Tyndale: Measures must be introduced to combat Mickey Mouse strikers

Jun 19 2011 by George Tyndale, Sunday Mercury

IT IS irrational, irresponsible and immoral, which can only mean one thing: it’s the work of the hard-left union barons.

Britain is set to be hit by a wave of strikes the like of which we haven’t seen for decades.

As the nation teeters on the edge of economic recovery, gasping for breath after the double whammy of Labour’s spending excesses and the credit crunch, the militant heads of the country’s biggest unions are seeking to flex their flabby muscle.

At issue, they claim, are cuts to their members’ pensions and the alleged dismantling of public services.

But these people don’t care about the greater will of the people they seek to represent. Blinded by political ideology, the union bosses are hellbent on confrontation.

Pacified for a generation by Labour, they see the “old enemy,” the Tories, back in power – and back in their sights. There is unfinished business to attend to, not least the humbling of the unions by Maggie Thatcher.

It is estimated that 750,000 teachers and civil servants will stage a one-day walk-out on June 30. Transport workers and postal workers are also throwing their hat into this grubby ring.

We can only be thankful that prison officers are banned from striking otherwise union chiefs would be ordering their members to unlock cells and let murderers, rapists and granny-beaters walk free.

Parents, in particular, will be badly hit as teachers refuse to work, forcing schools to close. Mums and dads struggling to make ends meet will be asking themselves why a special case should be made for protecting the pensions of teachers when their own retirement nest eggs have long since been hit.

The divisive issue of pensions is at the heart of the unrest. Unions claim their members will have to work harder, pay more into their pensions and receive less back when they retire.

The situation has been brought about because people are living longer and it is no longer sustainable for the hard-pushed taxpayer to fund the gold-plated retirement plans of binmen who have earned up to £45,000 a year in Birmingham

The pensions of public sector workers are out of kilter. It used to be the case that teachers and town hall workers were paid comfortable pensions to compensate them for the noble gesture of taking lower salaries throughout their working life. A decent pension was a reward for a life of public service.

But those days have long since ended. Workers in the public sector are often paid over and above the salaries they would expect if they performed similar jobs in the private sector. Yet they still pocket pension payments that would make employees of private enterprise cry tears of joy.

The average NHS worker receives a pension of £7,510 a year. It may not seem like a lot but it is beyond the dreams of private sector workers who slog their guts out in care homes, supermarkets and offices.

There can, of course, be no weakening of resolve by the Government to tackle to union bully boys. Teachers and the like do have the support of the country for jobs that in many cases are well done. But these workers are seriously deluded if they think they are entitled to extraordinary treatment amid the new economic realities of 2011 and beyond. The return of the militant tendency could not have been more badly timed.

The latest unemployment statistics, published last week, give guarded cause for optimism. The fall in the jobless total, down 88,000 in the three months to April, represents the biggest drop since the summer of 2000. There are signs the economy is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction. Why jeopardise it now?

Only one in five members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which has 300,000 members, actually voted “yes” to strike action on June 30.

There is talk of introducing a minimum 50 per cent turn out in strike ballots. This must happen as a matter of urgency to curtail the worst excesses of these self-indulgent Mickey Mouse strikes.