Pay freeze for police force
The Police Federation reckons that with the two-year pay freeze and a likely increase in pension contributions, police officers are likely to suffer a 15-20 percent reduction in the value of their pay.
Although last October the Government spoke of giving police the right to strike, and in 2008 the Police Federation decided by a large ballot majority to demand the right to strike, at present the cops have no such right.
Police strikes were banned in 1919, after a police strike in 1918-19 when the Government suspected strikers of sympathising with other striking workers in the left-wing mood of the time.
The police are not ordinary workers. But if they start moving for industrial
action, the Labour Party and the trade union movement should support them.
JOHN SMITHEE
Via e-mail
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