Reminder - Return Your Ballot Paper!

As if any UNISON member needed reminding of just how appalling the employers pay-cut (oops! we mean pay offer...) really is, hopefully this will refresh your memory.

For every worker in the Public Sector, costs and expenses are rising, just at the point where the Government decides that we should bear more of the cost. On top of this, we are now contributing more to our pensions than before and are faced with the threat of job evaluation and possible pay cuts for hundreds of DMBC employees.

So if you are a Social Worker or one of the many employees that has to use a car for your job, you are already paying a hefty extra price just for the "privilege," of doing your job; if you are a homeowner, you will be paying more just to keep a roof over your head; we are all paying more for food, fuel and just keeping body and soul together for ourselves, our children and our families.

This Government has peddled the myth that Public Sector pay adds to inflation - while at the same time allowing the wealthiest in our society to continue to rake in huge salaries, tax breaks and avoid what they should be paying to support schools, the NHS and other publically provided services. There are no reasons why we should not expect our standards of living to keep pace; no reasons at all why we should have to suffer pay-cuts from a government that can no longer be bothered to represent the very people that voted them in.

Later today we will have the results from the UNISON ballot on a three year pay offer to staff working in the NHS. Let's hope that our sisters and brothers in the health service send an overwhelming message to the employers that we will not accept being continuously treated as though they do not matter. We all know that it is not managers and accountants that run public services; if they all disappeared tomorrow, schools would still open, patients and vulnerable people would still be cared for, roads would be swept, meals cooked and offices cleaned.

But if we don't come to work, we all know that everything would stop!

Bearing this in mind; bearing in mind that we all work hard to ensure that the job gets done and that services are delivered day in, day out, let's just ask ourselves one simple question;

Hands up everyone, if you think we should have to take a pay-cut?

Thought so!!