Government staff urged to make Austerity unworkable

[RNU pro 16]

From RNU website

 

http://www.republicannetwork.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=333%3Arnu-lobby-workers-at-ssa-re-welfare-reform&catid=1%3Alatest-news

 

RNU Belfast today entered two Social Security Agencies in West Belfast and gave leaflets to client advisor's urging them to consider refusing to implement the looming Tory/Stormont 'Welfare Reform Bill', which threatens not only to plunge thousands of families into dire poverty but subsequently threatens the Jobs and working conditions of SSA workers.

 

Both Falls Road and Andersonstown SSA Offices were entered and leafleted.

According to the public services Union (NIPSA), the proposed 'Universal Credit' system contained within the Bill could reduce 'face to face engagement' with clients by up to 80%, this means redundancies for SSA staff in the near future.

RNU pointed this out to staff in their leaflet as well as the fact that due to added stress on poverty stricken families, they would likely bear the brunt of future frustrations. An unacceptable situation for an already overworked and underpaid workforce.

RNU believe that the 'Welfare Reform Bill' can and should be resisted, and that it is with a grass roots effort that worthwhile resistance can be achieved.

The workings of the Bill would mean nothing without the efforts of SSA staff on the ground; it is in their interests as well as the interests of society as a whole, that this Bill be stopped in its tracks.

Below is the leaflet which was handed to staff, many of whom welcomed our activists gesture today. We intend to visit other SSA Offices in days to come.

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

Excellent stuff. RNU impressing more and more. Combining direct action and mobilising workers. NIPSA may be on board with the anti-welfare reform bill, but ultimately they are just another bourgeois union and have no interest in toppling the state (they are a 6 county only union, which shows how much revolutionary potential there is there!)

 

Actually I understand NIPSA have put in a tender to carry out some of the new privatised roles within the social welfare system. The idea is to ensure that its done in a humane way rather than some profit hungry whore company coming in and doing it. There is some practical merit in that plan, but it does nothing to undermine the system at all.

 

Great to see RNU being proactive on this issue and thinking outside of the box.