PRESIDENT’S CORNER
by Kerry Fairless

WE ALL STAND TOGETHER

As I write this 20 unions have so far indicated that would like be part of the 30th November dispute. these include all the teaching unions as well as the major players in the public sector, including the FDA and PROSPECT. For many unions involved the taking of industrial action is not something that they would normally ever consider.

Frances Maude claims on the one hand that he isn’t scared of public sector unions, yet on the other he says he wants to strip facility time down to nothing. So what is it Frances? He also says that the unions are wrong and don’t understand. What, all of us Frances? We are talking about a collection of unions who rarely threaten, let alone, ballot for industrial action.

All of us involved in public sector unions know that our members (ie, you) are being asked to bail out the Government. I do not believe that the public service is responsible for the mismanagement of the economy we have seen over a number years. I do not believe we are responsible for the greed culture that lead to the banks to wrack and ruin. I do not believe that we should be paying for this with our jobs, our pay, our pensions and most importantly the services we provide.

 I do believe these decisions are politically motivated to look after big business, big businessmen and the banks. They are not designed to protect society. David Cameron tells us we are all in this together, I think not. Some of us are in, most of us in fact; clearly some aren’t in it though.

We still see huge bonuses being paid to high level bankers. Banks we technically own. We still see favours being given to big business allowing them to run their tax affairs elswhere, thus avoiding paying their bit. We expect the higher rate of income tax to be slashed, a move that only serves to make the rich richer, whilst the message from Gideon is that no further tax cuts can be expected. A move than can only make the poor poorer.

There is a complete break from reality in Government who generally expect the private sector to soak up those us from the public sector who get the boot in coming years. They fail to recognise unemployment is spiralling out of control, small businesses (and some not so small businesses) are collapsing daily and that local labour markets are frankly non existent.

These political decisions are flawed, and they will effect us, our families and our communities. Politicians are not listening, some do not care. We must make our voice heard. We have tried negotiations, we have tried political lobbying, we have been ignored in the main. Our only option now is to unite as a public sector, and to demonstrate our collective anger at what is happening to us.

I urge all members to strike on 30th November and to take part in demonstrations and events being held across the country.