NO...

Tony Baldry, Conservative MP for Banbury

Close your eyes and think back and try to think of any time when a strike has actually made a situation better.

Most of the unions’ concerns appear to relate to what is happening in the public sector.

There is cross-party support for the two-year pay freeze in the public sector.

I understand that the TUC is remonstrating with Ed Balls on the Labour Party’s support for a public sector pay freeze, but I suspect that Mr Balls recognises that if Labour had been in office, they too would have had to have dealt with the deficit in the same way as has the Government.

With an ageing population, public sector pension reform was inevitable, but the Government wants public service to remain among the very best available.

But I think we have to recognise that the cost of public service pensions paid out has risen by over a third over the last 10 years to £32bn per year, and the number of pensions will increase dramatically over the coming years.

That is why the Government is going to introduce changes to ensure sustainability of public sector pensions and to balance costs and benefits between employers, employees and other taxpayers more fairly.

The intention is to ensure that public service workers receive a good pension on retirement and those on low and middle incomes, who retire after a full career receive a pension at least as good as they do now.

YES...

Oxford & District TUC President Pol O Ceallaigh

If different public sector unions have similar disputes across different services in the public sector, then it is common sense for those unions to work together.


Strike action is the last resort for any union member. The larger number of people taking action, the greater the affect it will have on the employers.


On November 30, 2011, Oxford & District Trades Union Council coordinated a march of 6,000 striking public sector workers in Oxford, the largest demonstration I’ve ever seen in Oxford.
It was a wonderful feeling that, truly, we were all in this together.


Given the Tory-led Coalition Government’s austerity policies of cutting public services to pay for deficit caused by the reckless banking sector, that has now led to a double dip recession, it is not surprising that there is unrest with real terms pay cuts, given that inflation has been rising while all the public sector has had three years of pay freezes.


That on top of redundancies and outsourcing that has led to services being cut that the most vulnerable and ill in our society need.


Doubtless, we will hear that strikes cause disruption to the general public. But we are also members of the public and we will need those services for our children, silblings and parents.