Union threats over proposed pay freeze

Published 28/06/10

Co-ordinated strike action by one of the countries biggest trade unions is being threatened in response to the new governments two year pay freeze proposals.

According to press reports a senior leader of the Unite union is urging its 1.6 members to consider action against the chancellors recent budget. The union says the budget proposes what is in effect a pay cut for up to 6 million public sector workers. It should be mentioned that unite has members in the private sector as well as the public sector.

The recent budget by George Osborne has proposed cuts of up to 25% for many government departments and also a pay freeze for those local authority employees earning more than 21,000. The Emergency Budget has in it a target of slashing 99 billion from government spending by the year 2015. These proposals have lead unions and some economists to fear the loss of thousands of public sector jobs in the coming years.

With the new coalition government planning more austerity measures to bring down the budget deficit, many fear more tensions with the union in the near future.