The head of Unison says there is no way a public sector strike on Wednesday can be avoided, even if the British government wanted to do a deal.
This is hardly a shock announcement – the strikes would have gone ahead whether they caved in to every unreasonable demand the unions issued because this isn’t about pay and conditions, it’s a union protest against the Tories. Even the BBC can’t avoid showing pictures of anti-Tory slogans on official union placards because they’re everywhere. The protests are being backed by the far left extremist Socialist Workers Party and senior Labour politicians.
This is a party political campaign, not a grassroots one. The public sector have pensions that most of us can only dream of and perks like guaranteed pay rises and being paid by the mile to drive to work are a public sector invention, the majority of us that work in the sector don’t get anything like the pay and conditions the public sector get. The strikes on Wednesday aren’t about keeping the pay and conditions – even the economically illiterate unions understand that it’s simply not sustainable – they’re about trying to overthrow the ConDems and installing a puppet Labour government in its place.
Not all public sector workers are highly paid of course – cleaners, lollypop (wo)men, dinner ladies, etc., don’t get paid a great deal – but that doesn’t mean that all public sector workers should keep their gold-plated pensions and expensive perks at the expense of some of the poorest, low-paid workers in the country. The public sector and unions are infested with communists who bang on about wealth redistribution and capitalist greed so I’m sure the highest paid public sector workers such as the 447 civil servants that earned more than £100k last year will be more than happy to redistribute their wealth to the low paid public sector workers they’ll be striking with on Wednesday. As, I’m sure, will the champagne socialist union bosses who earn at least three times the median salary for the public sector workers they are supposed to represent (the list is out of date – the head of the FBU is on £82k per year).
I wish I was in Telford this week instead of away on a training course so I could find a picket line to cross just for my own little protest. I object to having so much of my money taken off me on pain of forfeiture and imprisonment to to fund pay and conditions for “professional” public sector workers that I could never realistically expect in the private sector. The country is broke, we are too highly taxed already and it’s time the public sector got a dose of reality.
Sounds like the miners strike all over again.
Hi Wonko
Are you saying that the strikes wouldn’t have happened if a Labour government had brought in the same measures?
The people striking this time are not the usual suspects. They are not militants but ordinary people who are genuinely worried about their future, and all of them are tax payers themselves. At the school where I am on the board of governors, there are teachers, classroom assistants and catering staff who have never taken industrial action before and never wish to again.
I can also assure you that civil service pensions are not gold plated.
The pension that I managed to accrue during the time I worked for the government is worth bugger all. My mate who is retiring from the tax office next year, after a long career in the civil service, is getting the average civil service pension of just under £4,400 a YEAR.
I fact two and a half times as much public sector money is spent subsidising private sector pensions through tax relief than paying for public sector pensions Most of this tax relief – 60% – goes to earners at the higher rate.
And by the way, I won’t defend the 447 civil servants who earn over £100k because as far as I’m concerned no one needs to earn that much, but seeing as the average investment bankers salary at Barclays is £236,000 I think it puts it into some kind of perspective.
Yes, that’s what I’m saying Stan. Where were the strikes when Gordon Brown raided pensions? Where were they when Alistair Darling abolished the 10p tax rate? Where were the anti-Labour union placards then? They were nowhere to be seen. The unions know which side of their bread is buttered – they control the Labour Party because they provide most of its income. This year 88% of donations to Labour came from the unions. They want the Tories out and their sockpuppets back in. There’s a reason the union leaders get paid more than the prime minister, it’s because they’re the ones actually running the country!
The average salary at Barclays investment banking may be £236k but how much money do those bankers make and how much do they put back into the economy? Civil servants get paid by the taxpayer, we’re already starting at a loss.
Well I’ve been on several marches against labour party policies, but thats another story.
Is it really that much of a problem that unions support labour? After all the Labour party was created to stand up for workers rights in the first place. Unions support and bankroll the Labour party in the same way that capitalists support and bankroll the tories – 50% of tory funding comes from the city of London alone. In the current financial crisis that looks like a pretty big conflict of interest to me.
As a union member I can opt out of any of my subscription going into labour party coffers but as a consumer I can’t stop any of the banks from donating any of my bank charges to the tories.
“Civil servants get paid by the taxpayer, we’re already starting at a loss”
Yes but if we didn’t have civil servants we would have to pay private companies to provide those services and therefore be at a greater loss – just look at what private enterprise has done to our utility bills.
Personally I think we could manage a lot better without investment bankers than without schools, hospitals, law enforcement, postal services, local government, fire fighters etc………