Independent UK: Union leaders warn of strikes and deep unrest over 'cuts that hurt poor'

[marmar]

Union leaders will today endorse plans for the biggest show of industrial muscle for two decades including co-odinated industrial action, days of protest and national demonstrations against the Government's austerity measures. Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, will evoke the spirit of the poll-tax protests at the opening of the TUC's annual conference in Manchester today.

The resistance is expected to begin next month, on the eve of Chancellor George Osborne's comprehensive spending review, and come to a head in spring 2011 as the impact of the cuts begins to be felt. Some left-wing unions are pressing for more dramatic action, calling for strikes to begin this year or even raising the prospect of campaigns of civil disobedience against the cuts. The divisions over tactics will be made clear as the TUC begins its annual gathering with a debate over how to defend spending on public services.

A study by the GMB union yesterday suggested that 150,000 posts are being cut in 150 public-sector organisations, including government departments, NHS trusts, police authorities and the fire service. Analysis by The Independent last week also discovered that 45,000 job losses are already in the pipeline in local authorities as town halls attempt to cut spending by about 25 per cent.

The TUC will approve joint campaigns of industrial action, at local and national level, against redundancies, pay-cuts and reductions to pension entitlements. The unions will attempt to tap into wider community opposition to the spending squeeze in an attempt to create a "progressive alliance", arguing that the pace of the cuts is reckless and that jobs vital to the quality of life will be lost. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/union-leaders-warn-of-strikes-and-deep-unrest-over-cuts-that-hurt-poor-2077551.html

[reggie the dog]

1. this is very good to hear