Trade union call in fighting cuts

9:03am Monday 1st October 2012 in News

Trade union call in fighting cuts Trade union call in fighting cuts

MEMBERS of a York trade union have issued a rallying cry for support ahead of a huge national anti-cuts protest.

Hundreds of thousands of people will gather in London on October 20 for a mass demonstration, organised by the TUC, against Government funding reductions and privatisation.

The York branch of UNISON said floods which caused chaos in the city last week are more evidence of the dangers posed by cuts, as the Environment Agency is affected by the spending straitjacket and the union fears it will have less money for future flood defences.

Branch secretary Heather McKenzie said: “There have been huge spending cuts for several years, leaving councils like York struggling to balance budgets while trying to protect frontline services to the most vulnerable. We are expecting news of more Government cuts this autumn and we will be marching with other unions and members of the public who want to tell this Government that enough is enough.”

Comments(11)

BioLogic says...
9:18am Mon 1 Oct 12

The Trade Unions are an irrelevant and meaningless force in the UK today. They have lost their way from their intended purpose of protecting workers rights and become a vehicle for the political ambitions of their leaders.

Posturing like this in the story above just makes the general public, myself included dislike these bloated unions like Unison and ironically reduces the chances of me supporting their cause.

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Platform9 says...
9:26am Mon 1 Oct 12

Being a Unison member I received a letter from them last week inviting me and a member of my family to book a place on the FREE coach to London for this rally. I think I'll be withdrawing my union subscriptions as I now can see where it goes. By all means protest but do it at your own cost - I wonder how many will use it as a cheap day out shopping?

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Pete the Brickie says...
10:47am Mon 1 Oct 12



The York branch of UNISON said floods which caused chaos in the city last week are more evidence of the dangers posed by cuts



No, the floods were caused by excessive rainfall over a short period and tidal water movements. Unless the Environment Agency were able to employ King Canute before Cameron took power and he really could command the tide the outcome would have been exactly the same had the country continued spending its self into Greek like oblivion.

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meme says...
11:23am Mon 1 Oct 12

They are anachronistic morons who are not protecting their members but feathering their own nests
Of course this country needs to make cutes. Dont they understand? most so called sophisticated economies have been spending more than they earn and are bankrupt.No different to a houshold spending more than comes in wages Eventually we have to foot the bill. That time has come. if we dont the country will go bankrupt and pensions etc will not be paid. is that what they want? Probably so they can cause political unrest and make their own political agendas work!
Even germany has a ral issue now. They effectivly lent spain/ Italy/greece money so they could spend it on German goods and keep their economy going. Why does anyone think they all have BMS's/Mercs etcbut they did not have the money. Now Germany is not likley to get it back so we all suffer.
Unions need to taske a long hard look at where they are going and what they werte set up to do rather than try to foster outdated politics on us all

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BioLogic says...
12:22pm Mon 1 Oct 12

The political agendas of most of the unions (which is really the agenda of their "leaders" being superimposed on those foolish enough to pay their union subs) are so out of sync with the political landscape they are trying to impose themselves on, they don't realise that Party politics is long dead.

All three main Parties are simply different variations on the same theme and any vaguely off centre ideas either way means we end up with a coalition government as no one party can garner enough votes for outright Government.

The best option is the leadership that can provide the best standard of leadership and macro economic control. And frankly any way you cut it Cameron, Clegg and co have far better credentials than Ed Milliband and his infighting and backbiting shadow cabinet. You have to pay the bill sometime, you cant keep spending what you don't have.

The pain the public sector is experiencing now is the same pain the private sector experienced 4 years ago. The Public Sector may have been insulated from it then but they had to share the pain sometime.

I can't help but think the concern shown by some of this country's biggest unions has nothing to do with the welfare of their members and everything to do with the reduction in political power the unions leadership will experience with a falling membership.

I personally find it abhorrent that our taxes are going towards funding full time union staff in our Local Authorities, whose agenda is now political and not about collective bargaining.

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asd says...
1:47pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Its funny how you seem to forget that THIS Goverment is actually BORROWING more. So that means more cuts to the less fortuante, as long as their chums can still register their buisness abroad and pay less tax by going into 1% tax band in Isle of wright. We will continue to widen the rich and the poor as this goverment spins its lies. Unions are suppose to protect their workers and that also means that it has to be political as working law is political as its done by goverment.

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asd says...
1:48pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Its funny how you seem to forget that THIS Goverment is actually BORROWING more. So that means more cuts to the less fortuante, as long as their chums can still register their buisness abroad and pay less tax by going into 1% tax band in Isle of wright. We will continue to widen the rich and the poor as this goverment spins its lies. Unions are suppose to protect their workers and that also means that it has to be political as working law is political as its done by goverment.

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sheps lad says...
2:02pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Have any of you thought what the plight of the average working man/woman would have been without the trade unions?

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BioLogic says...
4:10pm Mon 1 Oct 12

asd wrote:
Its funny how you seem to forget that THIS Goverment is actually BORROWING more. So that means more cuts to the less fortuante, as long as their chums can still register their buisness abroad and pay less tax by going into 1% tax band in Isle of wright. We will continue to widen the rich and the poor as this goverment spins its lies. Unions are suppose to protect their workers and that also means that it has to be political as working law is political as its done by goverment.
You will have to excuse me if I say you have no idea what you are talking about. because you don't.

Yes national debt is increasing, because the previous Government lent a shed load of money to the banks and the interest on those loans is racking up. As production dropped tax receipts fell also. The debt would be going up faster if the Government kept spending money it didn't have.

The Isle of White isn't some tax haven tax rates there are the same as everywhere else in the UK. I think you probably mean the Isle of Mann. That is not part of the Uk and has it's own Government that sets it's tax affairs. They decide who registers businesses there, why don't you go whinge at them.

Unions are there for collective bargaining to ensure that one section of a workforce is not given better or worse treatment than another. That has very little to do with Government Macro Economic Policy.

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nearlyman says...
5:20pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Meanwhile...........
.......back in the real world...........a long way away from union utopia..............
......

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bob the builder says...
7:27pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Look at Union leaders past and present, none are living in poverty, and when Labour are in government a lot of them end up as Lords, Sirs etc. By all means public sector workers support a union to fight for your rights but don't forget that the private sector often earn less for working more hours, have less holidays, lower or no pension and most important of all, many of your jobs can be outsourced abroad to as part of the cuts or given to the thousands of unemployed who would like to work. Don't bite the hand that feeds.

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