Happy New Year?

Colleagues,

I hope you all had a good rest over the festive period and I wish you all the very best for 2010.

And what a year it looks set to be. The Guardian helped set the forecast on the industrial front with a useful background peice from the industrial action front based largely on planned action across the public sector, not least arising from the restarting of suspended action by the CWU.

Go to this link for full details:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/31/strikes-unions-unrest-militancy

As you'll see/hear/read from the media we are now in the midst of the unofficial start of the election campaign and we can expect only further dire news for the public sector in particular with regards to expected pay squeezes and job cuts.

It will be a highly depressing period from now until whenever the election is for public sector workers as both mainstream parties attempt to out-cut one another in respect of deep cuts in public sector services and/or the transfer of services into the private sector.

I'll be exposing what all of this means, particular from a grassroots trade union perspective over the coming months, and hope, in my own small way, to contribute to the fightback from the educational front.

In the meantime however, I hope you find the slide back into work an easy one.

Any thougts/comments on what we can expect in the run-up to the election will be welcome.

Cheers!

Ian