Government ministers continue to blow hot and cold in their stance towards strike action by public sector workers tomorrow. Having lost most of the arguments over the weekend, cabinet strategists authorised Francis Maude to be back off on possible retaliatory moves of withdrawing the current offer on pensions. This moderation has been replaced today by threats from education secretary Michael Gove of future legislative changes designed to make disputes harder to escalate.
What is making the ConDem position harder to sell is that their plans have less to do with 'unaffordable' retirement packages than a means of tapping into funds that can support their austerity package of cuts elsewhere. Pensions for refuse workers will be cut to make up the scrapping of a 50% tax rate for the rich, say union spokespeople. It is the effective way that this message has been put over in the media that is a troublesome aspect for ministers.
Government briefings have now switched back to emphasising the disruption and inconvenience caused to the public. But attention is also beginning to focus on the unprecedented cohesion between otherwise professionally separate groups. For the first time that most can remember, head teachers, teaching staff and teaching assistants will all be striking in protest. Calling them all 'militants' is therefore probably not a good idea.
Ministers may claim that a day of action on the scale projected by organisers will be bad for the country's image. However, collective dissent by so many people at one time will be an even worse indictment from the government's perspective.
1 Comments:
It shows the sparsity of ConDem thinking that they feel able to dismiss mass action as the work of a few hotheads. The tories and particularly the Lib Dems have very quickly alienated the professionals and lower management types who voted for them this time around.
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