Union activists have taken part in a series of protests across the UK as part of a union campaign against the government's spending cuts. On Wednesday 20 October, Chancellor (Finance Minister) George Osborne announced deep public spending cuts. About half a million public sector jobs are likely to be lost as part of the cuts - the deepest and most wide-ranging by a British government in decades. Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Bob Crow told a London rally collective action was needed to fight the cuts. He said the movement needed to be built up “into the housing estates, into the workplaces, into every part of society and say we aren't paying the price for the corruption of the bankers” (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 September 2010).
English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11612012
For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.