UNISON members marched in their tens of thousands from all across the country on 12 May in spite of the weather and step up for public services as part of the national TUC march and rally.
A samba band, a giant flag, maracas and vuvuzelas, glitter, giant balloons and UNISON banners from across the union added a festive air to the decidedly grey streets in London’s West End as the marchers made their way from the Thames Embankent at Westminster to the rally and speeches in Hyde Park.
But they marched with a serious message: after eight years of austerity and cuts, working people and public services need a new deal.
General secretary Dave Prentis had marched at the front of a huge UNISON section of the demonstration and told the crowd at the rally that austerity had been a political choice, not an economic necessity, he told the crowd at the rally.
“You know, the Tories said they wanted a hostile environment – so we will give them one.”
“It’s our people, our class, who suffer, across the board, from the residents of Grenfell Tower, through public service workers battered by cuts yet always expected to do more with less, to the Windrush generation, losing jobs, denied care and even deported by a callous, racist government.”
“And the change we seek won’t just sweep the Tories from office. It will sweep Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. It will bring our movement to power.
“And it will change our society into one that works for the many not the few.”
Penny Smith is a UNISON member who works for Northamptonshire – “the Tory council that went bankrupt”.
With the county council now facing abolition by the Tory government, she added: “Northamptonshire is the proof, if ever it was needed, that privatisation, outsourcing, low council tax and constant cuts is a disaster for public services … an ideological experiment that was doomed to fail.”
She had a simple message for government, local authorities and employers: listen to working people, listen to trade unions.