people might feel a bit nervous about that. But I think the tide has turned in this country and actually people see the value of trade unions.
“I would say to the Labour Party, don’t be afraid. There’s not a single union that I know who wants to do down business or the employers that they work with, because who wants that?
“Nobody wants the business that their members are in to fail. You want it to succeed.
“If only governments would realise that actually we are the ones who also want businesses and organisations and public services to succeed.
“And we will do what we can to make that happen because that’s what our members want. The people who are members of unions, whether you’re in the private sector working in, you know, a car factory or whether you’re working in a school, you want your school to be successful.
“You want the car factory to be successful. And trade unions have a part to play in that.”
Ms McAnea said that strikes will restart if public sector health workers reject the Government’s recent offer.
She said: “We are asking members in England to accept this. Now, it might not be what everyone wants, but we felt it was enough to actually go out and consult members on.
“We think there is enough here to go and say to the people who are members of UNISON, the cleaners, the nurses, the paramedics, the occupational therapists, and all the groups that we cover.
“But actually, it is their decision whether they accept it or not. So we’re out for consultation just now. We’ll have the result by the middle of April. If they accept it, that’s the deal that’s done. If they don’t accept it, then we’ve paused their strikes, so we would restart them.”
Commenting on the feelings of some that the offer isn’t enough she continued: “I can understand why people are unhappy, we had hoped for more but, you know, we are where we are. I also think there’s a lot of armchair warriors out there, people who like to tell those who actually did take strike action and who campaigned for this and who lost money when they took strike action.
“There’s a lot of people who like to sit and give them advice, saying just keep on taking the strike action and everything will be fine. Which is easy to do when you’re kind of a spectator on the side, but it’s different if you are actually the ones that came out on strike.
“Or you’re the ones who were campaigning even for strike action and making all the noise within your hospital trust or health trust. I think it’s for them to decide, quite frankly, rather than, you know, some of the other people who want to give them advice.”
On whether she felt optimistic the deal would be accepted she added: “It’s the senior group within our health team who take the decision whether to make a recommendation or not. And they took a decision that they can recommend acceptance because they feel there is enough in this offer to actually go out and say to members, you’ve got a clear choice. Now this is the offer from the Government.
“We’re recommending you accept it because we don’t think we can get any more through negotiations, but they could also reject it.”
