WORKERS' LIVES, SHOULD MEAN WORKERS' CONTROL.

          The recent crowing by Alexander the not so great, that the government had reached an agreement with the unions, should be rephrased as, 'they have reached an agreement with the union leaders.' I have no doubt that as for the rank and file, the so called agreement is nothing much different from what was on the table before the negotiations began, before the November 30 strike action. Throughout the recent history of trade unions the one thing that comes through is that the leaders don't want to upset the apple-cart, that gives them a very comfortable living. They may be among the “99%” but they are quite high up the financial scale of the group. Their relative good living from the union apparatus means that they themselves are immune to most of the attacks on the working class, much the same as those who are implementing this attack. The high paid union official type structure doesn't work in favour of the rank and file. Only the rank and file should be at the negotiations and only the rank and file should make the decisions.

Infantile-disorder has this to say.

This afternoon, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander announced an outline agreement with unions for huge cuts in public service pensions. His statement followed yesterday's declaration by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber that "we have seen a new atmosphere in the negotiation". But this "new atmosphere" was not the result of the government finally seeing the light and backing away from its attack on the living standards of millions. On the contrary, it was due to union bureaucrats dropping their phoney opposition, and settling down to their task of presenting utter defeat as victory.

All this was made clear by Alexander's confirmation that public workers must still "work a bit longer and pay a little more". In truth, little has changed from the government's original proposals, which were published before two big days of strike action demonstrated the potential strength of a united working class

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