{"id":1478,"date":"2014-09-17T16:02:27","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1478"},"modified":"2014-09-17T16:03:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:03:21","slug":"city-savage-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1478","title":{"rendered":"City of savage cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The coalition government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity programme has hit the city of Birmingham in the most detrimental way. Axing 6,000 jobs from council workers, devastating their families and the economy in the entire region.<\/p>\n

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Savage cuts at Birmingham city council will see 6,000 jobs go in the next four years. The authority has already lost the equivalent number of people axed when Rover collapsed – and is now set to double that number. This is a terrible blow for the hardworking workforce but also the million people who rely on its services.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor every pound spent on council staff wages 52 pence is spent locally,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional secretary, Gerard Coyne. Cutting 6,000 jobs is going to cripple the West Midland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economy.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will be heart breaking news for the council employees whose jobs and families are under threat and further reinforces the savagery of the coalition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity programme.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The city faces about \u00c2\u0141200m worth of cuts and the workforce, which stood at 20,000 in 2011 will be slashed back to just under 7,000 in the next three years. By 2018, a total of \u00c2\u0141800m worth of cuts will have been imposed, which equates to 60 per cent of the controllable budget.<\/p>\n

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People rely on the council services to educate their children, care for the elderly, provide housing for those in need and for generating economic growth.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBirmingham, which was a pioneer in municipal improvements under Joe Chamberlain in Victorian times, has been abandoned by George Osborne in London,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Mr Coyne.<\/p>\n

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Sir Albert Bore, Birmingham city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s council leader blamed an “unfair distribution” of national government cuts. He admitted it was likely most of the cuts would have to be made through compulsorily redundancies.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is a huge amount of blame to be laid at the government’s door,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government focuses on Birmingham City Council and some of the larger metropolitan authorities in this way, cutting their funds disproportionately to other local authorities.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a back-door mechanism by the government to get rid of politics they don’t like and people they don’t like. To starve people out because of their political affiliations and allegiance is unacceptable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 13,000 staff and residents now face an autumn of consultation over where the cuts will fall \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with Sir Albert warning that some services are likely to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098discontinued\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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Fiona Farmer, Unite national officer for local governments said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have always warned that 70 per cent of the coalition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cuts to local councils were still coming down the track. What is happening in Birmingham is and will be replicated across the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local authorities and will be strongly resisted.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coalition government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity programme has hit the city of Birmingham in the most detrimental way. Axing 6,000 jobs from council workers, devastating their families and the economy in the entire region.   Savage cuts at Birmingham city council will see 6,000 jobs go in the next four years. The authority has already lost the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[84],"wps_subtitle":"Osborne abandons Birmingham as 6,000 jobs slashed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}