BRITAIN’S trade unions are calling on the Tories to set up a ‘national task force’ to protect UK firms and workers from the collapse of Carillion and the crisis of capitalism.
The TUC is calling on the Tory government to take urgent action to protect workers at Carillion, and across the wider economy, and has said that the trade unions will take part in a national task force.
TUC leader Frances O’Grady said: ‘We urgently need a national task force involving unions to safeguard jobs, services and pensions. Workers can’t be left at the back of the queue. Each and every worker at Carillion needs to know where they stand. They have bills and mortgages to pay, and deserve certainty on their future.
‘And we have to ensure that there aren’t more Carillions on the horizon. That means an immediate risk assessment of all large outsourcing firms with government contracts. Public services are already under pressure and can’t take another hit like this.’
Of course there are other Carillions on the horizon, since the capitalist system is in a desperate crisis and desperately wants to privatise everything – including the NHS – and destroy trade unions!
All that the TUC leaders are showing is that they are willing to be stooges for a vicious and reactionary Tory government. The TUC is in fact seeking to shield the government from working class anger and is desperate to prevent the TUC trade unions taking action.
At a time when many thousands of workers risk losing their jobs and pensions, while the bosses walk away with their huge payouts, the TUC is refusing to take action to bring down the Tories, and bring in a workers government to carry out socialist policies, which is just what this situation requires where, once again, hundreds of thousands of jobs and pensions and thousands of small businesses are being destroyed – by Tory policy.
Two days ago, 12 TUC leaders sent Health and Social Care secretary Hunt a letter urging him to take action to defend and save the NHS! They wrote: ‘To Jeremy Hunt, We’re appealing to you on behalf of more than a million NHS employees working across the whole of the health service.
‘The NHS is in the depths of an acute winter health crisis. Patients are stranded, treated, and sometimes dying on trolleys in corridors because wards are so overcrowded. . . But the sad thing is this crisis isn’t a one-off. It’s the direct impact of decisions from your department and by your government. The result of years of cuts to services and wages, and damaging staff shortages. . . Stop and listen to the people that know the NHS best. Who see with their own eyes every day how bad things have got. Fund it better and do so now, for all our sakes.’
Among the trade union leaders who signed this shameful plea were Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC; Dave Prentis, General Secretary, Unison; Len McCluskey, General Secretary, Unite; Tim Roache, General Secretary, GMB; and Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair.
The NHS crisis is the direct result of Hunt and the Tory government’s policies. They intend to press ahead and to privatise the NHS, which, as is well known, will be a death sentence for millions!
The response of the TUC leaders, the health of whose millions of members depend on the NHS, is once again to shield the government and appeal to it to change, which they well know it will not!
Millions of British workers must put a stop to the disgraceful tactics of this Tory loving General Council of the TUC. They must demand an emergency recall conference of the TUC to discuss and resolve the crisis of TUC leadership, by sacking the current leaders, who are currently leaving the working class to its fate while bleating a few pleas to May and Co.
An emergency TUC Congress must call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government that will expropriate the bosses and bankers and bring in a socialist planned economy to satisfy the requirements of the people.
Recall the TUC, sack the current leaders! Don’t let O’Grady and Co betray the movement. The TUC must call a general strike!
