A union claims about 10,000 council workers face losing their jobs unless they accept worse pay and conditions under new contracts.
The GMB accused Labour-run Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) council of threatening staff with a "lock-out".
Council Leader Russel Roberts appears to be acting like Pontius Pilate in washing his hands of the issue. For as Grangetown Jack points out
“The Labour controlling group in RCT hinted that they would do this last week, when they transferred responsibility of the decision to the Chief Executive, in a pathetic attempt to not take responsibility. When Labour did the same with Neath Council, the trade unions affiliated to Labour fell strangely silent as far as public criticism was concerned, even though their members were being dragged over the coals by their Labour controlled employer.”
There seems a deft silence from Rhondda's Labour AM Leighton Andrews but I am sure he will condemn his colleagues action a will his Westminster Colleague Chris Bryant who impressed us all with his attack on Nick Clegg and his Lib-Con coalition's plans to cut housing benefit.
You surely can't condemn one attack on the vulnerable and support another (or stay silent) purely out of political expediency?
It is interesting to note that this plan to attack the workforce on Rhondda Cynon Taf has come only a fortnight after Labour took a seat of Plaid Cymru in a by-election for the Treherbert ward on Rhondda Cynon Taf council . I wonder what the result would have been if people had been aware of these plans?
And if it's carried out will the GMB union still give backing to the Labour Party in the next Assembly elections or will they support candidates who backed their members whatever party they stand for?. All unions must wake up that their duty is to represent the interest of their membership and are not simply there to finance Labour who all to often have betrayed the very same members.
P.S Peter Black has not posted a blog since Sunday I do hope he's not ill.
2 comments:
Thank you for your concern about Peter's health. As many people will know, Peter has been suffering from a long-term condition which resulted in him joining the LibDems some years ago. As he beacme more addicted, we came up with the idea of blogging as a new form of therapy to help take his mind off his terrible condition, because there's not much call for baskets nowadays.
But these past few days have seen a remarkable improvement in his condition, and he is now able to spend a little while outside in the open air. That explains why he hasn't been blogging. The team is delighted by this progress, as he has even hinted that he might leave the LibDems altogether.
We're hoping that this signals a complete recovery, of course. But when I spoke to one of my colleagues he warned that this might not be such a positive sign at all. If we look closely at some of the praise he's recently been lavishing on the new government in Westminster, these might just be the last moments of lucidity before he suffers a total relapse ... and joins the Tory party.
Leighton Andrews and Chris Bryant were both celebrating the centenary of the Tonypandy riots on saturday. I'm not sure they'd be applauding a massive public order incident in the town centre in response to this lock out.
Perhaps we should start smashing windows and see if they join us?
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