Trade unionists in Carmarthenshire lobbying their Labour council for a no-cuts budget in 2014, photo Scott Jones

Trade unionists in Carmarthenshire lobbying their Labour council for a no-cuts budget in 2014, photo Scott Jones   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Just before Christmas, Carmarthenshire county Unison union branch sent a letter to councillors demanding they set a no-cuts budget to prevent more job losses and further reduced services.

The letter points out that “the local authority now has to make another £28 million cuts in three years with £9 million this year alone.”

It calls on the Plaid Cymru/Independent-led coalition council to stop saying its hands are tied by the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government implementing Tory austerity budget cuts.

“We are calling on Carmarthenshire County Council to make a stand before it is too late. Unison (LGSGE), GMB, Unite (local government) and the Wales TUC all support the setting of legal no-cuts budgets. Use the time a no-cuts budget gives you to call on other councils to do the same. Build a mass campaign of resistance starting in Wales that could be the beginning of the end of the Tories.”