THE striking Oxfordshire teachers deserve our full support.
The coalition Government has launched an unprecedented attack on teachers and other public service employees.
The Tories and Lib Dems want public service workers to pay more, work longer and get less. But teachers, nurses and the people who collect our rubbish are the salt of the earth. If anything they deserve more not less.
Pensions have already been cut by the switch in how inflation is calculated, from Retail Price Index (RPI) to Consumer Price Index (CPI). But the Government still wants to increase what public servants pay in for their pensions by 50 per cent.
The Government wants to tax pension contributions to plug the Government deficit. The freeze on pay and the attack on pensions means a hefty pay cut for teachers, council workers and hospital employees.
Yet schools, councils and hospitals are vital to everyone in Oxford. We starve them of decent pay and pensions at our peril.
That’s why we should stand with the teachers who are prepared to lose a day’s pay to make their point.
JOHN TANNER, Board Member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford, Oxford City Council
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