WHAT a disgrace that hundreds of public service workers in Oxfordshire were forced to go on strike.

The teachers, firefighters, job centre staff and others have seen their living standards drop by almost a fifth.

Yet this Coalition Government has offered a derisory one per cent pay increase and even worse pension provision. The wonderful people who teach our children, cut us out of car crashes and help us when we are out of work, should be valued not disregarded.

In Oxford and Oxfordshire we are fortunate that local pay deals means our council workers did not strike.

However, their situation is not much better. They too have faced job cuts and a real-term drop in wages but are still providing excellent local services.

All the Tories can do is threaten further restrictions on the right to strike. Only slaves are denied the right to withdraw their labour. If police commissioners can be elected on five per cent turnouts trade union strike ballots are a shining example of democracy.

When wages, public and private, are held down the whole economy suffers. People just don’t have the money to buy what they need. It is time we had a Government which improves wages and pensions instead of giving away damaging tax cuts to millionaires.

Cllr JOHN TANNER (Labour), City Councillor for Littlemore and County Councillor for Isis, Sunningwell Road, Oxford

 

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