Unite representatives participated in the USW Public Employee
Conference in mid-May to jointly develop plans for defending the
public sector and its employees.
Fiona Farmer and Frank Keogh, representatives from the Unite
health sector, joined with over 100 USW public sector delegates for
the conference in Pittsburgh.
The USW represents about 25,000 members who
work for state and local governments. Unite represents over 80,000
in the publicly run National Health Service. It represents many
thousands more in the broader public sector.
The conference uncovered similarities between
attempts to weaken the public sector in the U.S., Canada and the
UK. For instance, conservative governments in all three countries
are trying to undermine pension benefits for public sector
employees.
A number of workshops were held to facilitate
development of action plans. One focused on maximizing our unions’
leverage through doing power analysis of the public sector.
Unite and USW participants committed to
continue to collaborate across borders in the struggle to defend
the public sector and public sector employees.