UNISONActive is an unofficial blog produced by UNISON activists for UNISON activists. Bringing news, briefings and events from a progressive left perspective.

Saturday 11 December 2010

Arguments against a pay freeze‏

Last week the Obama administration announced a plan to freeze the salaries of non-military federal employees for two years, using the same bogus ‘deficit’ arguments deployed by the UK Government. It was widely condemned as a bad idea by US public service unions: http://afscmemn.org/federal-pay-freeze%3A-bad-idea

The Point/CounterPoint blog makes a compelling economic and political case against cutting the living standards of public service workers - ‘a freeze on federal workers’ pay would have little impact on the budget deficit, discourage talented workers from staying in the federal workforce, harm the economy, fail to win over desired political support from conservatives, and bolster the conservative philosophy that unfairly blames the modest pay of public sector workers for a deficit caused by disastrous wars, tax cuts for the rich, exploding health care costs, and a recession spurred by Wall Street’s misdeeds’:
http://ynative77.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/economyfreezing-hope/