PUBLIC sector workers from UNISON will dress as skeletons in Taunton tomorrow “as a grim reminder to the public that Government cuts will slash public services to the bone”.
They will be calling on Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs to ‘bone-up’ on UNISON’s alternative budget, or face a ‘dead loss’ in the next election.
The Hallowe’en protest will be held at 11am outside County Hall.
The ‘skeleton-workers’ will be armed with a giant placard with bones spelling out the union’s message: “Say no to skeleton services, say yes to a fairer way”.
A spokeswoman for UNISON said: “The union believes that this is not the time for cuts – we need to invest in jobs and services to help the economy recover from recession and build a fairer society.
“Our protest should act as a grim reminder to the public that Government cuts will slash public services to the bone.
“UNISON’s Save Our Services alternative budget includes:
- A 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000 which would raise £4.7bn a year
- £10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and ‘non-domiciled’ residents
- £14.9bn raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000
- £30bn could be raised every year by introducing the Robin Hood Tax
- Bringing back the windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses would raise £1.5bn
- £500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare acquired infections from the NHS – the extra cleaners would cost half this
- £1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill
- £5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax
- £2.8bn saved by ending the central Government use of private consultants
- £3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement.”
Share