Reports from PCS picket lines

There was a good turnout on picket lines in Stoke-on-Trent City Centre – at the DWP office in Albion Square at the Tax Office across the road and at Jobcentre plus. A TNT delivery driver refused to cross the picket line with some shoppers and people on the way to work stopping to offer their support. Reps from the CWU postal workers union, Stoke Socialist Party and North Staffs TUC were also there in solidarity with striking PCS members.

Picket line at Blackburn House Tax Office , Hanley

Pete Rofe, DWP Branch Secretary told the Socialist,

“We’re striking against the government’s plans to cut thousands of pounds from our redundancy pay and to cuts tens of thousands of civil service jobs. Their plans will not only hit civil servants but make it more difficult for those in most need to get their benefits.
If the government really want to save money why don’t they employ more staff to collect the £130 billion a year which is lost through the tax evasion and tax advoidance mainly by big business.”

On the picket lines there is much worry about the governments attempts to try to make them, along with other workers, pay for the economic crisis created by big business and bankers. Many also said they thought that Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates standing in the General Election to give workers a political voice was a good idea.