Secretary's Corner
May 2010
At the time of going to print the General election had not been held, by the time you sit down to read this we will probably know whether the colour of the party now governing the Country is red, blue, yellow or a combination of all three (possibly even green or purple).
I hope that everyone used their vote wisely as there can be very little complaint as to who holds the balance of power if the effort wasn’t made to cast your own vote; same applies to any ballot really.
Although not everyone’s cup of tea I found the televised prime ministerial debates fascinating and they certainly seemed to add a whole new dynamic to the face of British politics, but despite all the hype and razzmatazz the one thing that didn’t seem to change was getting a potential Prime Minister to admit what it is they would actually do if they got into power. All three of the candidates were happy on the one hand to state that they would protect frontline NHS services whilst on the other hand talking about billions of pounds in “efficiency” savings.
Where will these efficiency savings come from? There is the potential that millions of pounds could be cut from the budget allocated to this Trust, consequently those savings cannot be made by reducing paperclips or photocopying, these are big numbers that could well involve pay freezes, reductions in recruitment or do I even dare mention the dreaded “R” word.
At the moment no-one has any idea of the reality, but you can bet your last mealbreak that it will be painful, nothing can be ruled out. It would seem there is a view that the private sector has borne the brunt of the recession so far and now it is the turn of the public sector to bail the country out of the mess created by greedy, poorly managed banks – that is quite simply wrong and unfair.
That is why it is important now more than ever that we have a strong union that campaigns, fights and lobbies on behalf of the millions of hard working staff employed by the NHS. That is why we need a solid membership that is prepared to step up, get involved and support the union in that fight. That is why every member of staff should join UNISON today so that we can protect jobs, pay and the frontline services of tomorrow.
Joining is very easy, go to our website at www.eeas-unison.com call UNISON-Direct on 0845 355 0845 contact your local rep, or me, or our Branch Membership Officer, all contact details are on the back of this Newsletter.
Do it now because you know you should. 
Version 2.2 | © EEAS-UNISON. All rights reserved.
