Birmingham says "no to austerity"

Yesterday UNISON we were out and about in Birmingham city centre taking our anti-austerity campaign to Brummies.

Over 400 people signed our postcards lobbying their local MP for an end to austerity. And we also got 8 people who joined UNISON on the day.

Day by day more and more people are saying they've had enough of austerity.

Staffordshire County Council row over a £2bn conflict of interest

A row has erupted at Staffordshire County Council where a council officer involved in drawing up plans for the privatisation of school support services has quit his job to work for one of the companies bidding to win the contract.

The Staffordshire Sentinal today reported that Phil Cresswell, council's transformation delivery manager, was leading the plans to privatise school support services and staff – including cleaners, cooks and grounds staff – to a profit-making private firm. But in September Mr Cresswell quit the council to work as business development director at the local government wing of Carillion, who it has now been revealed are one of the bidders for the contract worth £2bn.

Staffordshire UNISON are running a high profile campaign called "The Knot Unties" against this privatisation and we will be making sure that this conflict of interest is brought to the attention of everyone in Staffordshire.

UNISON anti-austerity campaign hits Solihull

Today UNISON (West Midlands) took our anti austerity campaign to Solihull. Like the people of Cannock, the people of Solihull are keen to sign up our campaign to fight the government's failed austerity measures.

UPDATE: over 350 people signed our anti austerity postcards and we even had one person join UNISON.

Campaigning in Cannock Chase

Despite the rain, 10 regional office staff turned up in Cannock today to campaign for decent public service,s as a follow on from the 20 October Future That Works march in London.

The people of Cannock Chase are keen to sign our petition against Staffordshire County Council's proposed privatisation of education support services.

UPDATE: over 500 people signed up to our campaign!

Campaigning for a Future That Works in the West Midlands

After the huge success of the TUC Future that Works march in London on Saturday 20 October, UNISON (West Midlands) will be taking the campaign right into the West Midlands region.

On Monday 22 October we will be running a street stall all day in Cannock Chase town centre asking members of the public to sign up to our campaign for an alternative to the failed austerity measures. 

We hope that the local Tory MP Aidan Burley (he's the one who thought the Olympic opening ceremony was "multi-cultural crap") will get the message that the people of Cannock Chase want his government to change course.

On Tuesday 23 October, we will be in Solihull and we will put pressure on Lib Dem MP Lorely Burt to get Nick Clegg to revisit his view before the election, when he said ""we think that merrily slashing... is an act of economic masochism." Well, you were right about one thing Nick!

And finally, on Wednesday 24 October we will be bringing the campaign to the heart of the region in Birmingham City Centre.

Watch this space for updates on how we get on.

West Midlands UNISON hits London to ask for "A Future that Works"

Thousands of UNISON members from the West Midlands came to London on Saturday for the TUC march for A Future That Works.

Over 150,000 people took part in the rally and sent a strong message to the government that austerity is not working.

After marching through the centre of London people descended upon Hyde Park for the rally.

The rally was packed with marchers from trade unions, political parties, community groups and members of the public who wanted to stand up for public services and and alternative to the government's failed austerity measures.

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: 

"This has been a tremendous day. A day when hundreds of thousands of us spoke with one voice in Belfast, Glasgow and London and told this vicious Tory government that we demand a different future than the one they have planned for us.

We demand a future that works . "Today is just the start of our campaign: health workers, council workers, education workers, police staff, workers in the voluntary and community sector and many more ... all standing up for public services.

I want to thank UNISON members from across the UK who took time out to speak out against austerity and to make these marches in London, Glasgow and Belfast such a success."

What next?

Watch this space for the follow up events that the West Midlands region are arranging.