Hackney TUC in association with the Public and Commercial Services Union and Unison
Fighting Gordon Brown's pay and job cuts

Wednesday 31st October, 6:30 pm
Hospitality room, Hackney Empire,
291 Mare St, Hackney

Speakers: Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary; Janine Booth, RMT; Glenn Kelly, Unison NEC (pc); CWU activist (invited)

Gordon Brown is insisting that public sector workers must accept pay cuts in real terms in order to combat inflation - yet public sector workers are the victims of inflation, not the cause.

Details here.

Details here.

Our comrades in PCS are on strike this week on Thursday and Friday over the issue of cuts. Please show support on the picket lines on Thursday and Friday (from 7:00 'til about 10:00). The staff entrance is in Wilton Way behind the Hackney Empire.

Info about the strike from PCS General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, follows...

Assemble 11am, Holborn Tube.
March to Trafalgar Square for rally at 1pm.

Last week, the government announced its proposed changes to civil service pensions. The retirement age will rise from 60 to 65, and the 'final salary' pension will be replaced by a new 'whole career average' pension.

In other words, civil service staff will have to work longer to get less. They are left with uncertainty about how they will get by in retirement, after a longer and more exhausting working life.

Click the links below to see articles on the websites of the teaching unions, PCS, FBU, UNISON and the TUC.

• National Union of Teachers (NUT)

• Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS)
• National Association of Teachers in Further & Higher Education (NATFHE)
• Fire Brigades Union (FBU)
• The public sector union, UNISON
• TUC Response to Pensions Commission interim report

Local PCS representatives report on a strong day of strike action on Friday 5 November. Read the text below, or download this as a two-sided leaflet here.



"The Government should take note, you cannot improve public service when you sack 104,000 workers ...you take on your own workforce at your peril..." (Mark Serwotka, London Rally 5th November 2004)

A PCS striker's placard, 5/11/04.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka addresses strikers' rally on Friday 5 November 2004.