What we are doing around the cuts at Lambeth Council

Dear UNISON members

We are facing challenges in Lambeth Council that we can only overcome collectively.

The branch is made up of members and activist who have over the years have dealt some big challenges.

Lambeth UNISON has a history of fighting for jobs and challenging the cuts imposed by government. Under no circumstances must we accept that there is no money to fund the public sector. The government is making political choices to cut back on public spending instead of imposing taxes on profits or assets of rich corporations (for instance). 

A Labour government must put services and workers front and centre and this is a central demand from UNISON.

What we have done since the announcement of an ‘overspend’ of £38 million:

1. We discussed and adopted a motion to guide our campaign work against cuts [click here to read], drafted by Andy Tullis the Convenor for Children’s Services.
2. We attended the CEO’S roundtable. We spoke up against the cuts and possible job losses.
3. We wrote to the various directors and senior management team about the recent restructure in housing where it appears that the directors might be receiving pay rises. We have consistently told the directors and CEO  that in the current climate PAY rises for senior managers are wrong. We all need better PAY not just senior managers. 
4. Agency staff has been told they are being sacked just before the Christmas period. This is true scrooge style behaviour from a Council that is lauding kindness. We wrote to the Director about these sackings and will continue to protect workers in that directorate.
5. We are working with London region of UNISON on calling a demonstration outside parliament against the continued austerity cuts.

In 2025 we will continue fight for your PAY, manageable work load and a 4 day week with no loss of pay.                                                                                                 

We have written to the CEO about our 4 day week campaign in 2022 and were told come back in two years. We are knocking on the CEO’s door again and have now have  assurances that our campaign will be discussed at the Joint Strategy Forum in January 2025. 

Against CUTS Demonstration

On 22^nd January 6pm there will be a demonstration against the CUTS at Full Council meeting in front of the Town Hall.  All members and the community are welcome. Come and tell the Council that we oppose any job losses and reduction of vital services.

This will not be our only Protest against CUTS, so look out for communication where you can join to protect jobs and services in Lambeth. We need to make sure that our voices are heard!

The demonstration will be joined up with the Council’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza. 23 million of our wages are used in companies invested in arms. We have told the Council to divest our wages from these companies. 

We have AGM coming up on 13^th February ONLINE: Please join – we will share the Teams link shortly. We will make sure there is time off for staff. 

Restructures

We are using every avenue to tell the Council that workers need their jobs secured. That means you need to tell us when your team’s profile changes, when job roles changes, workload increases and when changes happen without UNISON consultation.

We need you to tell us when restructures are happening. There have been some restructures recently that have not been properly announced and consulted on so you need to make sure we know about them.