North East to brace itself again

May 17 2010 by Kevin Rowan, The Journal

AHEAD of the general election campaign, when the polls were indicating a strong likelihood of a Conservative majority there were discussions among leading trade unionists about how it was important to be considered and, initially at least, temperate in the reaction to a Tory government.

There was a view that it was important not to revert straight into ‘opposition mode’, especially for the TUC, which doesn’t affiliate to any political party and will still have the role of engaging with the government of the day to ensure the voice of working people and views of trade unions are effectively articulated in public policy spheres.

Fairly early into this new coalition government it looks like it is going to prove very difficult to be moderate in the response to the immediate priorities that are being espoused, especially in the North East.

Most worrying, of course, is the early and massive butchering of public spending. The ability to cut six billion pounds from the public sector in six months is an astonishing aspiration.

For the North East, where one in three work directly in the public sector, but a further 30,000-40,000 in the private sector are also dependent on public spending, this has sent a shiver down the collective spine of the region.

The most significant cost element of just about any service provision organisation is its labour force; cutting public sector spending in any scale will impact on the jobs of front-line service providers.

The initial impact of these cuts is likely to be on large scale government spending programmes, particularly large infrastructure projects. Ironically, this is more likely to damage the private sector in terms of employment than public sector workers.

There is a longer term impact on the outcomes those big spending programmes might have delivered, whether that is new schools, colleges or hospitals, road or rail investment – the benefit to the economy of any of these developments delayed or totally gone.

The longer-term public spending cuts will have longer-term impacts. The last time the Tories were in power the industrial base of the North East was decimated, something the region has not fully recovered from. Now it looks like the government are coming after another key pillar of our employment base. Seeking to grow the private sector is a much better reaction to tackling the deficit than disabling the public sector economy. Here again the North East needs to brace for an onslaught.

Kevin Rowan, regional secretary Northern TUC