2 June 2010
The government must listen to trade unions because they express the ‘voice of the professional’, a union chief has claimed.
Speaking at Prospect’s biennial national conference in Liverpool today, general secretary Paul Noon also called for public services and servants to be defended.
Noon said the government must listen to the views of engineers, scientists, managers and other professionals on how their organisations should be run more effectively.
He said: ‘Trade unions have been doing the “big society” for 200 years. If the prime minister is serious when he talks about encouraging volunteering and involvement in social action, then he must work with trade unions, not against them.’
Noon added: ‘On public services, ministers have a choice. They can either listen to the views of their staff constructively expressed through their unions and be flexible.
‘Or, if they are foolish, they will seek to impose top-down, unacceptable arrangements, which will deserve and attract our outright opposition.’
The call came amid warnings of a national strike from lecturers. The Universities and Colleges Union has warned of likely industrial strife because of redundancies in further and higher education establishments.
General secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘We are getting almost daily reports of redundancies from our officials and there’s a point in time when you can't actually carry on without a backlash.’
There have been 15 strikes across the sector since March, she said, and Glasgow University has announced more than 80 job cuts.
