As of 07:00 this morning thousands of prison officers went on strike "after two years of frustration and two years of below-inflation pay awards" Prison Officers' Association (POA) chairman Colin Moses said.
87% of the prison officers said they were willing to strike when asked in a POA national ballot of members two weeks ago. The government are saying that the strike action is illegal and that police officers may be brought in to ensure the safety of the prisoners. The prisoners are being kept in their cells - I say good, but no doubt they will be successfully claiming compensation for restrictions to their "Human Rights".
Colin Moses went on to say: "These are professional men and women who every day look after those committed by the courts to our prisons. Surely we should be treated as well, if not better, than the prisoners we look after."
I know for a fact that when I served in the Royal Navy, our budget for food was less than that of a prisoner. No doubt it is still the same five years on. Some prisoners have said that they wouldn't mind sharing cells to overcome the shortage of spaces, but they are not happy about having two to a cell when there is only one control for the Play Station.
4 comments:
I've never seen the point of strike action except as a last resort. I supported the firemen's strike of 1978 because I agreed that their pay and working conditions were unacceptable, and firemen were not habitual strikers.
My belief is that when men and women who seldom, if ever, strike simply walk off the job en masse something is seriously wrong, and accusations of illegality from a 'Justice Minister' of Straw's calibre are merely 'a red rag to a bull'.
Law and order has collapsed and social breakdown is inevitable. This may be the first indication. I expect mutinies in the armed forces and strikes and mass resignations in the police forces to follow, though not necessarily immediately. Moslem violence (and that of other ethnic minorities, including East Europeans) will certainly follow that.
The revolution may have begun. Frightened liberals should contact their nearest counsellor or agony aunt.
Mr Gruff,
I really believe that Brown and Labour think they can do anything they want and no one will raise a whimper. I hope this has been a shock to them. It's about time someone put them in their place. I can't believe that Straw got a court injunction calling the strike illegal. Wow, what are they going to do? the bloody prisons are packed anyway. The POA must have pissed themselves when they heard that one. I see they have called off the strike because the government are willing to re-negotiate.
Job done. I hope that they are willing to do it again if the government try to fob them off.
I don't doubt that they will act if they have to but next time, if there has to be a next time, they won't be so willing to believe a government that will have lied to them.
It's only when the 'NCO's' say no, and mean it, that the 'officers' know they're 'not on'.
Mr Gruff
Spot on.
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