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Anger on Newport picket line
PCS REPS on the picket line in Newport expressed their anger at the imposed below-inflation pay increase.
Members working on the evening shift are losing their extra allowance for working unsocial hours so will have even more of a real pay cut.
One of the reps said she thought it was bad under Thatcher but this government is just as bad. She was due to get £172 increase in pay but the new tax changes announced in the budget mean that she will have to pay an extra £172.99 in tax so won't even get any pay increase at all!
This is at the same time that inflation is running at 4.4% and bills and cost of living are going up.
Whilst Passports and Defence PCS members were on strike, Gordon Brown is pushing to enforce further below-inflation pay restraint on all public-sector workers.
So we have a battle on our hands to fight for a decent pay increase for this year, as well as to increase the pressure on the government for a return to national pay scales.
Katrine Williams
In this issue
Children suffer in low pay Britain
Socialist Party editorial
Iran - Sailors fall victim to imperialist policies
Socialist Party news and analysis
Blair: No solutions to crime or crowded prisons
Waltham Forest protest - more memorable than Prince Charles!
Commemorating the abolition of the slave trade
Socialist Party reviews
Education
Take national action to defend education
Labour's market policies damage education
Privilege and privation in our schools
NUS leadership abandon fees fight
PCS takes industrial action
London strikers close passport office
PCS members take industrial action
Campaign for a New Workers Party
How to stop the BNP: Build a political alternative
Campaign for a New Workers' Party
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Ammanford home care workers march
Asylum
Leicester protesters challenge Home Office
Workplace news and analysis
Trade union leaders heckled over inaction
Action needed as Ford bosses close Leamington plant
Greenwich: "We've got to strike"
Burslem postal workers strike again
Northern Ireland
British government and local parties retreat on water charges
Home | The Socialist 4 April 2007 | Join the Socialist Party