TUC: Congress rallies to defence of Birmingham City Council workforce‏

Yesterday Congress unanimously expressed its disgust at the decision of Birmingham City Council to issue redundancy notices to 25,837 employees. http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-18496-f0.cfm
The GMB drafted emergency motion pulled no punches in condemning the Council Chief Executive (albeit mistakenly referring to him as Council leader).

UNISON President Angela Lynes spoke in support of the motion noting that the ‘aggressive and ill conceived attack’ is designed to coerce staff to accept inferior terms and conditions under threat of dismissal without compensation.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=6341

The crisis in Birmingham is of huge significance to public service unions. It is one of many Conservative/Liberal Democrat led councils predating the Cameron/Clegg government which have made drastic cuts in services and implemented punitive employment policies.

This is a crude and unprecedented attempt to secure large scale savings in council expenditure at the expense of the workforce. If the City Council refuses to withdraw the notices then local government unions will need to deploy maximum national resources in support of any industrial action mounted to roll back this attack. Otherwise the mass dismissal in Birmingham will be the first of many in coming years.