Unite, Britain’s leading union, has thrown its weight behind the campaign to fightback against the ruination of our public services.

Delegates at the 2023 TUC congress have overwhelmingly backed a motion calling for fair funding in public services.

Unite members across London NHS Trusts and 23 councils and local authority bodies in England and Wales are embarking on a campaign of industrial action.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Over a decade of cuts and mismanagement has left our public services in ruin. Until the fundamental causes of low pay and impossible working conditions are resolved, the problem is only going get worse.

“That’s why Unite members working in the NHS and across local government are taking strike action. They have Unite’s full support.”

Unite members across four London NHS trusts are preparing to strike in the week ahead. The striking workers are employed at Barts Health NHS Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust, East London Foundation Trust and Guys and St Thomas’.

The workers are confronting the everyday crisis in our health service – where under funding and low pay have caused dangerous staff shortages.

Unite’s latest survey of over 3,000 NHS workers has revealed how 48 per cent face staffing levels regularly reaching the point where “patient care is compromised.”

When these NHS workers take to their picket lines, they will be joining the ongoing strike action across local authorities from Tyneside to South Wales, 23 councils and local authority bodies in England and Wales to take strike action over pay.

They will in turn be joined by the coordinated action of workers across 11 Scottish councils later this month.

Unite member, Bridie McCreesh, speaking on behalf of Unite said: “For well over a decade now our speeches from this rostrum have charted the ruination of our public services. First, we warned of the lethal impact of austerity.

“Then we fought back as successive Conservative governments took the knife to every vital organ of the public sector. Now we fight to repair the ruins.”

ENDS

Contact: Ciaran Naidoo 07768 931 315