Civil servants will be out on June 30

Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday June 15, 2011
The Morning Star

More than a quarter of a million civil servants became the latest group of workers today to back nationwide strikes on June 30 over attacks on public-sector pensions.

The PCS union said 61.1 per cent of its members had voted for strikes and 83.6 per cent had backed action short of strike on a turnout of 34.4 per cent.

The union promised to co-ordinate any action with the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the University and College Union (UCU).

The result followed the overwhelming support for strikes expressed by NUT and ATL members on Tuesday.

This means at least 750,000 teachers, jobcentre workers, airport staff, traffic controllers, police support staff and immigration officers will walk out in anger over government plans to make them work longer and pay more for worse pensions.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka branded the TUC-led negotiations between union officials and ministers "a farce" because the government had already announced key changes to the pension scheme, including switching from RPI inflation to CPI and raising the retirement age to 68.

Mr Serwotka warned of further co-ordinated action in October being considered by PCS, Unison and Unite which could involve "three to four million workers" over pay freezes and job losses.

He said the turnout would have been "much higher" if the union was allowed to ballot its members online and in the workplace - prevented by the "hardest union laws in Europe."

And, highlighting the low turnout during elections, he added: "Look at the number of people voted to elect the majority of the MPs in this country."

ATL president Andy Brown said that the June 30 strike date had been picked "to avoid external exams and important school and college events."

NUT general secretary Christine Blower accused the government of not taking the TUC-led negotiations seriously and hoped the strikes would force it to change its attitude.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said unions were "jumping the gun" in planning strikes and boasted that "rigorous contingency plans" were in place to lessen the effect.

He said that the government was "engaging in discussions with the TUC" but was "determined" to push through the unpopular changes.

Labour's David Winnick (Walsall North) told MPs that many workers felt they had no choice.

"Why should the government be surprised that public-sector workers, many of them pretty poorly paid, faced with an onslaught on their pensions and frozen pay, decide to fight back? It would be surprising if they didn't."
Bookmark and Share