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<H1>Unions discuss mass strikes in protest at spending cuts</H1>
<P id=stand-first class=stand-first-alone>TUC announces major London rally on 26
March to highlight damage caused to public services</P>
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title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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color=#005689>guardian.co.uk</FONT></A>, <TIME pubdate
datetime="2011-01-28T14:26GMT">Friday 28 January 2011 14.26 GMT</TIME> </DIV>
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<DIV data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on"><FONT size=1><FONT color=#005689><IMG
alt="Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services Union"
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<DIV data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on"><FIGCAPTION><FONT size=1>Mark
Serwotka, the leader of the PCS union, says he supports the idea of coordinated
industrial action as a last resort. Photograph: Martin Argles for the
Guardian</FIGCAPTION> </FIGURE></FONT></DIV>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">Union leaders were meeting today to
co-ordinate their response to the government's spending cuts and explore the
possibility of staging mass strikes.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">The TUC also announced a major march and
rally in London on 26 March to protest against the cuts and highlight the damage
being caused to public services.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">The discussions come ahead of rallies in
London and Manchester this weekend in protest at job losses and increases in
tuition fees.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">Representing workers in both the public
and private sectors, the union leaders are meeting at a time when tighter public
spending is beginning to translate into staff reductions.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">Liverpool city council has announced
plans to axe 1,500 jobs as it seeks to make £141m worth of savings by 2013.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">The GMB union said local authorities had
announced or threatened more than 145,000 job losses. Around 285 councils still
have to make decisions on how to cope with fewer financial resources.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">Co-ordinated industrial action against
proposed job losses is one course of action being examined. Mark Serwotka, the
general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, said before
the meeting: "I hope we'll make good progress towards greater co-ordination
between the unions.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">"While strike action is always a last
resort, it would be the result of the government's refusal to change course and
its political choice to press ahead with unnecessary and hugely damaging cuts.
It's logical that any industrial action is always more effective if more people
are involved and that's what I'll be saying today."</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">The Association of Teachers and
Lecturers is already preparing to ballot its members for industrial action
against proposed pension changes and the PCS union is involved in a long-running
dispute over compensation payments for civil servants who lose their job.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">At the rally in Manchester tomorrow, the
TUC assistant general secretary Kay Carberry will warn that the opportunities of
young people in the UK must not be sacrificed.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">"We will not let young people pay the
price for the government's reckless gamble with the economy," she will say,
according to extracts of her speech released in advance of the event.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">"In the City bankers are popping
champagne corks and celebrating their bonuses. It's business as usual for them,
while young people up and down Britain are being forced to pick up the tab for a
financial crisis and recession that they didn't cause. Nearly one million young
people are unemployed, with one in five young people now out of work."</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">The cabinet office minister, Francis
Maude, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he hoped confrontation could be
avoided.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">"I would like to see us moving to a
position where unions instead of sort of looking for a fight approach that Mark
Serwotka illustrates, we move to a position much more like that which exists on
the continent where unions see themselves as social partners working together
with the government as much as possible," he said.</P>
<P data-global-auto-refresh-switch="on">"On a lot of the continent there is a
very different approach that unions take which is not any the less concerned
with protecting and promoting the interests of their members but which is done
very much more in partnership."</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>