Monday, September 13, 2010

Union leaders warn of strikes to oppose cuts.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that Unions see a winter of discontent approaching over George Osborne's planned cuts.

The government will face co-ordinated industrial action and civil disobedience once the true scale of its budget cuts becomes clear, union leaders warned today as they claimed 150,000 public sector job losses are already in the pipeline.

Police forces, councils, courts and hospital trusts are laying off workers even before the bulk of the spending cuts are announced in October's comprehensive spending review, research by the GMB union suggests.

And in a sign that mainstream Labour's attitude towards the cuts is hardening, Harriet Harman, the deputy leader, said the party felt "militant" against extreme cuts. She defended unions' right to strike, though she insisted that nobody wanted to see people's lives disrupted.

Every time the conservatives come into power they cause large unemployment at the same time as they attack benefits. It's almost tailor made to lead to industrial action.

And, this time, they are using the economic downturn as a fig leaf to cover actions which they always wish to do every time they are elected.

Only a fool would buy their reasoning.

Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary, said: "Current job losses already announced in the public sector of nearly 150,000 are just the top of the iceberg heading for our services and our economy when the comprehensive spending review finally hits home next month. Unemployment and cuts in public services follow the appointment of a Tory-led government like night follows day.

"The ideology of the Tory party is for a smaller state and they are hellbent on using the recession to impose these needless and ideologically driven cuts in public spending."

Harman told the BBC: "Well, we feel very concerned indeed, yes, about threats to jobs, and we don't accept the argument that somehow this is entirely necessary to cut the deficit at this speed. We think it's actually a threat to the economy. And the arguments that the big society can take the place of public services we think are disingenuous. So to that extent, yes, we do feel militant about it. We're concerned about the effect on people."

She said that no one wanted to see strike action, but unions had the right to strike. She added: "But as far as actual public services are concerned, I think we will see trade unions campaigning alongside local communities when vital public services are threatened."

I think pandemonium is going to break loose once the true scale of what Osborne is proposing becomes clear. It's been thirteen years since the Tories were in power and I honestly think people have forgotten just what inhumane bastards they actually are.

Come the October spending review, Osborne is going to remove the scales from most people's eyes.

He will propose, as Thatcher did before him, to throw hundreds of thousands of people's lives on to the economic scrapheap, and he will do it without a sliver of pity. This is who they are and this is what they do.

Once people understand the full extent of Osborne's savagery, I fully expect all Hell to break loose.

Click here for full article.

2 comments:

daveawayfromhome said...

At least over there you've forgotten it, and so can be reminded. Here in the U.S. it's considered "common sense", and so when the conservatives reclaim power after a mere two years and begin the funding cuts, many people will actually welcome it, even as they are hard hit by it.

Kel said...

It's a part of American politics that I always struggle with, Dave. I simply don't understand why so many working class people over there vote against their own economic interest.