Is the UK on the verge of large scale industrial action?
There are rumours in today's financial press that UK unions are putting together a fund of up to £25 million which will be used to fight potential UK public sector service cuts if the Conservative party win the next general election. It is believed that the £25 million in question would normally have gone to the Labour Party but is now being withdrawn from Labour Party subscriptions to remain under the control of the unions.
There is no doubt that if the Conservative party win the next general election we will see significant conflict between these two very different organisations. Historically, in the Margaret Thatcher era, the unions were smashed by various laws and regulations brought in by Mrs Thatcher and it took them many years to recover. Union leaders, and the union movement as a whole, have not forgotten how the last Conservative party government treated them and there will no doubt be a number of old scores to settle.
However, public opinion is most certainly swinging the way of large scale cuts in the public service sector which is now employing more people than ever before and costing taxpayers record amounts of money each year. The unions will have a fight on their hands, but then again so will the Conservative party with an economy still struggling to pull free of recession.
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