In U.K., Workers threaten summer walkout

A summer of discontent is looming across the West as public sector workers unite to take strike action.

Tens of thousands of staff are being balloted on a one-day walkout on June 30, with unions looking at further industrial action in the autumn.

Some union leaders have told the Daily Press the first general strike in 85 years cannot be ruled out, as feelings are running so high over cuts to services, jobs and pensions.

Teachers, lecturers, coastguards, driving test examiners, courts staff, Ministry of Defence workers and other civil servants could all take action on June 30.

Firefighters added to the pressure on the coalition Government by threatening a national strike over pay, with many in the West furious about planned changes to shift patterns.

Three teaching unions, the National Union of Teachers, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, and the National Association of Head Teachers, have agreed to ballot members on strikes in protest at pension changes.

Members of the University and College Union have already taken industrial action over pensions and could join the co-ordinated June 30 strike.

If it goes ahead hundreds of thousands of pupils at virtually every school in the West could be affected by strikes.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will ballot more than 250,000 civil servants, with the result due in the middle of June, and predicts a wave of strikes over the summer.

There are 23,000 South West members, and regional secretary Gordon Rowntree told the Daily Press: "In most places morale is hitting rock bottom. People are starting to see the cuts affecting them, and jobs are being lost.

"This is one of the biggest threats that we believe we have ever seen in the Civil Service and public sector generally.

"We have been attacked from all sides and it seems as though we have been made to pay for something we did not create."

He said PCS members are writing to West MPs asking for meetings before the ballot closes on June 15.

"The Communication Workers Union are talking about balloting and industrial action as well, and I imagine Bob Crow of the RMT will do something. The unions are starting to work together, and looking at planning particular activities on June 30.

"The PCS has signed a partnership agreement with Unite and Unison, so three of the biggest unions in the country will commit to working together and no doubt other unions will come on board.

"Whether it will get to the point of a general strike, I don't know.

"The last time we were in a crisis like this was in the 1920s, and the last time we had a general strike was 1926, that puts it into perspective."

Nigel Costley, South West regional secretary of the TUC, said: 

"Passions are running high as people feel the effect of cuts on their services and families.

"Up to now it has really been a political argument, but when people see libraries closing or youth services disappearing, they see for themselves the reality of what it means.

"For public sector workers anger is growing. They see jobs going, pressure of work increasing, pay being cut, and the modest pensions they get under attack, from low-paid hospital workers to head teachers.

"It looks as though many unions will take strike action on June 30, and then unions are prepared to take further action in the autumn,

"Unions are fighting on many fronts – people, are looking at ways of protesting and expressing their escalating anger.

"They want to know how they can resist what is happening and how they can make their voices heard."

Fire Brigades Union South West executive Council member Tam MacFarlane says: "Since the coalition came to power a year ago, morale has suffered.

"People are frustrated, and they are also angry right now and it will get worse as the cuts really start to bite – we are heading for a period of serious industrial unrest.

"In the South West, firefighters, and public service workers generally are becoming far more politicised.

"They are angry especially about bankers receiving enormous bonuses, when we are facing cuts, and they feel they are paying for a deficit they never created."

Unison has launched a formal ballot of members working for Somerset County Council recommending they vote for industrial action short of a strike over cuts to redundancy payments.

It closes on June 16 and calls for a work-to-rule – essentially withdrawing goodwill – and regional organiser Helen Eccles said many work many hours of unpaid overtime.

"Our members are telling us enough is enough. Unlike strike action, a work-to-rule maintains basic service provision, but gives a foretaste of how under-staffed, minimalist and frayed public services will look within a couple of years."

Nationally more than 750,000 workers could join the 24-hour walk-out on June 30, and the CWU has called for the TUC to co-ordinate a nationwide strike.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude hopes industrial action will not take place, but insists the ballot results cannot not deter them from achieving the changes necessary in the present financial climate. "Let's not forget that from day one we have been doing everything we can to protect public service jobs and front line services by cutting Government's overhead costs.

"The reality is that action on pay and pensions is what will protect jobs in the public sector."