Jobs freeze will hurt economy more than snow

Responding to the government's plans to extend the civil service recruitment freeze indefinitely, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

 "After official figures confirmed last week that the economy shrank in the final quarter of 2010, the government seems determined to drive it down even further by cutting investment from the only sector that showed any growth - the public sector.

"Instead of arrogantly ploughing on with cuts, which are already damaging our public finances, the government should have the strength to admit it was wrong, change course, and create jobs to invest in our economy."

'Greenest government ever' sacks rural agency staff

Thirty nine of the staff at the Commission for Rural Communities have been told they will be leaving on 31 March and more will follow between March and August, meaning the organisation will go from having 85 staff in June 2010 to just three.

The commission’s budget was cut by 93.5% from £6.94 million in 2009/10 to £450,000 for 2011/12.

The cuts will be damaging to rural economies and could leave the commission unable to carry out its statutory functions before it is formally abolished next year, the union says.

The news comes as the union is considering holding a ballot for national industrial action over cuts to jobs and pensions, and talking to other unions about co-ordinated action.

The commission was set up by an act of parliament in 2005 to work with government departments and other public bodies to tackle social exclusion and disadvantage in rural communities, by improving services; access, such as broadband internet; and transport, as well as promoting sustainable development. It can only be abolished by further legislation.

The union said it was perverse that the Tory-led government is choosing to abolish the commission and England’s nine regional development agencies - bodies which deliver essential work to support and improve the lives of those living in rural communities.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "One minute the government boasts about its commitment to 'localism', and the next it scraps the very organisations that champion our local communities.

"The idea that you can centralise these functions in the 'rural idyll' of Whitehall would be laughable if it didn’t have such devastating consequences for people’s livelihoods and our rural economies."

March for the Alternative - London Saturday 26 March

The flagship demonstration against coalition government cuts is the March for the Alternative – organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Saturday 26 March. Details of transport are available from this page. 
If you are organising transport to the demonstration and are happy for us to add the details to this page, please contact Karina Rayment - karina@pcs.org.uk.

Protesters from all over the UK will gather at 11am at the Victoria Embankment, London, WC2N 6NL.
There will be a march to Hyde Park for a rally. 

The TUC is the umbrella organisation for trades unions in Britain.

Coaches and trains are being chartered from the four corners of the country to take trades unionists and their supporters to London.

PCS members are urged to attend with friends and family – to oppose the massive attack on jobs and working conditions being faced across the union.

See who else is going and sign up to receive the latest news.

A big demo will give working people a glimpse of their strength and the confidence to take the battle forward.

• For more details of the day’s events see the TUC’s web page and follow March26March on twitter.
• For details of the nationwide campaign against the cuts see the trade union sponsored False Economy website. 
• Details on disabled access for the demo.

British forces would struggle to mount small military intervention, claim officers

British forces would struggle to mount even a small scale military intervention as the cupboard for resources was threadbare.
 
The chances of an operation to rescue civilians from conflicts like Libya would become remote as more and more equipment is pushed out of service under defence cuts. 
 
Instead of supporting defence the ConDem government will cuts supplies and decimate civilian jobs that offer value for money support and committment to the front line; jobs and defence support will either be sold off or cut. 
 
Military experts wrote to the Prime Minister on the 29th January 2011, as detailed in The Telegraph today saying that "The publicly declared proposition that ‘the risks inherent in the currently envisaged Defence structure are acceptable’ seems to us to be unduly trusting in an uncertain, fast moving and dangerous world". 
 
It is clear that the government is not listening to anyone other that the people and companies that fund them.
 
It is time for our government to listen to the ordinary workers whose lives they are destroying through the politically driven public sector cuts.

 

Baroness Eaton urges public sector pensions rethink

The top Tory in local government has urged Chancellor George Osborne to rethink plans to make public sector workers pay more into their pensions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12516645

Defence Estates scrapped by reform unit to form the Defence Infrastructure Organisation

The creation of a new organisation to manage Defence property has been announced today.

Defence Estates is to be absorbed into a new body which will manage defence property, saving the Ministry of Defence an estimated £1.2bn by 2015.

Around 2,500 jobs are to go by 2014 as a result of the creation of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).

The move accounts for around 10 per cent of the 25,000 civilian jobs to be cut by 2015.

The DIO will take on the responsibilities of Defence Estates, which currently spends some £2bn each year, managing around 240,000 hectares of land and property on behalf of the MOD.

Estate rationalisation,  efficiency measures and job losses appear to be the way forward. 

The private sector must be rubbing their hands together.

Sacking soldiers by email likely to happen again

Since the defence review announcement, PCS has been warning that incidents like this would happen as the MoD start to cut 25,000 civilian posts and 17,000 military jobs.

Both the previous and the current governments must take their share of the blame. The previous administration left defence in a perilous position and the coalition has conducted a rushed defence review that is driven by cuts rather than strategy.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: 

"This is a shameful way to treat staff, whether civilian or military. But cutting 42,000 personnel from the MoD will worsen rather than improve the armed forces.

The armed forces minister claims there is no painless way to make cuts, but we believe there is an alternative, and the government should invest in our public services and target the wealthy who avoid and evade paying tens of billions of pounds in taxes every year.

This would allow us to have a properly funded and resourced MoD, as well as properly funded public services for all.

The alternative for the MoD is to cut back on the wasteful use of private consultants and allow civilian staff to fill non-essential military posts, which would free up service personnel for the frontline."