Trade union leaders in Wales continue their unrequited love for Welsh Labour despite Labour’s ongoing willingness to implement Con-Dem cuts.
This year’s Welsh Labour conference was held in Swansea on 13 to 15 February. The city is home to a Labour council proposing to slash 15% of the current budget – £24 million – from education and schools.
Swansea primary school heads predict it will be impossible to meet the statutory requirement to teach 5 to 7-year-olds in maximum class sizes of 30. Older primary pupils could be taught in classes of 42 or more.
Cuts to their members’ jobs didn’t stop teachers’ union NUT tweeting pictures of Welsh Labour politicians from its stall inside. But its membership will not tolerate this for ever. Already many trade unionists are turning their backs on Labour: four members of the union’s executive will stand under the TUSC banner in the May elections.
The Welsh government is as guilty of vandalising education as Welsh councils. Some FE colleges are losing more than 10% of funding, and half of adult education is to go.
Anybody who doubts that Miliband plans to continue austerity should look at Wales, where the Labour administration has been a conveyor belt for Tory cuts.
TUSC Wales already has an impressive list of trade unionist candidates for the general election. But there’s still time for others frustrated by the cuts consensus to join with us. Let’s ensure as many as possible in Wales get the opportunity to vote for a real no-cuts alternative.
