‘WE will build alliances needed to fight future attacks’ Dave Prentis, the Unison leader, told its Health Conference in Brighton yesterday.
Addressing health workers, including nurses, paramedics, therapists, hospital porters, cleaners and midwives from across the UK, he issued a warning to all political parties that the NHS is not a ‘soft touch’ or an ‘easy target’.
He told conference the alliance would be ‘From our brothers and sisters in other unions such as the PCS who are taking action to defend their jobs and services, to the pensioners who we marched alongside through London last weekend in defence our welfare state.
‘It will be public service workers and public service users, shoulder-to-shoulder.’
Speaking about the damage inflicted by the recession he said: ‘Whoever is returned to power they have to learn that cuts to public service budgets won’t help our recovery – they’ll hold it back.
‘They’ve got to learn that just as unbridled market forces wrecked our financial system, they’ll wreak havoc in our public services too.
‘They’ve got to understand that if the profit-motive didn’t help our banks serve the public interest, it certainly won’t help Hinchingbrooke hospital put its patients first.
‘Unison will not stand idly by and let our members in the NHS pay for the financial crisis with their jobs, with cuts to their pay, or to the vital care they deliver to our communities.
‘Whether they are fighting to keep their A&E open or demanding action over cuts – we will be right there with them.’
Turning his fire onto the Tories, he warned that ‘our NHS is simply not safe in their hands.
‘Behind Cameron hide ranks of Tory MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates, revealed in surveys to be diehard Thatcherites:
• six out of ten want even bigger tax give-aways to the super-rich
• nine out of ten want even deeper cuts to public spending.
‘Most of them are opposed to tougher bank regulation, or action to tackle climate change.
‘Their ideological poster-boy, Daniel Hannan, who described the NHS as a 60-year mistake, has been rewarded by Cameron with a promotion.
‘Cameron’s plans to cut hard and fast, his give-away-taxes to the super-rich, mean that it is impossible to protect the NHS from devastating cuts.’
