Gordon Brown announced in his budget that are mants to sack
40,000 Civil Servants.
The representatives of big business immediately welcomed the proposal, claiming it will save them money in taxes.
The media have portrayed Brown's cuts as falling on 'men from the Ministry' and faceless bureaucrats in Whitehall.
Actually three quarters of the jobs to go will be axed from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), where over 70% of staff are women. Brown wants to sack .....
These jobs will mainly go from local benefit offices providing local services to local people. The workers facing redundancy are low paid. 90,000 workers in the DWP (from a total workforce of 130,000) earn less than €15,000.
Whilst Brown is trying to freeze the wages of these low paid workers and cut their jobs, he is turning a blind eye to his henchmen running the Department. The eight Board members now earn over El million between them.
Brown is borrowing £37 billion in his budget and admits at least six billion is to pay for New Labour's ongoing wars in
Afghanistan etc. He wants to make workers, claimants and the Welfare State pay for these adventures. use it to punish the mainstream politicians.
STANDING TOGETHER ON PAY Time to get awkward
Hopefully Brown's attacks will politicise Civil Servants. The main Civil Service Union, Civil Service. the PCS will be balloting its members later this year on whether to establish a political fund. Union members should vote yes and
And it isn't just New Labour gunning for Civil Servants - the Tories have threatened
STANDING TOGETHER ON PAY PAY Fair pay for all to sack 80,000 Civil Servants and the Liberals have promised to privatise huge areas of the
dancies.
The left leadership of the PCS should promote RESPECT and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) as parties in tune with PCS policies. Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary, is a RESPECT supporter and Janice Godrich, PCS President, is a member of the SSP
PCS branches should be allowed, like their counterparts in the RMT, to support left candidates against this anti-labour Government. Brown's announcement comes at a time when the Government is facing a wave of strikes by Civil Servants against low pay. PCS members in the DWP are set to strike again on 13 and 14 April over their 2003 pay claim. The Government wants tc demoralise the strikers by threatening job cuts. The union must respond to the Government's declaration of war. It should call its whole membership out on strike against low pay and redunNew Labour has sought to take on militant sections of workers one by one, but Trade Unions must act together now to fight low pay and defend the Welfare State
We need to all get awkward and organise solidarity with Civil Servants