Reject the insulting 3.2% National Pay offer – inflation now 3.5%

VOTE REJECT – YOUR PAY MATTERS ‼️

Barnet UNISON is urging every member to REJECT the employers’ 3.2% pay offer for 2025/26. Here’s why your voice – and your vote – matters more than ever:

📉 3.2% Is a Pay Cut, Not a Pay Rise

 Inflation has jumped to 3.5% (The Guardian, 21 May 2025). The 3.2% offer won’t even keep pace — it’s a real-terms cut. 

🛑 We’ve Already Lost Enough

Local government pay has lost 25% of its value since 2010.

Thousands of frontline staff are struggling to cover rising housing, childcare, and energy bills while employers reject even basic improvements.

💸 There Is Money – It’s Just Hoarded at the Top

In the UK, the 50 richest families now hold more wealth than the poorest 50% of the population combined, which includes over 34 million people. The number of billionaires in the UK has risen from 15 in 1990 to 165 in 2024, with the average billionaire’s wealth increasing over 1,000% during that period. The rich are getting richer — and fast.

Public services are being starved while extreme wealth is left untaxed. It’s time to tax the rich — not make workers pay for the crisis they didn’t cause.

🧨 Always Money for War, But Never for Workers

Government spending on military escalation continues — while schools crumble, council services are slashed, and staff like us are told to tighten our belts.

Our communities need investment, not cuts. We cannot rebuild services on broken wages.

 ⚠️ This Offer Solves Nothing

  • Employers have rejected every call for better working conditions:
    ❌ No £15/hr minimum
    ❌ No extra leave
    ❌ No reduced hours
    ❌ No term-time flexibility

 ✊ We Deserve Better

This fight is about dignity, respect, and fairness. We keep services running. We supported our communities through crisis after crisis. Now they expect us to accept less – again.

🗳️ Vote REJECT — and demand a deal that reflects our value and funds public services, not billionaire bank balances.

End.

 

Mental Health Workers and Service Users Unite to Save Barnet’s Network Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mental Health Workers and Service Users Unite to Save Barnet’s Network Service

We are calling on Barnet Council to protect a lifeline mental health support service—the Network—currently under threat of closure.

The Network provides short-term, therapeutic support and wellbeing workshops to adults experiencing mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Operating from Finchley, the service has offered vital support to vulnerable residents while they await access to NHS Talking Therapies.

If this service is withdrawn, many people will be left without support at a time when demand for mental health care is surging. We are deeply concerned that the closure will lead to increased isolation, greater pressure on overstretched NHS services, and worsening mental health outcomes for some of Barnet’s most at-risk residents.

We urge all mental health professionals, service users, carers, and local residents to stand up and defend this essential service. Your voice can make the difference.

Have your say before the consultation closes on 14 July 2025.

🔗 Respond to the consultation: www.engage.barnet.gov.uk/the-network

📧 Email: CAHConsultation@barnet.gov.uk

Together, let’s show Barnet Council that mental health support matters—and the Network must stay.

 

Notes to Editors.

Contact details: Barnet UNISON on 0208 359 2088 or email: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk