... an extremely important joint union campaign to fight the Government's present attack on ALL public services, which will be launched on Wednesday 29th March (7–9 pm) with a rally in the House of Commons.
This will be followed on Tuesday 27th June (11am – 4pm) with an all day rally at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster and a mass lobby of parliament.
The campaign aims to bring together trade unions from across the public sector, linked to supportive MPs, and organisations representing those who depend upon our public services.
The campaign is being coordinated by John McDonnell MP and the unions currently taking part are ASLEF, CYWU, FBU, NAPO, NATFHE, PCS, NUJ, POA, and RMT. A letter signed by each union's General Secretary has been sent to all other relevant trade unions and it is anticipated that there will be huge support.
This campaign will be an opportunity for us to raise the wider issues but also for your union members to inform their MPs about the threat to their services.
Please circulate this information to members NOW asking them to put the date in their diary and urging them to come.
- Public services and public service workers are facing unprecedented pressure from Government plans for privatisation and job cuts. Across virtually every area of public service and with virtually no consultation, proposals are being brought forward to hand over services to the private sector at seemingly no matter what the cost to either the taxpayer or service users.
- In health, education, local government, prisons and probation and in every department of central government the Government is forcing services into the private sector. The Government’s Education & Inspections Bill is just the most recent example of the threat to the very concept of public service. Even where the private sector has failed and services taken back into the public sector, as in the railways, the Government is re-privatising them!
- Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake. The pay, pensions and conditions of employment of public service workers are under threat. Services which our community relies upon are at risk.
- The present attack on public services is on such a scale that we are in danger of witnessing the undermining of the very concept of public service provision in this country.
‘Public Services Not Private Profit’