Solidarity member Brian Smith has been elected branch secretary of Glasgow City UNISON.  

Brian polled 990 votes and this significant victory underlines the base of support that Brian and the left in Unison in Glasgow have built as a result of battles over Single Status and the recent pay dispute.  Glasgow UNISON is the biggest UNISON branch in Scotland with around 14,000 members.

Below is Brian's statement that went out to all UNISON members in Glasgow.

Brian Smith for Unison Branch Secretary - For a Fighting Democratic Unison 

I am currently the secretary of the largest Glasgow sub-branch and a member of the Branch Committee. We have achieved some successes in recent years including winning higher role profiles for several large groups of workers and the improvement in the Council wide Non-Standard Working Patterns Payments. We won these improvements by building up of the confidence of the members affected through workplace meetings, mass meetings, regular mailings and ultimately the threat or actual use of industrial action.  

Unfortunately, the recent national pay dispute was badly led despite the tremendous response from our members to the two days of action. Our national leaders must learn the lessons of that dispute.   We face many challenges including the moves by the Council to hive off more services, the never ending conflicts over the Workforce Pay and Benefits Review and further attacks on jobs and services due to the cut in public sector spending recently announced by the Government.

We have to ensure that our members in those sub-branches who are not directly employed by the Council have their voice heard and their issues taken forward forcefully.  

We need to encourage more young people and women to play a role in the union. This will make our union stronger.

Brian speaking at a Solidarity strike rally

We need to oppose bullying bosses, unreasonable workloads, the draconian use of the absence policy and the treatment of our admin / clerical members as second class citizens in many workplaces.  As a socialist I believe that we need to fight low pay, inequality and privatisation.

I therefore believe that our union should stop paying money to the Labour Party who have consistently attacked and undermined our member’s interests when in power. We need a working class party that instead of spending billions bailing out the bankers is prepared to fund decent public services and fair pay. I would welcome the opportunity to help build a fighting and democratic Unison.

I hope you will give me your support.  

 ·        NO CUTS IN PAY, CONDITIONS OR SERVICES

 ·        NO TO PRIVATISATION - FUND PUBLIC SERVICES

 ·        BREAK THE LINK - NO UNISON MONEY TO THE LABOUR PARTY

 ·        FOR A MINIMUM WAGE OF £8.50 PER HOUR

 ·        FOR A FIGHTING DEMOCRATIC UNISON