Heather Wakefield

About Heather Wakefield

Heather Wakefield is head of the Local Government Service Group of the UK’s largest public service trade union Unison, representing over 700,000 of the union’s 1.4 million members. She was previously a researcher and regional official for the union, and a women’s rights officer for NCCL (Liberty). Heather is a regular commentator on local government and women’s issues.

The Long March against the cuts, by Heather Wakefield

28 March 2011 | Heather Wakefield

Well, what a turnout! It was no surprise to us in UNISON that half a million resolute  and angry people turned out on Saturday to say ‘no’ to the Coalition’s regime of social vandalism, ‘no’ to the front-loaded cuts in local government and ‘no’ to the mindless marketisation of the NHS. Read more...

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Why Eaton’s in a pensions mess, by Heather Wakefield

22 February 2011 | Heather Wakefield

Baroness Margaret Eaton’s letter to the Observer calling on the government to re-think the proposed increase in employee contributions to the Local Government Pension Scheme made welcome, if surprising reading on Sunday morning. My Craster kippers almost cooked themselves in the excitement. Read more...

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Economics of madness, by Heather Wakefield

8 December 2010 | Heather Wakefield

For those of us already considerably underwhelmed by the prospect of a royal wedding, 2011 holds rather less glittering prospects. As I write this, the Local Government Association has announced that the New Year will herald 140,000 redundancies – 40% more than its original estimate. Read more...

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Beginning of the end for two-tier protection? By Heather Wakefield

15 November 2010 | Heather Wakefield

Winston Churchill is not one of my heroes. But in one area of public life he remains a beacon of sanity and good practice that puts present day coalition politicians to shame. His support for the protection of pay and conditions of employees delivering outsourced public services and for minimum wage legislation set a standard that today’s ministers would do well to remember and emulate. Read more...

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VIDEO BLOG: Mutual appreciation? By Heather Wakefield

18 August 2010 | Heather Wakefield

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From Toy Story to Tory story, by Heather Wakefield

6 August 2010 | Heather Wakefield

An afternoon South of the Border in Latin America with Oliver Stone on Wednesday and a 3-D trip to Toy Story 3 last night have stuck in my fuzzy ‘downtime’ brain, despite my best efforts to crank up a gear and blog for Public Finance. Read more...

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Council workers still frozen out, by Heather Wakefield

24 June 2010 | Heather Wakefield

In his Big Budget this week, the Chancellor announced a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers  from  2011-2012. However, with uncharacteristic magnanimity, he also said that those earning £21,000 or less would receive an increase of at least £250 a year – about enough to buy five rolls of Osborne and Little’s cheapest wallpaper or perhaps pay one quarterly fuel bill – and an increase of £3,000 in the £18,000 threshold they were talking about before the election. Read more...

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PF took my comments out of context, by Heather Wakefield

11 June 2010 | Heather Wakefield

Your web story, ‘Union members might accept job losses in return for more say’, reports less than 10% of my speech to the CIPFA conference – and so takes the little mentioned entirely out of context. It creates the impression that Unison is prepared to negotiate away our members’ jobs in return for vague promises about in-house service delivery and genuine engagement. We most certainly are not. As you reported, I made my view very clear – that every redundancy is a personal tragedy. We will fight to defend every job cut Read more...

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Bigging it up for public servants, by Heather Wakefield

4 May 2010 | Heather Wakefield

Public sector workers are unused to receiving invitations these days (other than to take their P45’s, clear their desks or take their brooms and go quietly perhaps), so when David Cameron’s ‘Invitation to Public Sector Workers’ pinged up on my screen, I thought Unison members’ luck might have changed. Read more...

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After the elections: bring them to book, by Heather Wakefield

9 April 2010 | Heather Wakefield

While they should really be facing charges of crimes against humanity for the global misery they have inflicted, banks and business leaders instead continue to demonstrate a breathtaking  absence of shame or sympathy for their fellow human beings. Those in our communities dependent on public services or state support for anything approaching a civilised existence, must be very afraid indeed of those now biting the hand that fed them. Read more...

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