Dec 20, 2022 | Rishi Sunak has insisted he cannot budge on NHS pay because he does not want to exacerbate soaring inflation as he comes under increasing pressure to negotiate with striking workers.
Hogwash! Where would we have been without the nurses during the pandemic? Clapping in appreciation of their services was all well and good, but when all is said and done, clapping doesn’t put food on the table!
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain faces widespread civil unrest, strikes and more crime as a result of cuts in public spending, one of the country's leading police officers will warn.
The PCS union mount picket lines outside Treasury in whitehall [sic] on the day of the Budget. Photo: The Telegraph
Derek Barnett, the president of the Police Superintendents' Association, will say that the harshest austerity drive since the Second World War is likely to lead to a period of rising "disaffection, social and industrial tensions".
In a speech to his association's conference, he will suggest that history shows that widespread disorder is "inevitable" at some point. Chief Supt Barnett will also warn that crime will rise if front-line policing is cut too severely.
Fears of widespread civil disobedience are being voiced as unions threaten co-ordinated strikes and a "campaign of resistance not seen for decades" against spending cuts.
Delegates at the Trades Union Congress yesterday voted almost unanimously in favour of a motion that called for a co-ordinated campaign against the cuts.
One union leader branded the Government the "demolition Coalition" and said it had declared war on working people.
Brendan Barber, the usually moderate general secretary of TUC, said the cuts would make Britain "a darker, brutish, more frightening place".
Mr Barnett will say that it is "disingenuous" to suggest that any warnings of rising crime under the cuts is scaremongering. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will be at the superintendents' conference to hear him say that there was "surprise and disappointment" that the police service was not offered protection from cuts like some other public services, such as the NHS.
"In an environment of cuts across the wider public sector, we face a period where disaffection, social and industrial tensions may well rise," Mr Barnett, of Cheshire Police, will say. "We will require a strong, confident, properly trained and equipped police service, one in which morale is high and one that believes it is valued by the government and public." Cuts will bring civil unrest, says police leader >>> Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor | Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
TUC: Unions Warn of Strikes Over 'Reckless' Cuts
THE TELEGRAPH: Unions put the Government on notice today that workers will launch strikes against spending cuts as the Coalition came under furious attack for its "reckless" axing of public services.
The TUC agreed to co-ordinate campaigns and industrial action amid warnings that some unions have already started preparing to launch stoppages.
Millions of workers are now on a collision course with the Government which could lead to a wave of strikes in the coming months as the scale of the austerity measures unfolds.
Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the Coalition for its spending cuts, which they said had already led to over 200,000 job losses or threats of redundancies among public sector workers.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said it was a "lie" that the country could not afford decent public services, arguing that the Government was making cuts because it wanted to promote privatisation.
"If there's money available to bail out banks and bonuses, if there's money for war and Trident, there's money for our public services.
"If money is tight, never mind a pay freeze for our members, how about a pay freeze for bankers? We've seen enough of what they've done, we've had enough of their greed and arrogance. It's them, not our members, who should be doing more for less." >>> | Monday, September 13, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Greece Grinds to Halt Amid Strikes
Scharfe Attacke aus Griechenland gegen Deutschland: Streit über EU-Finanzhilfen droht zu eskalieren
NZZ ONLINE: Im Streit über EU-Finanzhilfen für das hochverschuldete Griechenland hat Vize-Ministerpräsident Theodoros Pangalos die deutsche Regierung scharf angegriffen und dabei auf Verbrechen während der NS-Zeit verwiesen.
Griechenland und Deutschland liegen sich in den Haaren: Der griechische Vize-Ministerpräsident Theodoros Pangalos sagte der BBC laut einem Bericht des britischen Senders, Deutschland stehe Kritik an Griechenland nicht zu, weil die Nationalsozialisten die Wirtschaft Griechenlands ruiniert und überdies tausende Menschen ermordet hätten.
Pangalos sagte laut BBC weiter: «Sie haben das Gold aus der Bank von Griechenland und auch griechisches Geld weggeschafft, und es nie zurückgegeben.» Dieses Thema müsse in baldiger Zukunft behandelt werden. >>> ddp | Mittwoch, 24. Februar 2010
In Krise wollen Griechen deutsches Geld wegen Nazi-Besatzung
TAGES ANZEIGER: Mit einem Generalstreik haben die Griechen gegen die drastischen Sparpläne der Regierung protestiert. Gleichzeitig überrascht der griechische Vize-Premier mit seltsamen Forderungen an Deutschland.
Im Streit über EU-Finanzhilfen für das hochverschuldete Griechenland hat Vize-Ministerpräsident Theodoros Pangalos am Mittwoch die deutsche Regierung scharf angegriffen. Griechenland sei nie für die Folgen der nationalsozialistischen Besatzung im Zweiten Weltkrieg entschädigt worden, erklärte Pangalos am Tag des Generalstreiks gemäss Meldungen von Nachrichtenagenturen. >>> vin | Mittwoch, 24. Februar 2010
La Grèce paralysée par la grève générale
Mercredi à Athènes, les forces de l'ordre ont dû charger certains groupes de manifestants en marge de la manifestation contre le plan d'austérité du gouvernement. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Les syndicats se dressent contre le plan d'austérité imposé par l'UE.
Armés de banderoles, de haut-parleurs et de lunettes de soleil, les Grecs ont déclaré la guerre au plan d'austérité annoncé par le gouvernement socialiste. «Ce sont les riches qui doivent payer, et les spéculateurs», scandaient plus de 30 000 personnes dans les trois cortèges qui ont défilé mercredi à Athènes sous un soleil printanier.
L'appel à la grève générale avait été lancé par la Confédération générale des travailleurs et la Fédération des fonctionnaires. Le pays s'est retrouvé presque totalement paralysé : blocage des transports maritimes et aériens, écoles et administrations fermées, hôpitaux et tribunaux en service minimum. Des échauffourées ont éclaté entre la police et quelques centaines de jeunes, provoquant la dispersion des cortèges devant le Parlement sous des nuages de gaz lacrymogènes.
Malgré ces incidents, les syndicats parlent de «succès dans la mobilisation», pour une grève qui se veut «une mise en bouche» avant de prochains mouvements. «Il n'y a pas de justice sociale dans ce pays, s'insurge Makis Karkavela, un fonctionnaire gréviste. Nous ne laisserons pas Bruxelles nous imposer ces mesures.» Le plan d'austérité du gouvernement grec, validé par la Commission européenne en janvier, n'a qu'un seul objectif : réduire le déficit public au plus vite. Celui-ci atteint 12,7 % du PIB, un record en Europe, et doit être réduit de quatre points d'ici à la fin de l'année. Pour rassurer les marchés financiers et les partenaires européens, Bruxelles a mis la Grèce sous tutelle et exige les premiers résultats des réformes d'ici au 16 mars, date du prochain Conseil des ministres de l'Économie de l'UE. Tension avec Berlin >>> Alexia Kefalas , à Athènes | Mercredi 24 Février 2010
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
In Egypt, a Blogger Tries to Spread 'Culture of Disobedience' among Youths
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Mohamed Abdel Aziz's Facebook group that opposes Mubarak's rule has drawn 76,000 followers. Though its calls for nationwide strikes have flopped, he remains determined.
Reporting from Cairo -- An activist in a police state should know when to sprint.
Mohamed Abdel Aziz has bolted from trouble a number of times, including dashing from security forces closing in on a demonstration in the port city of Alexandria. His less mercurial moments have three times landed him in police stations, but upon each release he has returned to his computer, opened his blog and conspired in cyberspace to end President Hosni Mubarak's 27-year rule of Egypt.
That's an unlikely prospect. But Aziz, a thin man in black clothes with a wristwatch shimmying up and down his arm, is a founder of the 6th of April, a protest movement that draws from a Facebook group of nearly 76,000 people, mostly high school and university students. The movement opines, plots and Twitters, though it has yet to generate feet in the street: Three of its calls for nationwide strikes drew more police than protesters.
"No one knows when the trigger of revolution will be pulled. The state is oppressive, but ordinary Egyptians from all over sympathize with us," said Aziz, who likes to recall the passions that roused his countrymen's 1919 revolution against the British.
"When we started using Facebook it was a novelty," he said. "Calling for a national strike was a novelty. It was like lighting a candle in a dark room. But this is still an oppressive state, and people are scared." >>> By Jeffrey Fleishman | Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
France: Sabotage!
BBC: France's high-speed TGV rail network has been damaged by a "concerted campaign of sabotage", the SNCF state-owned rail operator has said.
It said acts of sabotage overnight, including fires, caused huge delays to TGV services already hit by a long transport union strike over reforms.
The SNCF blamed militants for the attacks, saying they wanted to harm ongoing talks to end the strike.
BBC: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to maintain his controversial economic reforms despite a second week of crippling industrial action.
He said the reforms were overdue and that they were necessary "to confront the challenges set by the world".
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants joined striking transport and energy workers on Tuesday over the proposals.
The 24-hour action is said to be the largest protest against Mr Sarkozy's reforms since he took power in May.
In his first comments since the stoppage began, Mr Sarkozy said: "These reforms have been put off for too long.
After so much hesitation, so much procrastination, so many U-turns, a complete break is now needed to stop the decline." Sarkozy undeterred amid strikes (more)
· Teachers and postal staff protest at job cuts and pay · President firm over reform as transport chaos goes on
THE GUARDIAN: President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a crucial test of his nerve today as a transport strike continues into its seventh day of commuter chaos, and civil servants stage a walkout that could see up to half of France's schools closed and disrupt air traffic control, the postal service and even weather forecasts.
France's rail and bus strike is continuing despite trade union leaders agreeing to begin talks with the government and state employers tomorrow. They are protesting at plans to change special pensions deals which allow certain workers to retire as young as 50 on favourable terms.
But the strike has been prolonged to overlap with Sarkozy's latest industrial headache: an unrelated 24-hour stoppage by public sector workers, including teachers, hospital staff and postal workers. State employees from defence ministry secretaries to weather office staff will stop work in protest at low salaries and public sector job cuts. But the president is said to be standing firm on his modernising agenda, in the face of a "black November" of protests against his reforms.
Sarkozy's senior adviser on industrial relations, Raymond Soubie, insisted that this week's snowballing strikes were not the president's "Thatcher moment". He said the transport workers' pension deals would be reformed, but added: "Sarkozy has not wanted to force it through à la Thatcher, but through dialogue." Striking civil servants turn heat on Sarkozy (more) By Angelique Chrisafis
BBC: France's national rail workers have begun an open-ended strike called in protest at President Nicolas Sarkozy's planned pension reforms.
Rail employees stopped work at 2000 (1900 GMT) and thousands of commuters will be affected on Wednesday morning.
Utility workers are also set to strike. They may be joined by teachers and civil servants on 20 November.
Eurostar says the first train services from London's new St Pancras terminal will be unaffected by the action.
The next few days will be a real test of the French prime minister's nerve, reports the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby from Paris.
"Tomorrow is going to be a hellish day for travellers and perhaps for many days beyond that," Labour Minister Xavier Betrand warned on Tuesday.
That view was echoed by Prime Minister Francois Fillon who told parliament: "Millions of French people will be deprived of their fundamental freedom, the freedom of movement and even perhaps to work." French unions strike over reforms (more)
TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy faces his “Thatcher moment” this week as transport workers open a barrage of public sector strikes aimed at breaking his drive to purge France of its old economic ills.
The hardline unions and Mr Sarkozy see the strikes – that start with the rail network tomorrow evening – as a decisive test of his presidency, an inevitable showdown between a radical new leader and left-wing conservative forces.
Mainstream union leaders say that Mr Sarkozy has forced the fight on to ground that they wanted to avoid – the retirement privileges of certain workers. “The Government wants this conflict to set an example,” Bernard Thibault, leader of the Conféderation Générale du Travail, the biggest union federation, said yesterday.
Rail workers, who paralysed the country for a day last month, start an open-ended strike against Mr Sarkozy’s plans to bring their retirement terms into line with those of the civil service. The Paris underground and bus system, as well as national gas and electricity workers, join them on Wednesday. Next Tuesday, teachers, post office workers and the rest of the Civil Service will strike for one day, and possibly longer, for higher pay and against Mr Sarkozy’s plans to slim down ministries. Nicolas Sarkozy set for showdown as unions prepare wave of strikes (more) By Charles Bremner
