Warner Todd Huston
Brit union strike over severance pay might soon hit in U.S.
By Warner Todd Huston
A few weeks ago several British civil service unions launched a two-day strike over cuts in severance pay that the government authorized for workers that were let go because of reductions in the government work force (called a "redundancy cut").
The cap in "redundancy pay," said British government unions, could see workers losing a third of their "entitlement."
Government officials said that the new pay scheme could save the government £500 million. Starting in April "anyone earning £30,000 or less will be entitled to a maximum of three years' pay or £60,000, whichever is lower."
Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell told the BBC that this new severance pay scheme put government workers in line with the private sector.
So, what does this have to do with the U.S.? Layoffs of government workers are increasing and at some point more union members will be targeted to be "redundancied" out here in the U.S., just like they have in Britain.
Expect this sort of unrest to begin to rear its ugly head as city, county and state governments begin to look to more layoffs to balance their wildly over spent budgets and look to unions to threaten every manner of retaliation.
In fact, as we noted here on April 3, unions are already in thug mode warning Democrats that if they don't kowtow to union's demands that they will target Democrats for destruction at the polls by using their giant buckets of money gleaned from dues paying members.
As state governments all across the country come to crunch time, expect unions to really amp up the whining like they recently did in Britain.
© Warner Todd Huston
April 23, 2010
A few weeks ago several British civil service unions launched a two-day strike over cuts in severance pay that the government authorized for workers that were let go because of reductions in the government work force (called a "redundancy cut").
The cap in "redundancy pay," said British government unions, could see workers losing a third of their "entitlement."
Government officials said that the new pay scheme could save the government £500 million. Starting in April "anyone earning £30,000 or less will be entitled to a maximum of three years' pay or £60,000, whichever is lower."
Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell told the BBC that this new severance pay scheme put government workers in line with the private sector.
So, what does this have to do with the U.S.? Layoffs of government workers are increasing and at some point more union members will be targeted to be "redundancied" out here in the U.S., just like they have in Britain.
Expect this sort of unrest to begin to rear its ugly head as city, county and state governments begin to look to more layoffs to balance their wildly over spent budgets and look to unions to threaten every manner of retaliation.
In fact, as we noted here on April 3, unions are already in thug mode warning Democrats that if they don't kowtow to union's demands that they will target Democrats for destruction at the polls by using their giant buckets of money gleaned from dues paying members.
As state governments all across the country come to crunch time, expect unions to really amp up the whining like they recently did in Britain.
© Warner Todd Huston
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