We all stand together

UNITED . . . unions lobby Oldham Council last night

Oldham Council reports
“No ifs no buts, we don’t want spending cuts!”

That was the message from more than 60 placard-waving protesters who demonstrated before last night’s council meeting.

Noisy members of public sector and teaching unions blasted the council’s plans to axe 800 jobs and make £57 million of cuts by April, 2014. And they had a special festive song for council leader Howard Sykes, written by three Oldham College students to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”.

“Councillor Sykes are you listening? You’d better keep our services glistening,” they warned. “Or we’ll be back in May, to send you away, jobless in an Oldham blunderland.”

Tony Harrison, Oldham branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the cuts would hit the young, elderly, disabled and ethnic minorities and not the rich.

He added: “Our council represents the people of Oldham, not the banks. We want them to stand up and have the guts to vote the cuts out.”

Wendy Bradbury, branch chairman of Unison warned that services would be decimated. She said: “The councillors are voting on the cuts the Government have told them to impose. This is our way of telling them that come May, we are going to be voting with our feet.”

The turn-out was praised by Catherine Myerscough, branch secretary of the NASUWT teaching union. “We have got to stand united. We have got to fight what is going on,” she said.