Uniting against austerity

If the government continues on its destructive course of big spending cuts we face a lost decade making it vital to join the fight against austerity.

The PCS national campaign to defend pensions, jobs, pay and services has been stepped up this summer with action across many workplaces.

The union has a live mandate for strike action and for action short of strike over jobs, pensions and pay. We are discussing national action in the autumn with other unions and raising the question of co-ordinated strike action against government austerity measures at this month’s TUC congress.

The government has pledged to cut 730,000 public sector jobs by 2017 and slash spending by £80 billion. For millions, their jobs, pay and pensions are under threat, as are the local services they use.
UK growth has slumped – meaning the government will have to borrow £150bn more than planned over the current parliament. Last year slow growth cost £34bn more in tax credits and social security costs, and lost more than £51bn of income tax.

The recent PCS pamphlet 'Austerity isn’t working: There is an alternative'argues persuasively that austerity has failed to create jobs or economic growth. As the union predicted in 2010, the government has attacked jobs, pensions and pay, threatened privatisation and attacked and demonised those entitled to welfare. Yet all of this has worsened rather than improved the economy and people's lives and made the UK a more brutal place in which to live.

Unemployment is rising while living standards are falling, especially exorbitant energy bills and increased travel costs. A new study by PCS and Unite shows workers are on average £150 a month worse off and need to borrow £300 a month to keep their heads above water. PCS believes we need to urgently increase pay for the majority otherwise there is going to be a profound and damaging economic segregation.
There is no need for a single job to be cut or a single penny to be taken away from public services. Politics is about choices – and there is always a choice and an alternative.

Weak divided government

This is a very weak, increasingly divided government that can be defeated. Ministers have already been forced into more than 30 major policy U-turns in the two years since the general election.

It is our job to campaign to change the political consensus which threatens everything our movement has ever fought for. We need people to encourage their family, friends and colleagues to join the protests against austerity by marching in London, Glasgow and Belfast on 20 October to show collectively we refuse to be bullied into accepting working longer, paying more and receiving less in retirement. Action by PCS reps and members across the public sector this summer has already shown what can be achieved if we all stand together.

The threat of strike action for better pay by PCS members working for Olympics sponsor Atos IT and Atos Healthcare led to management making a significantly improved offer while the ongoing tax justice campaign by HMRC members has to the department announcing plans to recruit up to 1,000 temporary extra staff.

Hundreds of thousands of people uniting across the UK on marches and rallies on 20 October and on picket lines in the autumn and beyond can help to bring an end to austerity and realise an alternative for the greater good.