The Live Wire



Press Release

Jobless total soars because of ‘dead end’ policies, says Unite

18 January 2012

The continuing rise in the unemployment figures, announced today (Wednesday, 17 January), was laid firmly at the door of the coalition’s ‘dead end’ economic policies by Unite, the largest union in the country.

Unite General Secretary, Len McCluskey said: ‘And what is of real concern for the future is that many forecasters are expecting the jobless figures to soar during 2012, peaking in 2013. This is clearly unacceptable.’

‘Once again, young people, aged 18-to-24, are bearing the brunt of George Osborne’s cruel and blinkered economic and fiscal policies that have drained demand from the economy. The next generation is being sacrificed on the altar of economic Thatcherite orthodoxy.’

‘The fact that the government is borrowing money for people to do nothing explodes the deficit reduction strategy that has sucked confidence out of every corner of the economy and caused this surge in joblessness in the first place.’

‘This is money that could have gone towards creating jobs, boosting demand and plans for infrastructure projects. The government’s stewardship of the economy has been revealed as deeply flawed.’

Unite has repeatedly called for the introduction of a Plan B aimed at boosting manufacturing; putting ‘demand’ back into the economy i.e. cutting the 20 per cent VAT rate; and maintaining the current level of public services.

Len McCluskey said: ‘The coalition’s vaunted claim that the private sector will provide the extra jobs to replace those being lost in their hundreds of thousands in the public sector has been proven simply not to be true.’

‘The coalition’s dead end economic policies may please the self-interested City elite, but for real people in real communities they are a tragedy – a national disgrace.’

UK unemployment rose by 118,000 in the three months to November to 2.685 million.



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

Unite

Unite

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd