UK's unions threaten to escalate campaign against spending cuts

The UK's trade Union Congress (TUC) leader, Brendan Barber, has threatened to escalate the campaign against spending cuts after he organised a demonstration that brought central London to a grinding halt in March.
 
Barber, the general secretary of the umbrella group comprising 55 trade unions, said TUC leaders would meet in early October, to fine tune the second phase of campaigning, in a bid to mobilise the public to force the government to "put the brake on austerity" and go back to the drawing board.

According to analysts, the move to put "serious pressure" on the government to deliver "an economic alternative" presented a double whammy for UK's coalition government, with the threat of further strikes by public sector unions over proposed pension reforms looming large.

According to Barber, the government was starting to "lose its central arguments on the economy" with the country facing the "real prospect" of a double-dip recession.

Ploughing on with debt reduction plans aimed at reducing the deficit in just four years amounted "nothing more than a national programme of self-harm", he added.

According to the TUC published study, working families would see their living standards fall by over £4,600 by 2013 as sub-inflation wages, benefit changes and public spending cuts put a squeeze on households.

In a report released ahead of next week's TUC congress, the TUC said a two-earner family with two children living in the East Midlands would see a living standards gap of £2,000 this year, with that divide widening to £4,600 by 2013.