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Heads they win, tails we lose?

13 August 2009

Unless you've taken unpaid sabbatical on Mars for the last few months, you couldn't have escaped recent media reports that public sector spending cuts are both inevitable and necessary. Midlands YM convenor Adam Wissen says this isn't the case.

All this follows the unprecedented government bailout (or ’recapitalisation’ if you prefer the Government’s official term) of several of our biggest banks.

When not engaging in political points scoring, Labour and the Conservatives have yet to put their cards firmly on the table and state where cuts will be made.

Vague murmurs of ‘safeguarding’ spending on Health and Education have been made.

Profit before need

This of course is music to the ears of the usual ‘centre-right’ elements of the printed media, unelected think tanks and pressure groups.

A rampage of cuts to departmental budgets, privatisations and attacks on pay, terms and conditions of employees was always something they lobbied for, even before the bottom fell out of the economy.

What is really bizarre is that the very economic model of unregulated banks operating solely to maximise their profits which lead to the current crisis in the first place, was championed by these people.

Instead of scuttling off, tail between their legs, they are lobbying louder and more voraciously than ever for deep cuts, privatisations, pay cuts or freezes, pension wrecking and job losses in the public sector.

What lies ahead

This poses an enormous challenge for PCS members, alongside members of other public sector unions we must state the case clearly for well funded, publicly owned services with fairly rewarded, well trained staff.

To counter the onslaught of anti-public sector sentiment PCS members can remind people that:

  •  Corporate tax avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals is estimated to cost the public purse £25 Billion every year.
  • Privatisations and PFI building projects are a massive drain on the public purse, which frequently need bailing out and cost the tax payer far more in the long term.
  •  The use of consultants and agency staff to plug gaps left by job cuts and poor planning, costs far more than staff who are employed directly on permanent contracts as civil servants.
  •  Steve Bundred Chief Executive of the Audit Commission, who recently called for a ‘painless’ pay freeze for all public sector workers earned £248,000 more than the Prime Minister in 2008.
  •  The Taxpayers Alliance, though rightly concerned with transparency in public spending does not practice what they preach. No list of their donors is available, just confirmation that their money comes from ‘private sources’. Odd for a group that presents itself as an un-biased, independent champion of all tax payers’ interests.

PCS activists must prepare to talk to members, lobby MP’s, interact with local and national media, march, protest, scream and shout for the services we provide, whilst pointing out where the real waste and inefficiency lies - the government created internal public service market.

If worse comes to worse we must argue for united action across the whole of the public sector and remember that once something is gone, you have a hell of job getting it back. We may not win everything but one thing is for sure, if we don’t fight, we are guaranteed to lose.

What do you think?

This year, your national executive committee will be conducting a consultation exercise from August until the end of September with members on the next stages of our national campaign on pay, job security, civil service compensation scheme and public services.

We want young members to play an active role in directing our campaign.

Tell us what you think:

  • How will the cuts affect your working and/or living situation?
  • If you were in power, how would you run the public sector?
  • What can PCS members do to help stop the onslaught in the public sector?
  • Why are public services important?
  • Is there an alternative to cuts in the public sector?

Email your thought and opinions to youngmembers@pcs.org.uk If you wish, your comments can be completely anonymous.
 

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