Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Industrial action - Thursday 10 July
A number of public sector unions have voted to go on strike on Thursday 10 July.
LBHaringey will be working hard to minimise the impact on local services, although there is a chance that some services, such as libraries and customer service centres may be disrupted and some facilities may be closed. Essential services and those for the most vulnerable residents will continue to operate.
If you have a child at a Haringey School, the school should have contacted you to inform you of any potential disruption. You can find contact details for individual schools on the schools pages.
Where possible, you are urged to use the council’s online services. Please bear in mind that waiting times for calls to the council’s customer service centres may be longer than usual during the strike.
All services will operate as normal from Friday morning (11 July).
Tags for Forum Posts: strike
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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And good luck to them! 11% rise for MPs. Pension freeze for MPs and judges, but pension and salary cuts for public sector workers. Firefighter have to work till 60 and if they fail the very hard fitness test they will suffer huge pension cuts. 'We're all in it together'
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Was that serious? Could hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters, civil servants, hospital workers, etc find other jobs in their proffession?
I fully support the public service strikers just as I would support people in the private sector if they managed to organise themselves to fight back against the cuts in their living standards imposed by this government.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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It's actually a good question but there's a good answer too. We only have one employer for firefighters so unlike workers in the private sector they would have to actually change careers, not just jobs. A career change usually involves earning less money, at least initially, because you are inexperienced, so it's a big deal and the government definitely wouldn't want too many people doing this at once. Ditto for nurses and teachers who also spend their own money becoming qualified.
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The government want to bring wages down, and they have. In 2009 the public sector were paying more for some jobs that had an equivalent in the private sector. One example I had was of a friend offered £40K to go and work for a property developer when they were already on £50K (plus benefits) in the public sector. An employee on £50K is paying £4000 more tax to the government than one on £40K as the 40p rate applies and PAYE is unavoidable (if you are an employee).
There is only one response to this pressure if you don't want your wages to fall and that is to withdraw your services in protest. Those teachers leaving for the private sector are often earning less than they would in the public sector so that's not an option (even though the media will tell you otherwise as it fits their narrative).
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There are logical reasons for national pay bargaining; without equality of pay for doing exactly the same job it would be impossible to recruit to areas which are unpopular, troubled or remote and staff turnover would increase as staff compete to move to more profitable areas; while this may be seen as desirable in 'the city' it would be disastrous for school children, patients etc. There would also be added costs for local public sector managements, with duplications of negotiations, local disputes, and instability. Public sector staff in London have "London weighting" however it is completely inadequate in addressing the added cost of living in London.
Wages have been kept down for four years while the cost of living goes up and up, debt for working people increases, people are suffering.
We are told the economy is expanding, MPs have a huge pay rise, the very rich have a tax cut, bankers have their bonuses, landlords screw more rent, power companies screw huge profits, yet public sector workers are locked out of any hope until after 2018.
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Ah yes. Quite apart from the response of: why shouldn't public sector worker be entitled to unite together to campaign for improved pay and to protect their pensions, the question above belies an assumption that we all begin from an equal footing, with free mobility and a host of other options and connections there in abundance, should we choose to 'shop elsewhere'.
I won't get to the march in central London today, but I will be fully supporting each and every person out there in rain. As the text of a leaflet produced by a public sector worker in Haringey who will be striking today states:
"Most of the employment rights we now have were won by other people taking strike action, things such as: the 40 hour week; the right to join a union; pensions and holiday pay. All of these struggles involved people making a sacrifice to achieve improvements for everybody. Before they won those struggles people often worked 10 or 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and when they were too old to work they often ended up in the poorhouse. Despite literally being on the breadline, those workers went on strike and relied on solidarity and donations to survive. Thanks to their inspiring efforts our lives are much easier compared to how they lived."
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Well explained John Mc & Maggie.
The current economic situation is not easy for anyone except of course those with incredible wealth, the moneyed. Cameron, Osborne and even Clegg & Miliband come from very comfortably off families. Their aim is to drive wages down on all of us to make the UK more competitive and of course guarantee their own investments and that of their friends & business partners. Don't for a minute think they are in politics to serve you, they are there to serve themselves. If you run your own small business you will know the govt is taxing you at every turn so you aren't really the govt's priority either, even though they say you are. We are mere peasants in their game of wealth creation.
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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Just popped in to offer my 100% support for all you public sector workers. Well done folks for making a stand.
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One of the many rallies that took place today. Well done guys and keep it up!
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Just back from Trafalgar Square. I was talking to a woman from Tower Hamlets as we were marching down Regent Street who said that despite working full time in a nursery, she still had to claim housing benefit to cover her rent. Surely it's wrong that benefits subsidise employers who are paying wages people can't live on. For many people in the public sector the value of their salary has actually fallen by 20% over the last 4 years as it has failed to keep up with the cost of living. With most of the people working in the public sector on very low wages this adds up to a lot of people who are just not making ends meet.
As for going to work elsewhere - I'm sure they could try but what would we actually do if there was a mass exodus of home carers, classroom assistants and school dinner staff?
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A million public sector workers earn less than the living wage, that is £8.80 an hour in London and £7.56 elsewhere, with many earning the basic minimum wage of £6.50 an hour; its a ridiculous situation that working people are earning so little that they have to claim benefits. As you say- four years of no pay increase set against 20% erosion in real terms due to the cost of living and this government have said that there will be no hope of any improvement until after 2018.
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