Like I said, the biggest industrial action since the 1926 General Strike looms large. What did the barefaced Cameron expect? I highly doubt, though, he has the unctuous, rip and gouge, tooth and claw, mother alien, union busting chops of his old boss, Attila the Hen. But it does tangentially occur to me that in the quarter century since Scargill v Thatcher, subversive technology has made massive advances.
“Is the big fight on? Union responses to the Tory cuts have so far been fairly muted - the M26 outing (see SchNEWS 765), resembling a cross between a family picnic and a Labour Party rally. However on June 30th the largest public sector strikes since the 80s are planned. With the Daily Mail claiming that ‘Union Barons’ plan to ‘unleash hell’, what’s actually going to happen? Well who’s on board? On J30, up to 750,000 public sector workers, including many members of the UCU, NUT, PCS and ATL unions, including teachers, health workers, air traffic controllers, job centre wallahs, police support staff etc, etc. will go on strike. It remains to be seen whether the strike will unfurl as another generalised ‘day of action’, but marches are planned across the country and activist groups are planning to support picket lines and hold solidarity actions. Ostensibly about public sector pension cuts (unions legally have to ballot to strike over a specific issue), the strikes are the first wave of mass industrial action against the proposed austerity measures. To keep hammering home the point - these austerity measures are only necessary because of the ruling classes determination to ensure that the pain caused by the banking crisis is borne by anyone except the people who caused it. This has immediately led to Tory calls for harsher anti-strike legislation, despite the UK already having the most draconian anti-union laws in Europe. Notwithstanding the already restrictive regime, the government has now said that any trades union action that it deems ‘disruptive’ might cause a further clamp-down. With the ConDems not budging, will the union movement finally see the need to move beyond legalism and put up a real fight? Here’s hoping.” (Click here for more)
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2 comments:
WTF!! You sure you're not writing about Ohio. But here the powers that be put the responsibility for the current economic crisis squarely on the backs of the poor.
Don't know yet what will happen with US public sector unions, for many years union has been a dirty word here mostly because many people forgot the source of the benefits they were taking for granted.
Times are good for the multinational corporation, but pretty much shit for the worker in almost all fields but some segments of technology. And those good days are numbered too.
Thought there had to be photo of Vancouver's latest riot that would catch your usually on Marilyn eye.
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