BACKLASH AGAINST CUTS GETS UNDERWAY

Workers refuse to pay for bosses’ crisis

National strikes in the civil service and on the rail network are showing that workers can stand up for themselves and the public to cuts and imposed changes in working conditions.

Civil servants were out in force in Kent and nationally on Budget Day, striking in a dispute over government plans to tear up redundancy agreements before making job cuts in the public sector. The stoppage, called by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), saw 200,000 stay away from work, causing widespread disruption to job centres, courts, tax offices, land registries and call centres.

The Socialist Party was at pickets in Canterbury and Gravesend, supporting workers taking a stand against the government’s preparations for an onslaught on public sector spending and jobs. Our leafleting was well-received in Gravesend and distributed by a union representative, while at Canterbury a steward told us that the PCS had recruited 1700 as a result of the strike. It is thought, however, that managers and scabs were sent across the county out of Maidstone by the authorities.

The PCS is fighting proposed changes to its members’accrued compensation scheme rights that will rob many hard-working public servants of tens of thousands of pounds if made redundant, put everyone’s jobs under greater threat than ever before, and open the way to private companies seeking to make a profit by cutting jobs.

Carol Dodd, PCS branch secretary for west Kent told The Kent Socialist on the picket line in Gravesend: ‘I’m on strike today because I’m a union member, the union have balloted for strike action, and I support the union 100 per cent. I have also been a civil servant for 23 years and I am one of those civil servants affected by the new rules regarding the civil service compensation scheme.’ She added: ‘The new rules effect all our redundancy payments if we are going to get made redundant. [Councils] are able to give figures about how much they are going to save. If they know how much they are going to save, they know who they are going to make redundant.’

Rail workers, meanwhile, are due to strike over cost-cutting by National Rail which will compromise passenger safety. Maintenance workers and signal operators will be out for four days from 6 April after a ballot that PCS members are among many workers fighting back the bosses’exploitation of the recession overwhelmingly backed action.