Unions put the Government on notice today that workers will launch strikes against spending cuts as the coalition came under furious attack for its "obscene" axing of public services.
The TUC Congress agreed to co-ordinate campaigns and industrial action amid warnings that some unions have already started preparing to launch stoppages.
Millions of workers are now on a collision course with the Government which could lead to a wave of strikes in the coming months as the scale of the austerity measures unfolds.
Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the coalition for its "reckless" spending cuts, which they said had already led to over 200,000 job losses or threats of redundancies among public sector workers.
TUC chief calls on unions to fight government cuts
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said it was a "lie" that the country could not afford decent public services, arguing that the Government was making cuts because it wanted to promote privatisation.
"If there's money available to bail out banks and bonuses, if there's money for war and Trident, there's money for our public services.
"If money is tight, never mind a pay freeze for our members, how about a pay freeze for bankers? We've seen enough of what they've done, we've had enough of their greed and arrogance. It's them, not our members, who should be doing more for less."
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, who has called for civil disobedience to defend public services, drew loud applause from delegates when he said: "We lie down or stand up and fight."
Gail Cartmail, of Unite, said unions were facing the "fight of our lives" and warned that women would suffer most from public spending cuts.
Attacks on pensions would set back the equal pay campaign decades and widen the gender pay gap, she claimed.
Brian Strutton of the GMB said a million people could lose their jobs as a result of the "reckless" cuts.
"The Government is in denial. It sees deficit reduction as the be all and end all, forgetting it was public spending that saved the economy from collapse during the banking crisis."
Mr Strutton said the mood of the public would change when spending cuts started to bite, adding that services such as meals-on-wheels, school food and council housing were already being scaled back.
Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, said public sector workers should not take lectures from millionaires, adding that the real "scroungers" were the rich who avoided paying their taxes.
"Tax fraud costs £1 billion but tax avoidance costs £120 billion. As far as we are concerned, not one single job should be lost. Industrial action is inevitable unless the Government is prepared to change direction and if we have to take action, the onus is on us to make sure it is as effective as possible."
Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union, said cutting Government budgets by 25% or 40% was "lunacy", adding that unions had to stop the cuts.
"We have a cabinet of millionaires who don't use public services. This is not just a war on our people it is a war on the entire population in the interests of a tiny minority of big business, bankers and the super rich."
TUC chief calls on unions to fight government cuts
Dave Ward, of the Communication Workers Union, said many people felt let down by the previous Labour government and said it was up to trade unions to lead the fight against spending cuts.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber attacked the "demolition Government", warning that the current austerity drive would damage public services and cost huge numbers of jobs.
Unions were facing "stark realities" following the General Election, with one overwhelming issue set to dominate workers for the rest of the year.
"That is the Government's determination to drive through massive spending cuts, which will not only devastate the services we rely on, but do untold damage to our economic prospects."
Mr Barber said no-one could deny the depth of the recession, which he maintained was made in the boardrooms of the world's banks, before spreading "like a contagion" via the financial system, savaging jobs and living standards.
"Rightly, governments made sure that the banking system did not collapse. They took emergency action to ensure that recession did not turn into slump.
"They showed that we did not have to repeat the 1930s - the last time we faced a similar finance-induced crash. Employers and unions agreed short-time working and flexible ways of keeping skilled workforces together.
"Alongside government action, this has made sure that unemployment has not become as bad is it was in the 1980s. But the new Government would not recognise what I have said this morning."
Jim McAuslan, leader of the British Association of airline pilots, was the only delegate to criticise the TUC's campaign, saying that attacking the rich set the wrong tone for the campaign ahead.
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"Jim McAuslan, leader of the British Association of airline pilots, was the only delegate to criticise the TUC's campaign, saying that attacking the rich set the wrong tone for the campaign ahead."
That's one voice more against the Union's "Eat the Rich" battlecry than is usually heard. We need more like him.
Yes, there "WAS" money to bail out this banking industries and for all the wars under Nulabor Blair/Brown Junta. But thanks to Prudence policies and absorbing Credit cards over inflated usage also not paying attention to the treasury coffers. We as a country are virtually SKINT. Please by all mean go on strike, if you feel compelled too. Remember as union officials supported a Blair/Brown Junta in donations given to you by core supporters. Ergo an acceptance of wild spending unchecked economy. Not forget that old complaint by bigot of an old lady Mass Immigration while having not even bothered to retrain 18-24. So please feel free to strike you wont get my support.
'Many people felt let down by the previous Labour Government' says a Trade Union Leader..and the response is to attack the new Government...So what did the Trade Unions do to stop Labour in power,when their members were so unhappy ?...Suck it up...Labour put you in this situation,so try working out a solution to the inherited problems,as opposed to contributing to it further.
"Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the coalition for its "reckless" spending cuts"
Bunch of dinosaurs, shame they didn't lambast the Labour government for its reckless spending.
The various union bosses are just a bunch of hypocrites. When Labour were in, where was the likes of Bob Crow? Getting his palmed greased by the than government and trousering a big wage.
Labour had no choice but to spend after years of the Tories the country was a disgrace. Hospitals had closed, Schools were in disrepair, Police forces accross the country couldn't cope with crime. Labour therefore spent on hospitals, built schools and put extra police to cut crime. All this is what people were screaming for after the Tories and that is why Labour came into power in 1997. What are Pinky & Perky (Con & Co.) going to do - close hospitals, stop building schools, get rid of thousands of coppers and put less criminals behind bars so we are then back to square one.
The unions should note the poll being run by this paper. Current result is that 78% of the public would not support union action. Not that that will stop them; they don't operate democratically.
Bear in mind all you potential strikers, the union full-timers don't lose a penny through strike action - you do!
Vermin Slayer - Sorry but it is fact. It appears you must have been the one reading fairy stories in the 1990's or you would have been aware of what state this country
was in when the Tories had finished with it. Don't worry though it looks like we are about to experience the same again.
I remember the glory (not) days of the Tories as you put it. Exactly as I have told it.
Labour is broke and it is no surprise that it is Labour and the Unions that have given this country a debt of a third world nation. It was Brown who sold our gold reserve at its lowest price, who raided our pension funds of billions whilst funding an illegal war, so this country had nothing left. We keep going round in circles with Labour spending massive sums of money they don't have and then the Tory's slashing all services to the bone. The tax payer funds the E.U. to the tune of over £50 billion per year, stop this and this country is debt free in 4 years with no cuts in services, still be a member of the European Free Trade Association just like Norway & Switzerland and we still keep our trade benefits with Europe.
Englisc Stanasc; Quit this guilt by association rubbish. Just because Union hierarchies support Labour, doesn't mean rank and file members do. I'm sure many millions like me have stopped voting for any of the political parties that can actually be bothered to stand in elections in this region, because we regard them ALL as too right wing. Similarly, many millions of us do not go into personal debt, not are a burden on the state. That's why we will support any action against the ConDem coalition punishing the weak for the profligacy of the failed city bankers - who are STILL getting bonuses that will probably exceed our entire lifetime's pay.
And don't forget the ConDem lies like £250 for those of us on less than £21k - ie the vast majority of public sector workers outside the South East.
reddishG.harrogate drive posse
you are ill-informed and merely trotting out the party line. Please don't respond to any more of the grown ups' posts.
Will Tony Blair be doing a book-signing at this Conference ?.... So good was Labour
'Glory days' under the Tories ? When were they? Do you mean when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister ? She was sacked by her own Party in the end. Tony Blair and The Labour Party achieved a clear mandate from the people at three General Elections ; David Cameron has not achieved this at one election.
TUC general secretary Mr Barber told delegates: "These are not temporary cuts, but a permanent rollback of public services and the welfare state. Not so much an economic necessity as a political project driven by an ideological clamour for a minimal state. What they take apart now could take generations to rebuild. Decent public services are the glue that holds a civilised society together and we diminish them at our peril. Cut services, put jobs in peril and increase inequality, that's the way to make Britain a darker, brutish, more frightening place."
With an indecent haste, that will even surprise Tory supporters themselves, it hasn't taken long for the evil ones to shed their skin and reveal the callous beast beneath. As under Thatcher, Britain is likely to experience another unprecedented rise in the suicide rates as the weakest (non)members of society are targetted once more.
I offer some meandering musings from one of the many dispossessed......Politicians vicious smile dancing on the ever increasing body pile with no more thought than some acccountant at their work. Slipping their sly fingernails into the bodies of the vulnerable and poor.
You own my life and mind you murderous thief, you crush my skull, grind it down with bloodied teeth. You bind me as i crawl. I see life getting harder, i can't see it getting better, so sad and dangerous is this sensation.
There is no cosmetic for our frustrations. If upon my tears you build the utopia of which you dream, Beware!
Our leaders tell us that we're down and out, got to suffer to get things moving, say it's up to me and you. Well look around, see who's got the goods. They aren't suffering, they are masquerading like deceivers must. They deny the shame of their neglect, all they can see is their brutal success, damn the dead and ignore the mess. They cheat and lie and jargonize that their success is also ours, whilst their ambition scrapes the living dry.
No air to breathe inside your walls, left to dream inside your walls, left in a wilderness of despair. Day by day pressure and crisis closing in, many will break, but not all will silently fall. Watch out for the quiet ones at the back, on behalf of all of those no longer here, some will surely launch a last dying attack?. Does this sham of democracy leave no other choice? Take heed, leave them be, to die in peace.
Will you just watch as the paupers funerals take place, pretend it isn't happening and turn a blind eye?. Please OBJECT, REFUSE, REJECT, ABUSE before it's too late.
I didn't notice these buffoons clamouring for restraint when Brown was mortgaging the future of the UK - the bank bailout represents around a quarter of the overall debt - by borrowing at the top of the economic cycle (funny how Labour ignored Keynesian then).
And I think the likes of Crow and Serwotka can hush about the rich, after all they're on hefty salaries, excellent pensions and large expense funds. Champagne socialists the lot of them.
It's time they grew up - the private sector is the primary revenue generator, and it is that we need to grow. They get paid from the nations tax receipts, not from some mystical money tree, and their scaremongering is pathetic.
They'd be better off ensuring the really worthless roles are the ones that are discarded, and not the frontline services. Open the public sector pages of the Graun and you'll see no small number of pointless jobs attracting wages between 20 and 50 thousand a year across the nation.
prepare for war, its coming soon
Does everybody forget how much of our money was wasted by Thatcher, she set up a war in the Falklands to regain her popularity at the time she was way behind Labour, inflation was close to 20%, then she sold off the family silver to prop up her fight with the unions and wasted all the 1980,s North Sea oil revenues meantaining 3m+ unemployed instead of investing in High speed rail links across the country which she scrapped. Major then lead us into a second recession and interest rates hit 16% doubling peoples mortgages and withdrawing from the ERM. I am not saying Labour were perfect, but they reintroduced proper trade apprenticeships after Thatcher had scrapped them by withdrawing Government funding in the 80's. Had record levels of employment and record high tax revenue, which was wasted on OAPs by giving them winter fuel allowances, free bus passes and schemes to help cut heating costs for tehir homes. It also wasted money building schools and hospitals, it also wasted money by building more social housing for rent for people on low incomes, you are all right Labour just wasted money on us.
Let the revolution begin!!!
unions are just full of hot air,if they do strike it will be a day here and a day there,which will lead to many people tearing up their union cards.they havent got the bottle for a general strike
The Cuban government has just announced it's cutting one million public sector jobs, I wonder if the various union leaders would like to try their hand at starting strikes over there?
The Socialist Workers Party is probably undergoing a Chernobyl level meltdown as I type.
Is CONDEM russian for condom?
M.E.N, I finding it difficult to come on and harass at the moment because I have picked a course that I have to learn by early December. I ‘m getting older and things take longer to sink in. But after Christmas I will be back with a vengeance.
This is some of what I have to learn, it’s enough to make a grown man cry :-(
Law; Contracts, Freight passenger Law, Business structure, Taxation, Industrial relations, Health & Safety, Employment; Discipline at Work, Discrimination, Employment Contracts, Terms and conditions of Employment, Tribunals.
Business; Sales and Purchases, Long & Short Term Finance, Trading and Profit and loss Accounts, Balance Sheet; Capital Employed, Financial Ratios,Financial Performance Indicators, Marketing and Public Relations, Environmental Practices, Disaster and Business Continuity Planning, Insurance.
Tachographs, EU Drivers Hours, Domestic Drivers Hours.
Licences, type of service. Limited Companies.
I wonder if the Government are offering any interest free loans? £200,000 over ten years.
Lets not forget that Tory policy has always dictated that there be a small Public Sector ..... the current recession is an absolute god send to the tories !!! ... it gives them an excuse to cull jobs inder the guise of trying to balance the books !!!!
When are we in Britain going to stop being so apethetic ?? and take action against the Government plans to cut jobs and services ???, you certainly do not see countries like France taking things lying down do you ?, no .. they actually DO PROTEST !! AND SO SHOULD WE !!!
So let me get this straight, people who dont want to be sacked will strike. And who will care if they want you sacked anyway?