What, if anything, would public sector mass walk-outs acheive?

Niceguy2 - I think there are plenty of people who are from less privileged backgrounds who are perfectly articulate and have their finger a bit more on the pulse.

True representation may be a bit idealistic but three quarters being millionaires when the average salary is around £22,000? I think we could do better than that.

vicky pollard? fgs don't be silly

how can the government afford free schools if we need to make so many cuts??

But Northern. We cannot continue to spend so much more than we earn so whats your alternative plan? Simply borrow more money until we go bankrupt and can't pay any public worker or pensioner?

The private sector have been enduring this for years. Time for the supporting public sector to downsize too.

I just think that is astonishing. How on earth are these people supposed to represent us if they are millionaires?

There'll be plenty of public support from other public servants but from those of us in the private sector that have already taken pay cuts you might find a different response.

I used to work in the public sector and our union & other unions we bargained with were absolutely shocking - they cared only for it's main members and it's wage negotiation for newer staff was horrible (we were all on much less than our colleagues had been on five years ago at the same level but hey - they got their annual increase just fine. It taught me a lesson about the supposed moral stance of unions - they're just as much in it for themselves as anyone.

we need better stronger unions with some clout

I'm not a big fan of strikes but I watched e programme last night about public school boys being back in power, and was quite shocked. I must admit I haven't been keeping that much in touch with the news and so had missed that three quarters of e cabinet are millionaires.

I just think that is astonishing. How on earth are these people supposed to represent us if they are millionaires? They have absolutely no idea how cuts will affect ordinary people who don't have huge savings in the bank.

I would therefore, in these unusual times, be prepared to support a strike if it was organised in the right way with everyone taking part, rather than just for example, teachers saying that there should be no cuts to teachers.

I know there need to be cuts, but the debate is how deep the cuts should go and to whom? And I don't think a bunch of millionaires should be the ones to decide. But then ilive in Scotland and we don't tend to vote Conservative anyway.

what else can they do?? i'm fed up riding the storm, first we're safe, then we're not.

it's really awful - i feel we're really being fucked over and striking does seem to be the only weapon left:(

No it's much better that thousands of public sector workers just take every attack that's made on them, suck it up and carry on providing those vital services - paid less, pension worth less, colleagues made redundant, morale a disaster area, services starved of the money they need to meet the public's needs. Yes that's much better.

Look things are really bad and getting worse and sometimes you have to say enough is enough. Strikes are the weapon of last resort - but that's the situation we're coming up on.