TUC fears risk of riots as jobless total rises

TUC fears risk of riots as jobless total rises

Public spending cuts could plunge Britain into a double-dip recession, driving unemployment above 4m and threatening to provoke riots on the streets, the country’s most senior union leader has said.

Sunday’s warning from Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, came as public sector unions told Labour and the Conservatives they would hold industrial action ballots if jobs were threatened.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Editorial: A need for realism - Sep-13Opinion: Moving so many ministers makes for bad policy - Sep-13Analysis: Choice cuts - Sep-13Union leaders said they expected an “onslaught” against the public sector, whichever party won the general election due by next spring. Lord Mandelson, business secretary, will on Monday say Britain faces a “period of public spending constraint” and Labour should not try to solve problems “simply by throwing money at them”.

On the eve of the TUC conference in Liverpool, Mr Barber said replacing the government and Bank of England’s stimulus programme with public spending cuts to reduce the £175bn budget deficit would have a catastrophic effect.


Dole warning if public sector targeted:

The number of people signing on for the dole in cities and towns such as Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Leicester would rise more than 40 per cent if public sector jobs were cut by a 10th across the UK, according to the Trades Union Congress, writes Brian Groom.

It argues that the private sector would also be hit because government workers would have less to spend and the state would spend less on goods and services. A 10 per cent cut in spending would therefore take 1 per cent of gross domestic product out of the private sector.

The TUC has analysed the potential effect on areas of high unemployment of the level of spending cuts some analysts say is needed to tackle the budget deficit.

A 10 per cent cut in public sector staff would mean 700,000 employees losing their jobs, it says, given that the public sector now employs 7m people. That would equate to 2.9 per cent of the workforce.

If they all signed on, the TUC says, the number of people claiming jobseekers’ allowance would increase 45 per cent, while overall unemployment would rise 29 per cent to more than 3m.

Brendan Barber, general secretary, said a “slash and burn” approach could send that figure above 4m.

Merseyside would be the area hardest hit because it has the highest proportion of public sector jobs.

A 10 per cent cut in public staff would mean 3.6 per cent of the Merseyside workforce losing their jobs, with Wales second worst at 3.5 per cent but inner London least affected at 2.5 per cent.

“A double-dip recession would not just be deeper but also longer. Prolonged mass unemployment would not just do economic damage, but have terrible social effects. I don’t think Britain is broken, but this would be one way to break it,” he said.

The congress is taking place on Liverpool’s rejuvenated waterfront, only half a mile from where the Toxteth riots broke out in 1981, resulting from tension between police and the black community.

Mr Barber said: “Last time we suffered slash and burn economics we had riots on the streets here in Liverpool. I make no prediction that this would happen again, but I do know that prolonged mass unemployment will have terrible effects on social cohesion, family break-up and the nation’s health.”

[link to www.ft.com]