CON-DEM cuts have destroyed women’s standard of living, Unison delegates told their union’s conference yesterday.
Most of the 631,000 public-sector jobs axed by the
coalition in the last two years — as well as the 400,000 set to go by
the 2015 election — are women’s jobs, warned northern delegate Liz
Jackson.
In some areas twice as many women as men have lost their jobs, she warned.
The devastation is shown in recent official figures, which
revealed a shocking rise in women’s unemployment rate from 6.9 to 7.3
per cent since 2010.
And it’s not just women’s jobs but the services they rely
on that are being put on the chopping block, delegates warned, with
attacks on maternity pay, domestic violence support, the NHS and social
care.
“The Tory-boy Cabinet know exactly what effect their
austerity measures are having on women and they don’t give a damn,” said
North West region delegate Reena Wood.
“What we do need to do is build confidence among our
class. We have to remind people what collectivism is. It’s collectively
sharing our skills so we have a capacity to have a united front.”
A new Unison report published yesterday suggests that
sweeping government cuts to local services are leaving more than a third
of women fearing for their safety.
The online survey of 7,550 women across Britain found 34
per cent felt unsafe as government cuts are causing more than a million
street lights across Britain to be switched off or dimmed.
