Anti-cuts, public services

Health, education, housing, benefits, local councils, ...

Barnet, Lambeth, Nottinghamshire, Chelmsford: anti-cuts movement grows

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...

Merseyside: over a thousand march against cuts

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”.

Leeds unions unite to fight 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...

Firefighters first in line in cuts battle

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...

Rejuvenating the labour movement

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...

TUC calls for anti-cuts committees

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...

TUC calls for building local anti-cuts committees

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...

Birmingham threatens sack for all council workers

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...

The cuts are class war!

According to research from the TUC, the coalition government's planned cuts will hit the poorest 13 times harder than the richest. The poorest ten per cent will lose the equivalent of 20% of household income through cuts in services; the richest ten per cent, just 1.5%. Just counting the impact from loss of services, the TUC reckons that lone parents will lose the equivalent of 11% of household income, and single pensioners 8.7%. Everyone but the top 10% (by income) will lose more from service cuts than the Lib/Tories' tax cuts. The TUC survey does not factor in cuts in benefits, which will...

Scottish anti-cuts strategy conference: half way there?

“I agree with every word of that,” said UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis at a conference in Glasgow last Saturday, in response to a contribution from the floor calling on local authorities to set no-cuts budgets. The conference, “Strategy Conference: There is an Alternative – A Better Way for Public Services” had been organised by Unison Scotland and was attended by nearly 300 trade unionists and community activists. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear from the rest of Prentis’s contribution that he did not really agree with local authorities setting no-cuts budgets. What he actually...

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