Jane Aitchison, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) group president for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “For my union members, this is not just a question of fairness and them not wanting to accept cuts to pay for a crisis they did not create. Cutting their jobs is economic madness. Their hard work is saving the economy far more than they are paid in wages. What sense is there in adding my members to the growing dole queues when they could help to shorten those dole queues and speed up the economic recovery this country needs?
“This callous action puts paid to the lie that this is about money – if the government goes ahead with this cut it will show all too clearly that this is about attacking the public sector not paying off debt”.
A further cut in the number of jobcentres has also been signalled – it seems that not only will people be forced to go further to look for work, they may also be forced to travel further just to sign on for the dole. Clearly the service jobseekers are set to receive under the new government is about to deteriorate.
Jane Aitchison said: “We have launched a massive staffing campaign to save these members’ jobs and to keep the department fully staffed and working well for the people of this country. My members aren’t waste, they provide a vital public service and a financial return. We are lobbying MPs and getting the public on board too. We will fight against these disgraceful cuts.”
Members of the PCS union will fight to defend jobs and the services they deliver and they must be supported in that aim.
The Fianna Fail/Green Party government, along with the employers, have signalled their intention to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the shoulders of PAYE workers. STEPHEN BOYD argues that militant industrial action linked to a campaign to reclaim the unions for the members, is the only way these attacks can be resisted.
The following is a quote from an article in The Sunday Business Post (February 14, 2010): "Dublin based Glas Securities said that any decision by an Irish bank to default on subordinated debt would, depending on the documentation and specific characteristics of individual bonds, result in breaches of so called ‘cross default’ provisions attached to the bank’s senior unsecured paper. ‘This would be quite clearly a ‘no-go area’ for Irish banks’", according to Jim Ryan, Managing Director of Glas.
In the opening battle against budget cuts in education, campaigners won an important victory by forcing education bosses to reverse their decision to slash summer schemes for special needs children.