More workers join June 30 walk-out

PUBLIC-SECTOR workers are set to walk-out on the same day as teachers in a co-ordinated strike.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has voted to strike over cuts to their jobs, pensions and pay on June 30, the same day that around 1,400 teachers will walk-out in Oldham in a row over pensions that will close all 109 schools in the borough.

The PCS — which has around 260 members in Oldham — is working closely with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and is also co-ordinating with the University and College Union.

PCS members include court staff, the CPS, immigration officers, job centres, coast guards and tax officers.

In Oldham, it will see magistrates, the county court and jobcentre close and will affect driving tests and the collection of benefits.

In the UK-wide ballot of more than 250,000 PCS members, including 40,000 in the North-West, 61.1 per cent voted for a strike on a turnout of 32.4 per cent.

Union leaders say vital public services are being axed and hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers thrown out of work with those remaining facing pay and pensions cut.

Peter Middleman, PCS North-West regional secretary, said: “The Government cuts are disproportionately felt in regions like the North-West where more people are reliant on the public sector.

“Given the fact that the Government acknowledges that public-sector pensions will become increasingly affordable over the next 50 years, we have to see this as an ideological attack.

“Average life expectancy in some parts of the North-West is as low as 74 years of age, which would provide for a retirement of just a few years after a lifetime of hard work.

“Even the Government admits that the modest pay and pensions of public servants did not cause the recession, so we shouldn’t be blamed or punished for it.”

Oldham NUT secretary Tony Harrison said many teachers can’t afford a 50 per cent increase in their pension contributions and some will be forced to leave the profession.

He added: “The overwhelming support for action by NUT members shows that teachers feel what is happening to their pensions is wrong.

“The NUT will continue to take part in negotiations with Government on pensions. So far there is no evidence that the Government is taking those talks seriously.”

Further talks between the unions and Government are scheduled for June 27.