The war of words between the trade unions and government that began after Friday's TUC statement on the probability of public sector workers' strikes to defend our pensions escalated on Sunday when Gideon Osborne, Chancellor and bankers; friend, repeated earlier warnings that employment law could be changed to make ay industrial action we may take illegal:
"We are prepared to consider changes to the law around strikes – as a last resort – but I hope we never get there because I hope we can have a mature, grown-up conversation," he told BBC1's Politics Show. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/30/george-osborne-ed-balls-economy
We need to respond to this threat by doubling our efforts in the campaign against the deep and rapid spending cuts. Polls show that public opinion is shifting and people understand just how unfair and damaging these cuts will prove to public services, jobs and the wider economy.
The anti-cuts demonstration being held on March 26 must be a huge event at which we will come together to show our opposition to the Government's cuts. Half a million members face losing their jobs with workers being hit by a pay freeze and the prospect of worse pensions. Workers would have "no choice" but to take action if the cuts went ahead, especially on pensions.
As Dave Prentis said on Friday: "We have agreed to co-ordinate all our negotiations and discussions through the TUC. We will work together to fight these cuts because otherwise we will see hundreds of thousands of workers made unemployed, services decimated and even the NHS privatised."
Trade unions were born in illegality. The Combination Acts and most famously the Tolpuddle Martyrs. That's why we should be proud that Osbourne fears us, as everyone knows organised labour is the only force that stands between the madness of austerity and a new way forward for our economy and our communities.
And make no mistake, it is public sector unions - representing two thirds of all unionised workers - which are in the front line. An Economist review praises as 'well informed' a rabid New York Times attack on the very existence of public sector unions: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/01/public-sector_unions. The more they threaten us the stronger our resolve will grow.
