Green Party joins with trade unions to fight public service cuts

13 September 2010

Speaking at the Green Party's autumn conference this weekend, Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), emphasised the Green Party's key role in the growing campaign against the government's planned public service cuts.

In the week of the TUC Congress, which continues today, Hayes also set out his union's opposition to the imminent spending cuts:

"The CWU rejects this manufactured consensus that public service cuts are necessary. The private sector caused this recession and now the government has unfairly chosen to attack the public sector. Our priority is to expand the economy out of recession and this week at the TUC congress our union will be seconding a motion to support the creation of a million new green jobs."

Speaking alongside Billy Hayes, Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay voiced the party's anger at the coalition's plans:

"The government is using the recession as an excuse for its cuts and privatisation plans. Unemployment, rather than the deficit, is now the biggest economic problem that we face. Green Party councillors and activists up and down the country are campaigning against cuts in public services that threaten their communities. I'm delighted to be working with Billy and his union to protect public services from cuts and privatisation and to show that a different economy, driven by Green party values, is possible."

Adrian Ramsay went on to call for investment in green jobs: "Dismantling our public services is no way to build a fair society and it's no way to build a strong economy. We need more green jobs to increase employment, aid economic recovery and build a sustainable economy for the future."

Notes

- Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP and other Greens have recently signed up to Tony Benn's coalition of resistance to the government's planned budget cuts: ww.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/time-to-organise-resistance-now