Defending the Indefensible
I read some overblown rhetoric in the papers today - which is a timely reminder that the union conference season is about to get underway.
Witness the following blood curdling quote from Dave Prentis - the top banana at Unison:
"Unless this Government changes direction, it is heading for industrial turmoil on a massive scale.
The Government must understand that Unison will fight tooth and nail to protect and defend public services, and will ballot one million of its members to strike to protect their pensions.
This will not be a token skirmish, but a prolonged and sustained war, because this Government has declared war on a huge proportion of the population."
Now Dave is normally a quite mild-mannered kind of guy - definitely more Clark Kent than Superman - so what's all this talk of going to 'war' and fighting 'tooth and nail'.
Well in my view it's a sign that Unison's annual conference is on the horizon - and Dave feels that wearing his underpants outside his trousers - might just impress some of the delegates.
Two other things strike me though.
The first is that if the Labour party were in power - which Unison supports with vast sums of the members' money - they would be cutting £7 for every £8 in cuts planned by the government.
So what's the big deal?
Second of all - why are the unions so intent on defending 'final salary' pension schemes - when these rob from the working poor and give to the working rich?
To my mind that's just defending the indefensible.
Witness the following blood curdling quote from Dave Prentis - the top banana at Unison:
"Unless this Government changes direction, it is heading for industrial turmoil on a massive scale.
The Government must understand that Unison will fight tooth and nail to protect and defend public services, and will ballot one million of its members to strike to protect their pensions.
This will not be a token skirmish, but a prolonged and sustained war, because this Government has declared war on a huge proportion of the population."
Now Dave is normally a quite mild-mannered kind of guy - definitely more Clark Kent than Superman - so what's all this talk of going to 'war' and fighting 'tooth and nail'.
Well in my view it's a sign that Unison's annual conference is on the horizon - and Dave feels that wearing his underpants outside his trousers - might just impress some of the delegates.
Two other things strike me though.
The first is that if the Labour party were in power - which Unison supports with vast sums of the members' money - they would be cutting £7 for every £8 in cuts planned by the government.
So what's the big deal?
Second of all - why are the unions so intent on defending 'final salary' pension schemes - when these rob from the working poor and give to the working rich?
To my mind that's just defending the indefensible.
