Pay strikes posted by Richard Seymour

Council workers have voted by a substantial majority for pay strikes this summer, following up from successful strike action by teachers and civil servants in April. 800,000 workers will be on strike, but there's no word yet as to what kind of action is going to be proposed by the national executive. I hope it's dawning on them that one day actions aren't enough - but Prentis et al are Labour men as far as I know, and are likely to face serious pressure from the government to scale it back a bit. Chancellor Alistair Darling is worried at any rate. He is quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "I certainly hope there won't be a series of strikes. Strikes very rarely achieve their goals". As if his concern here was that the unions might not succeed against his government. And the Tories are calling for an "extremely tough" stance, reinforcing the suspicion that once in office they are going to go after the big unions in a major way.

Labels: new labour, pay cuts, strike, tories, trade unions