21 October 2011
TAXPAYERS WILL PAY FOR EDINBURGH PRIVATISATION
GAMBLE - UNISON
UNISON has condemned Edinburgh council for gambling
with jobs and services as it sets out plans today
to sell off the city’s essential cleansing,
waste and award winning parks services. The union
has also condemned the Council’s refusal to
publish its last minute Mori poll into the public’s
views.
The council is publishing the first of three controversial
privatisation proposals when they recommend that
councillors pass all environmental services to Enterprise,
the private contractor.
“Edinburgh council is gambling with essential
services, jobs and livelihoods by proposing wholesale
privatisation”, said Peter Hunter, UNISON
Regional Officer.
“Privatisation can only be seen as a massive
gamble. The council should be “once bitten
twice shy” after the fiasco with the Tram
contractor, but like a compulsive gambler the council
is determined to solve its problems with one more
roll of the dice.
“And like most gamblers, the council has
an audience of friends begging them to step away
from the table. Unions, community groups and even
Audit Scotland have all highlighted the fact that
the odds on victory for Edinburgh are unattractive,
but it would seem the die is cast”
“Councillors do not own Edinburgh’s
services, they are merely the custodians of them.
They have no right to gamble them in this way. When
it all goes wrong it will be the taxpayer as usual
who has to pay”.
The council report endorsing the sell off has been
published at the end of a week when the council
steadfastly refused to release the findings of the
public consultation on privatisation.
“Having failed to tell voters about the privatisation
plans for two years the council hired MORI to capture
public opinion at the last minute. Although the
report is censored and FOI requests have been denied,
the council leaked excerpts of the report to the
press so we know what voters think. Edinburgh people
are hostile to privatisation, they resent the profit
motive of private contractors and they rightly doubt
the ability of the council to win any contract dispute
over service standards. We need an honest public
discussion on today’s proposals and that must
start with release of the MORI report”, added
Mr Hunter.
UNISON has asked all political parties to pledge
their support for a fair process but the union has
a specific message for SNP councillors as the party
of Government gather for their annual conference
in Inverness.
“UNISON has great admiration for the SNP
vision for quality, integrated services in the NHS
delivered by public sector workers. We stand with
Nicola Sturgeon in condemning Tory health plans
as an “experiment in privatisation”
as she will say from the conference platform today.
But Nicola doesn’t need to look beyond the
streets of Edinburgh to see the threat of private
experiments. Her capital city has been put up for
sale. The fate of public services in Edinburgh lies
in the hands of the SNP and we ask them to join
us in saying no to private gambling and experimentation”.
ENDS
For further information www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/citynotforsale
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