Council workers supported by other public sector trade unionists
lobbied Gateshead Councillors prior to the budget setting meeting on
Thursday March 3rd. The council has a yawning budget deficit
of £70 million over the next two years. £32 million of cuts are set to
fall this year and up to £38 million over the next two years.
Council workers supported by other public sector trade unionists
lobbied Gateshead Councillors prior to the budget setting meeting on
Thursday March 3rd. The council has a yawning budget deficit
of £70 million over the next two years. £32 million of cuts are set to
fall this year and up to £38 million over the next two years.
Around 800 workers have taken
voluntary redundancy and 200 vacancies will be deleted. The effect on services
to the young, the old and vulnerable will be dramatic. Front line services will
be slashed and a whole series of management reviews are taking place which will
cut admin staff and central functions in the name of making the council “fit
for future”.
While the council have avoided compulsory
redundancies, a lot of pressure was brought to bear on workers to take
voluntary redundancy. The offer was presented as more or less a special, never
to be repeated, offer. This wasn’t a simple exercise in natural wastage, more
of a crisis measure to try and manage an impossible position.
But Labour councillors need to be far more
than mere managers. They need to stand up and represent the people who elected
them. There are some fine examples of Labour councillors refusing to implement
cuts and being prepared to take on the Government. These include the Poplar Rates rebellion in
1921, the Clay Cross councillors in the early 1970’s and the Liverpool and
Lambeth struggles against the Tories in the 1980’s.
Without a unified struggle against the cuts
involving the whole of the Labour and Trade Union movement the risk is that the
Tories will be able to pick off one council after another. Councillors will
take the mistaken view that they can’t fight back. The key task for trade
unionists and Labour Party members involved in fighting the cuts is to build a
mass campaign that confronts the Tories and the Lib Dems.
The next weeks are crucial. If even one
Labour Group was prepared to stand up and fight the Tories over the cuts, they
would provide an example to all the others. If the Tories send in commissioners
and auditors to try and take over the running of the councils, they must be met
with all out strike action, backed up by coordinated national action.
Ultimately that means preparing the way for a 24 hour general strike in defence
of public services.
