Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Key messages – Tell a pal

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Challenges Cuts and privatisation. Ideological opposition to public services Co-ordinated lobby to cut pay and pensions Concerted plans to undermine trade union rights and organisation. Explicit rolling back of the welfare state. Strategy designed to make changes irreversible

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Challenges Survey 2010: Most members believe there is waste in public services Half believe huge cuts needed because of national debt It is likely many members believe pay restraint needed because of financial situation

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Positives: UNISON poll March 2015 If govt was to raise £2bn by cracking down on tax avoidance, 58% of Scottish public believe the money should be spent on improving public services. Only 19% said it should cut borrowing and only 17% said it should be spent on income tax cuts 68% believed that ‘public sector organisations (such as local councils and the NHS)’ are accountable to the public 72% believed all organisations seeking publicly- funded contracts should have to pay at least the living wage

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee What the experts say The economists who actually predicted the crash … Prof David Blanchflower, former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee: “Austerity is simply bad economics…. Austerity is all about spending cuts, which hurt the poor and the vulnerable. This makes the UK government’s recently announced £12bn of extra welfare cuts an unnecessary disgrace in a rich country.” Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz: “GDP per capita in the UK is lower than it was before the crisis. That is not a success” Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman: “Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. How hard is that to understand?”

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Some key messages Country not broke – it’s just the money is in the wrong place. (Equality Trust figures) The richest 1,000 in the UK have doubled their wealth over last 10 years to £547bn, getting richer at the rate of £ a second. This is more than the combined wealth of the poorest 40% of UK households (£452 billion) m people. The increase alone last year (28bn) could pay for 1,889,963 Living Wage jobs for a year

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee Some key messages Nothing inevitable about cuts – they do not make economic sense – they are a political choice Economy depends on healthy public sector. Public sector workers spend most of their money in their local communities Austerity is not working. The debt has increased from 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion since Post WW2 debt was over three times higher yet we could build the NHS, housing and infrastructure Investment and growth, not cuts, reduced the debt in the 1960s/70s

Key messages Scotland Communications & Campaigns Committee What can we do? Get key messages out to members and the general public Challenge the Tory myths Publicise UNISON’s alternative budget Respond to press and media distortions, especially in the local media Lobby elected members and MPs Build public service alliances at local level