According to top Union sources, Britain could be facing widespread strikes in the coming month due to their austerity programme and major cutbacks. These measures would significantly impact public pensions which is why the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling for government to ditch what they are referring to as a “programme of self harm.”
According to the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber, the coalition led by conservatives needs to be “more flexible” during negotiations with Unions in order to avoid a collision course. It is the hope of TUC that a fair settlement can be agreed upon in order to avoid strikes but they observe that government is making this a difficult prospect with their unwillingness to bend.
The annual conference of the TUC will be held in London this coming week and Barber was addressing his remarks ahead of the gathering. It is expected that this particular conference will be highly charged, more so than in many years, since it is being held during the negotiations between union leaders and ministers. The topic of these conversations is, of course, spending cuts as they bite into public pensions.
To date, negotiations have not taken on the tone which either party would like and government seems to be intent on going forward with their current agenda. When asked if this means that widespread strikes are likely, Barber replied in the affirmative. It does appear that strikes are likely if settlement isn’t agreed.
Making matters worse, Barber was speaking on behalf of the 58 trade unions of which the TUC is the umbrella group. Of those 58 unions there are 6.5 million workers which translates to 25% of the workforce. When seen in that light, a widespread strike knocking 1/4 of the workforce out at one fell blow, the UK could see major financial repercussions.
