Britain faces an autumn of discontent as trade unions threaten a campaign of national strikes over spending cuts, pay and pensions in the public sector. Civil servants, teachers and health and transport workers face calls to join a national day of action on 20 October, the day the chancellor, George Osborne, is to disclose details of a spending review designed to cut public spending by £83bn. A further day of marches and demonstrations is planned for 23 October, aswell as a series of strike days during the autumn as unions gear up to fight an expected 600,000 public sector job losses.
As the leaves fall, the unions rise
Motions tabled for the Trade Union Congress (TUC) conference in Manchester next month call for co-ordinated action by unions including the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Unison, the National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). Unison, Britain's biggest public sector trade union with 1.3 million members, has called on unions to join a Europe-wide day of action in September. It said the TUC should back the European Trade Union Confederation's planned European Day of Action on 29 September, which will include a rally in Brussels timed to coincide with a meeting of European Union finance ministers.
Meanwhile the RMT is also warning the government against any further changes to trade union law which would prompt strike action. The RMT said the TUC conference would be the launchpad for a co-ordinated fight against the cuts. "Our defence must be built on generalised strike action and community resistance," said the RMT general secretary, Bob Crow (above), predicting the biggest public mobilisation since the anti-poll tax riots of 1990. The prime minister, David Cameron, who is likely to be on paternity leave during the TUC conference, has declined an invitation to address the congress.
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