Unions to hold rally in Wellington against cuts
Wednesday 17th November 2010, 8:10AM GMT.
The two largest public sector unions are to hold a rally in Wellington tomorrow to protest against planned Government cuts.
Speakers from both Unison and the PCS unions will talk at the event which will be held at the Wrekin Inn in the town.
The unions, who are organising the rally with the support of Shropshire & Telford Trades Council, claim the proposed cuts will devastate services in the area.
Mike Veric, a member of the PCS union’s Midlands regional committee, said Thursday night’s meeting was to “get the message into the community about the impact of the public sector cuts which are on a scale not witnessed since the 1930s”.
PCS represents workers in Government departments such as the Ministry of Defence, HM Revenue & Customs, DWP Jobcentres, the Land Registry, the Department for Transport, the Ministry of Justice and privatised government agencies.
Mr Veric said: “The union will be arguing that there are alternatives to the cuts.
“The union in particular will be referring to a highly respected report by chartered accountant Richard Murphy on the costs to the UK economy caused by tax evasion and avoidance.”
Fellow Midlands regional committee member Robert O’Harney said: “This is a national scandal which will see the poorest in society lose income and pay disproportionate taxes while wealthy bankers reap huge bonuses and large corporate organisations such as Vodafone avoid paying their full taxes.”
Unison, which represents many workers in local government, fears the cuts will hit frontline services in the NHS, housing, social services, education and welfare in Shropshire.
Unison spokesman Andy Brown said: “These cuts will devastate our communities and hit the poorest in and out of work while creating fear for the vulnerable in our society.
“Civilised societies are judged by the social provision they make for their citizens which really says a lot about the coalition Government that has no mandate from the country to be making cuts on this scale. ”
The rally starts at 7.30pm.
By Simon Hardy
UK News
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If the unions hadn’t pushed the last administration into choices we couldn’t afford we wouldn’t be in the dire straits we are now, they shall reap what they have sown!
Meanwhile the union chiefs enjoy salaries better than some ministers not to mention the subsidised housing etc.
What’s that saying? All animals are equal but some more equal than others…..
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Spot on! These union chiefs are nothing greedy fat-cats themselves.
Trade unions might have meant something many years ago but today many of them are nothing but a joke.
Ordinary union members should get wise to what many of today’s unions are really all about and where their money is being spent – and if they don’t like what they find – they should bin their memberships.
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Here’s a nice little fact for you..
There are 18 millionaires in this ‘unelected’ coalition government! Cameron is worth £3.4 million and Clegg is worth £1.2 million. These ‘paupers’ are the same people making the so-called ‘austerity’ decisions and cutting front-line services for the poorest amongst us!
The ministers may not be earning more than some of the Union Bosses (although tbf they are earning more than most), but you can also guarantee that they are taking every opportunity to line their own pockets!
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It was the greed and stupidity of bankers that pushed the last administration into choices we couldn’t afford – they alone added 30% of GDP to ur national debt – almost doubling it at a stroke.
Get your facts right…
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When are they going to realise that we can no longer spend what we have not got!
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JGH & John what are your frightened of – its just people fighting for a living wage and not the greed of the bankers, while our tax-pounds pay greedy bankers more money in yearly bonuses that some folk will earn in a lifetime.
Unions are not what the media claimed the Unions were in the 70s. Soon the ConDems will come for the Public Services and you said nothing, what happens when they come for you?
Perhaps the ministers don’t need the paying, many of them are millionaires and in these days of ‘all in it together, Dave’ how about them not taking a wage.
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Labour are just as responsible for the mess we’re in.
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Frightened?
Its about time people realise that even if the services provided are good, they are unaffordable.
If it was a private firm they would be out of business or at best be in administration.
Do you want tax to go up to keep people in jobs even though it means no-one has any money?
Even during the boom labour were still borrowing to pay public sector workers, if it means peying some benefits of £100 a week instead of wages of £500 a week then thats what needs to be done.
And by the way I agree about the bankers
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John,
You’re missing the point. 95% of the wealth in this country is owned by just 5% of the population. It’s the rich who have all our money – not the poor (and by poor in this context I mean the 95% who own just 5% of thwe wealth).
Until we get a government who are prepared to take some back from the rich.
With their history of 40% plus tax cuts for the wealthiest in society in the ’80s, and their current protectionist policy towards the banks – applying a levy only worth one third of what they will pay in bonuses this year – it ain’t going to be the Tories is it?
Good luck to these people – they’re fighting to keep their livelihoods, but also our essential public services. You and others seem happeir to return to the days when workers tugged their forelocks and relied upon charity for their healthcare and other basic needs.
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Peter,
Labour had 13 years to change this and did nothing but make it worse.
We are in a dire situation and need to get out as quick as possible, what is the alternative?
I dont like what is happening but it is needed, and will be for many years to come
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Peter,
What you clearly don’t understand is that the wealth you identify is not ‘cash in the bank’ – it’s money invested in businesses, investment funds which support businesses and at the end of the day – in JOBS. Nobody leaves money in a box under the bed! They send it out to work…..
Where on earth do you think any major employer gets the capital from to run and invest in their business?
Do you believe money grows on trees? If you do, join the misguided idiots club – the one that thinks that by using taxpayers’ money to create lots of public sector jobs which although socially beneficial are not wealth-generating is somehow a solution to the unemployment problem.
Bye bye Gordon (and all versions of the Labour party) – and good riddance!
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Bill,
Are you really so naive as to suggest that banker’s bonuses are invested in business? Invested in property abroad and expensive cars etc. more like, or shipped off to the Cayman Islands perhaps.
Do you really expect us to believe that the senior execs who vote themselves multi-million pound bonuses and salaries, with their golden handshakes and golden goodbyes are putting all of that money into job creation? – Come off it!
I’d actually be in favour of tax breaks for money that was genuinely invested in producing decent new jobs in the UK rather than the minimum wage part-time offerings that are such an inadequate replacement for the jobs being lost now.
Could we then look forward to Cameron, Osborne, Lord Young, Lord Ashcroft and their ilk investing their large personal fortunes in UK jobs? I won’t be holding my breath!
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WAKE UP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
We’re drowning in public sector jobs that don’t create any revenue whatsoever for the country. We need a major cull – far more than is being proposed – the private sector is the only thing that generates wealth. We need to get back to making things – see GERMANY – fantastic manufacturing and standards in health service way above ours. We’ve become a laughing stock – the pioneers of the industrial revolution (remember IRONBRIDGE !) wouldn’t credit it.
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You’ve clearly never worked in a public service job. Where, precisely are all these jobs we’re ‘drowning in’? I believe they only exist in the pages of tabloid rags, and in Tory rhetoric.
Unlike the UK, Germany has always invested in its manufacturing. Sadly, back in the ’80s the then government decided to squander our future we decided to squander our future on a fantasy of the great saviour of ‘financial services’ – and look where that has led us…
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I get fed up with people slagging off public services. If it wasn’t for these people you wouldn’t get your pension paid on time, seen at a doctor’s or hospital, get your tax refund, take a library book out, or take your granny to the local day centre. I could go on, but I won’t. We’ll see what happens when the cuts affect ordinary people like you, while you’re paying for ex-public servants to be on the dole, and all the time the bankers are still raking in their bonuses. And if it wasn’t for Labour putting money in the economy, it would be far worse than it is now.
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“Labour putting money in the economy” that’s the whole point – they weren’t putting money in to the economy – they were putting DEBT around our and our children and our grandchildren’s neck! YOU CAN’T SPEND WHAT YOU HAVEN’T GOT WITHOUT THE DIRE CONSEQUENSES WE NOW HAVE – LOOK here and WAKE UP!! http://econ.st/aCxhxM
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Tim,
You still haven’t identified specifically where all these public sector jobs we’re allegedly drowning in are. Since you’re obviously an expert, can you do so please?
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good on them, some one needs to stand up to this government, its out of touch and out of votes, it never won a mandate for this, the tories lost the election, its not fair
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I blame the whole rotten lot of them – The greedy bankers, Labour and the present ‘ConDem’ government.
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Peter, You say take it off the rich. Different people have been saying this for years, So this is a story that I heard years ago.Take a rich man with £200 and a poor man with nothing, You take £100 of the rich man and give it to the poor man, [redistribution of wealth], after 1 year the rich man had invested his £100 and it is now worth say £105, the poor man has been down to the pub and has nothing left, What do you now do ,do you now take £52.50 of the rich man and give it to the poor man ,and carry on till there is no money left? What is the answer?
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John,
I accept that in a meritocracy we need differentials in pay, but things have gone way beyond that for the ultra-rich – we have far too many people in this country who gain wealth simply by having great wealth already, and by studious tax avoidance on what they have – tax avoidance that simply isn’t available to the vast majority of ordinary workers.
The current deficit could be largely eradicated if we taxed the rich properly – they’d still be plenty richer than you or I – but they’d be paying their share.
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