| When our 30,000 Scottish PCS members take part in the nationwide national industrial action on June 30, they will be striking for the alternative to the Con-Dem government's savage cuts in public services and jobs, and an imposed pay freeze - as well as the raid on pensions. The impact of the Con-Dem cuts can already be seen in many parts of Scotland. And PCS is fighting on many fronts. We're in the front line of the campaigns to save hundreds of Forestry Commission jobs in Edinburgh, to protect Scotland's coastguard stations around our waters, save RAF bases and dependent communities in Moray, reverse 60 per cent cuts at the Equalities Commission in Glasgow and to expose the farce of privatisation plans for Faslane and Coulport. Our Wick Wants Work campaign opposes 19 redundancies - vital tax office jobs in a small community where there is no alternative Civil Wervice work to be had - and precious few other jobs too. Sadly, Scotland's devolved Parliament cannot protect jobs and services from Con-Dem assaults. No public-sector job is safe. Whether Scotland's future is "devolution max," fiscal autonomy or independence, the fact is that jobs and services are under threat in Scotland here and now. So David Cameron and Alex Salmond alike need to listen to this ballot result for strike action. PCS members, whether delivering reserved or devolved government services, want fair pay, not pay freezes. Fair pensions, not a backdoor tax increase dressed up as pension reform. And they want the jobs that are needed to ensure that they can deliver Scotland's public services for the people of Scotland. In England and Wales, our members will be joined by hundreds of thousands of teachers and lecturers in education unions in co-ordinated action on pensions. In Scotland, other Scottish public-sector workers' pensions are the devolved responsibility of the Scottish ministers. Decisions remain to be taken on how and whether to implement the Con-Dem attack. Here's hoping that the newly returned SNP administration will see fit to act independently of the great British pension robbery. But the immediate focus for the alternative on June 30 north of the border will be on our members in PCS. The Westminister government plans cuts in pensions to save tens of billions of pounds. The irony is that the National Audit Office and Lord Hutton agree that the principal Civil Service pension is affordable now - and in the future. The current government, however, appears to ignore this fact and seems determined to plough on with spiteful and totally unnecessary cuts to pensions that will only serve to increase spending on welfare for impoverished pensioners. For our members in PCS, this means tripling contributions. It means raising the pension age from 60 to 65, and then to 68. And it means a forced ending of all final-salary schemes - a step designed to deliver between 25 to 50 per cent less than the current schemes. In other words, our members will be forced to pay more and work longer for much less in retirement. So our members in Scottish government and the devolved areas for which Scottish ministers are responsible will be out on strike on the June 30. We're fighting to keep the Civil Service working against the mass jobs cull and crippling pay freeze imposed on our members while food and fuel prices rise. We're fighting plans to slash Civil Service redundancy pay by up to 66 per cent - in spite of three High Court rulings won by PCS against this assault on accrued rights of our members. We're fighting in defence of pensions, jobs and pay. We may have won a "no compulsory redundancy guarantee" from Salmond and John Swinney, but their Scottish public-sector pay policy of a pay freeze in 2011-12 is entirely unacceptable to members. A freeze is a real-terms pay cut whether it is Tory blue or Scottish tartan. PCS has been in the forefront of arguing for an alternative to paying for the deficit through public-sector cuts. There is an alternative - we could close the £120 billion annual tax gap, invest in public services and create jobs in socially useful projects like housing, renewable energy and public transport. PCS members have argued for the alternative, marched for the alternative and now we are prepared to strike for the alternative. Public-sector workers will not be made the scapegoats for an economic crisis they didn't cause. Attacking our members, many of whom are low paid and already struggling financially, is a disgrace when millions are being wasted on consultants, contractors and casual staff and millions of pounds of taxes go uncollected. There is an alternative. |