You are:

General secretary calls for action over pay

8 September 2008

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, will call on trade unions to co-ordinate their campaigning and industrial action over the government's public sector pay cap and say that the time is for action not words.

Speaking in the public sector pay debate he will say:

“We have done a lot of talking about co-ordinating our industrial action and campaigning over the government’s draconian public sector pay policy. Now is the time to put those words into action.

"The people who keep this country running are facing financial misery and the daily worry of how to make ends meet. They are being forced into financial hardship at the hands of a government out of touch and hell bent on driving down the wages of millions of hardworking families.

“These are real people with real lives and real families, facing real hardship, who demand real action and real solutions. They know that that they are not the causes of inflation, but the victims of inflation as they see their fuel, food and housing cost soar.

"They see through the myth peddled by the government who seem more intent on championing the rich and the fat cat salaries of the city. Which is why we are balloting our members across civil and public services for what would be the most sustained action over pay since the Thatcher era.

“We have already seen unions coming together over pay this year in their campaigning and industrial action. We need to build on that and go out in to workplaces across the country with the message that we can achieve justice on pay for public sector workers.

“We need to step up our campaigning and come together in our industrial action, with days of action and a major national demonstration, putting the words of today into practice and making the government realise that they cannot continue to penalise the men and women who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.”

View all News

Social Bookmarking

How to use social bookmarking