RMT union leader Bob Crow on bank bonuses and police numbers
RMT union leader Bob Crow has said there should be a co-ordinated “resistance” to public sector cuts, ahead of the TUC conference.
Mr Crow told the BBC that while bankers were still getting “massive bonuses” ministers’ “first line of attack” was public sector workers.
The RMT is asking the TUC to back calls for co-ordinated industrial action “to defend jobs, pensions and conditions”.
Ministers say they must take action to tackle the £155bn budget deficit.
Without “decisive action”, Chancellor George Osborne argues that Britain’s economic stability and reputation would be put at risk.
He has asked all departments, excluding the NHS and international aid, to find four-year cuts of between 25% and 40%, to begin in April 2011.
But his plans are expected to come under fire at the gathering of trade union members in Manchester this week.
“if one group of workers are taking action on one day and another group of workers are taking action on another day that we should co-ordinate that resistance”
Bob Crow RMT general secretary
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has already accused the government of “making struggling families bear the cost of the recession, while the rich have been let off”.
And Mr Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, told the BBC the government had its priorities wrong.
He said the economic crisis had been caused by bankers, yet it was public sector workers and people on benefits who were the first to be “attacked”.
Mr Crow said: “If there is a concerted effort by this new government to attack workers in all different parts of society, then my belief is that if one group of workers are taking action on one day and another group of workers are taking action on another day that we should co-ordinate that resistance to defend working men and working women.”
Asked if action this autumn would be too early, he said: “If there’s no attacks take place until next March, next April or next May – that will be the time the resistance will take place, I think it will be earlier than then.”
Harriet Harman on coaltion cuts and public sector strikes
He said people had yet to feel the effects of cuts: “What do you want, do you want bankers to have bonuses or do you want police on the street?”
Labour’s leadership candidates will attend a hustings at the TUC conference – hoping to attract union members’ support before the winner is named on 25 September.
The current acting leader Harriet Harman told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show her party backed the right to strike, but “no one wants to see strikes” – including public sector workers.
But she said she expected local communities to campaign alongside trade unions when public services were threatened.
She added: “We feel very concerned indeed, yes, about threats to jobs and we don’t accept the argument that somehow this is entirely necessary to cut the deficit at this speed. We think it’s actually a threat to the economy.
“And the arguments that the ‘Big Society’ can take the place of public services are we think are disingenuous. So to that extent yes, we do feel militant about it.”
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