Public services help support communities, help people back into work, help give our children the best start in life and help care for our sick and elderly. In councils, the civil service, the NHS, education and the emergency services, millions of people around the country are dedicated to helping all of us, in ways we often take for granted.
What’s more, when times are as tough as they are right now we need good local services more than ever. Public services are the safety net that our most vulnerable people can fall back on, and provide much of the infrastructure to getting them back on their feet again.
Our public services have already felt the effects of the recession themselves. Government cuts nationally and locally have meant closures and reductions for many important services. And demand for public services is being stretched all the time as workers in the private sector are laid off.
The last year has also seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs, something set to continue in the months ahead, with the workload and stress on remaining staff increasing as colleauges attempt to get the work done with smaller resources.
The latest blow to public servants has been an attempt by the government to make major cost increases and benefits cuts to the pensions they can expect after a lifetime’s service. For many low paid public service workers this is a cut they can’t afford.
The Workers feel it’s important to show some solidarity with those delivering Britain’s public services.
