It's a shame that prior commitments prevented me attending yesterday's lobby of the Local Government Association in opposition to the politically motivated Tory pay freeze for local Council workers.
At last week's meeting of the Regional Local Government Committee there was a useful discussion with Heather Wakefield about how to mobilise members against the many attacks we face whilst acknowledging that we are not sitting on a powder keg of militancy right at the moment.
My twopence worth is that I think we need to learn from the approach taken by PCS and see ourselves as having a national dispute (and related local disputes) about pay, jobs and - soon I fear - pensions. The various attacks upon our living standards, conditions and job security have a single source and need a coordinated response.
Most of all we have to persistently deny the reactionary consensus that says that public spending cuts are inevitable. Just as the pay freeze is a deliberate political choice, so will be the cuts imposed in June's Emergency Budget. There is an alternative.
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