Comment on A legacy of FF? by richotto

I think the best way to protect those at the bottom is to take the most morally defensible line. Instead of taking a defence line of “not an inch” in which the public would stand fully behind the govt should industrial action be taken a line could be drawn at the relatively prosperous wage of 60k I suggest. The 100k was mentioned only as that figure was being used by SF and some on the left as the dividing line between the well off and the downtrodden in the public sector. But thats unrealistically high and will hardly result in any of the savings which are neccessary.
I do strongly agree with the need for a good public sector union base to be expanded into the rest of society as far as possible. Howeer the practice in this country where was that unions were not really seen as part of a labour movement and were used by the already well off and professional parts of the public sector to serve only their narrow sectional interest. In Germany and Sweden for example the Union movement in general based on the public sector backbone it had there saw to it that private sector workers were treated to similar terms and conditions, pay increases and employment protection that existed for the public sector. With all the special increases that took place over the years a similar conciousness never existed in our public sector unions and the private sector workers were pretty much thrown to the wolves.