It’s nearly three years since this government was formed, and every day we see more evidence to shred Osborne’s myth that we’re “all in this together”. With a cabinet whose combined personal wealth is around £70 million, it’s hardly surprising that the poorest are bearing the brunt of austerity while millionaires – like themselves – […]
Posts Tagged ‘Public Sector’
What we can learn from the Olympics – the benefits of state intervention
Aug 13th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.After an unexpectedly brilliant Olympics – 29 golds and 65 medals, unprecedented for more than a century since 1908 – pleading questions are being asked whether it will bring about a transformation of Britain. It will not. It has certainly provided an enormous morale boost for the national psyche and made a naturally self-deprecating and […]
Share:
Levelling down for public pensions, not for the rich
Jun 6th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The agreement finally reached on the local government pension scheme after the government made significant concessions has rather less to do with official generosity than fear about the consequences if the scheme were so eviscerated that hundreds of thousands of local government workers might decide there was no point in continuing to contribute to it […]
Share:
Andrew Fisher on Trade Unions: Wrong, wrong, wrong
Jan 22nd, 2012 by Andy Newman.It is hard to imagine a more ill-judged intervention into the debates about the public sector pensions dispute than that of Andrew Fisher, joint secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, and I was therefore surprised to see it reproduced at Left Futures, and praised by Gregor Gall, who is usually an astute commentator on trade union affairs.
Share:
The Pensions dispute and the way forward for trade unions
Jan 19th, 2012 by Andrew Fisher.The November 30 strikes saw unprecedented unity in the union movement but the speed of its collapse illustrates just how tenuous it was. Despite claims to have extracted significant concessions from the government, unions that sign up to the government’s offer are really guilty of selling short not only their members but millions more whose […]
Share:
Public pensions battle far from over
Dec 21st, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The Government saved the Ministerial statement on public pensions to the very last day of Parliament before Xmas – always a sign that the most contentious and unpopular business is being left to the point where it will get least attention. On this occasion, in the run-up to Xmas the mood is for settling, but […]
Share:
N30 not a one-off – it is the start
Nov 30th, 2011 by Union News.Left Futures coverage will be limited today because we are engaged in various activities in support of the strike but live coverage of today’s events can be found at Union News.
Share:
The case for the strike is overwhelming
Nov 29th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Danny Alexander’s main argument is that lower and middle earners will be better off in retirement as a result of the Government’s improved proposals announced on 2nd November. But this is a sleight of hand. What he has done is calculate that if such an earner worked longer and retired later, he or she would […]
Share:
Twenty-six unions preparing to strike
Nov 18th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Twenty-fivesix unions are now preparing to strike on November 30, RMT being the latest union to announce a ballot result. Full details of their balloting reslts are set out below.Only the Prisoners Officers Association who are balloting secure psychiatric workers employed in the health service, has not yet announced its ballot result – due on […]
Share:
Why Labour people should back “the Great Strike”
Nov 18th, 2011 by Owen Jones.The Great Strike is less than two weeks away. From headteachers to lollipop ladies, care assistants to university lecturers, hundreds of thousands of workers are set to take part in the biggest co-ordinated industrial action since the 1926 General Strike. The Labour leadership is highly unlikely to back the strike: the best that can be […]
