The day will involve a central rally and lobby of Parliament and a series of regional events. It is part of Unison's 'Positively Public' campaign which was launched earlier in the year but put on hold following the 11 September attacks in the United States.
The campaign kicked off in earnest last week with the start of a 1m publicity drive which will include an eight-week cinema advertising campaign in England and Wales. Advertisements have also been taken out in the national press highlighting an opinion poll that found 83 per cent of the public are against private companies running public services such as healthcare.
As part of the campaign, Unison, whose members include 50,000 classroom assistants earning on average around 8,000 a year, will be pressing for the Government to address the issue of fair pay. The union wants public services to be delivered by a well-paid, well-trained, highly-motivated workforce and to be properly resourced.
The union's 'Positively Public' manifesto says, 'Public services have been underfunded for decades. Crowded hospitals, overworked social services departments, and struggling schools in deprived areas are just a few examples of a system operating on the verge of collapse.
'Unison members report ever-heavier workloads and increasing levels of stress. Despite this underfunding, the commitment of public service workers has meant that the public sector at its best still produces high-quality services.'
The manifesto sets out Unison's view that privatisation and the promotion of competition in the past has led to fragmentation and less responsive services. It says, 'Unison will not defend services that are failing the communities they are meant to be serving. However, the idea that market competition will automatically solve such problems has proved to be wrong. The preference for private over public provision is based on an unfounded belief that the private sector is more efficient. It is not.' More information is available on the website www.unison.org.uk. Copies of the manifesto are available on 0800 597 9750.
