Anti-cuts, public services

Across Europe on Wednesday 29 September public service workers and users are marching and demonstrating to defend public services against cuts, and defend jobs. They are responding partly to a call by the very bureaucratic European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), an umbrella group for the already highly bureaucratised national TUCs. The day includes a large demonstration in Brussels. 100,000 are expected in the city that is the heart of the European Union. Delegations include a group travelling with the RMT rail union from the UK. The slogan of the demonstration is “No to austerity. Priority...

Max Watson, chair of the Unison (support workers') branch at London Metropolitan University, is the UNISON United Left candidate for the Higher Education General Seat on the union's National Executive Council. Even before the election, London Met was the site of a huge anti-cuts struggle, and Max played a key role. He says: "We're in for a rough ride under the Con-Dem government and we know it. The question is: how much of a fight will we put up? As Chair of London Met Uni Branch, I've been in the eye of the storm and proven myself willing and able to lead a successful campaign of action...

Barnet By Vicki Morris Two hundred Barnet workers and residents took part in a Barnet Public Services Alliance meeting on 23 September. We heard speakers from Anti Academies Alliance, London Health Emergency and the Whittington Hospital campaign, plus film director Ken Loach. The speeches from the floor were very animated, including GMB president, Mary Turner, residents with relatives in sheltered housing schemes, disability activists, and local trades unionists John Burgess (Unison), Paul Coles (GMB) and Keith Nason (NUT). A collection raised more than £200; there is a follow-up meeting on...

On Sunday 19 September Merseyside TUC and public sector alliance organised a feeder demonstration to a rally outside the Lib-Dem conference. The rally was organised by the North-west TUC. There were about 1500 on the march — trade unionists and community groups. The Merseyside Public Sector Alliance has a series of meetings planned as well as lobbies of the council in Liverpool and the Wirral in October. On Monday 1 November there will be a meeting on how the cuts affect the voluntary sector; on Wednesday 3 November there will be a meeting on “Women Against the Cuts”.

At a well-attended meeting in September Leeds Trades Council launched a Leeds Against the Cuts campaign. Delegates from Unison, PCS, NUT, CWU and Unite were present at the first meeting. Two events have been organised around the comprehensive spending review in October. At 5pm on October 20th trade unionists will leaflet people in the town centre leaving work to let them know what the spending review announcements mean for them and what they can do to resist them. Local reps from public sector unions will also hold a press conference to give our response. A bigger public demonstration against...

London firefighters are to be balloted for strike action this week after fire bosses began the process of mass sackings in a dispute over shift patterns. The ballot was announced at an impressive central London demonstration on 16 September that saw 2,500 firefighters march on the headquarters of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). In August, LFEPA issued a Section 188 notice, starting a 90 day consultation on sacking the entire London firefighting force (5,500 firefighters) in order to impose shift changes. London firefighters currently work two day shifts of nine hours...

To defeat the cuts, the labour movement will need industrial action, organised by workers in particular sectors to resist cuts in jobs and services in their particular sector. We will also need a broad and lively network of local committees in which people from trade union branches come together with community, service-users', and tenants' groups. The struggle will probably not be one "big bang", but a rolling, up-and-down series of smaller and bigger "bangs", some national but many local. A network of local anti-cuts committees can be pivotal for resisting the cuts, and also for rejuvenating...

At its congress in Manchester (13-16 September) the TUC voted to "encourage unions to use the impact of the Spending Review to build local campaign groups..." It talked of building "a great campaign against the cuts - rooted in every community and with a clear national voice..." Top union leaders told the press that they plan to delay industrial action until next spring - which begs questions about what they will do about attacks coming now, like Birmingham City Council's decision to ask all its non-school workers to accept cuts in pay and conditions or be sacked. But the motion passed by the...

At its congress in Manchester (13-16 September) the TUC has resolved to build "a great campaign against the cuts - rooted in every community and with a clear national voice..." Top union leaders told the press that they plan to delay industrial action until next spring - which begs questions about what they will do about attacks coming now , like Birmingham City Council's decision to ask all its non-school workers to accept cuts in pay and conditions or be sacked. But the motion passed by the TUC talks about industrial action, and GMB national secretary Brian Strutton said his union would...

The Tory/Lib-Dem coalition council in Birmingham has sent redundancy notices to the Council’s entire non-schools staff, of around 26,000 workers. The notices tell staff that if they do not accept reduced terms and conditions, they will be sacked. Council chief executive Stephen Hughes says that the council's plans "reflect the reality of huge Government spending cuts. "The council can no longer afford to deliver all services and it is inevitable that a large number of jobs will disappear". Proposals being discussed by the city’s Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition include handing over management...