Reporting local life since 1854 37pTuesday, October 11, 2011

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Walters tipped to beIrish star: Back Page

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Health trustsacks nurseA NURSE who was sacked bya health trust is vowing toclear his name.

Representatives for theman, a nurse manager at ahome for adults with learningdisabilities, is now urgingsupporters to come forward.

The action taken is said torelate to incidents from 1995to 2010 and comes after he wassuspended by CombinedHealthcare Trust.See Page 3

A L I SO NP OOLE1 96 0 -2 0 1 1Tributes to Herceptincampaigner: Page 5

Crime falls asred tape is cutMORE than 3,500 fewercrimes have been committedacross Staffordshire in thepast six months.

Figures released byStaffordshire Police todayshow 33,730 crimes werecommitted from April toSe ptember.

That compares with 37,292offences over the same sixmonths in 2010; a drop ofalmost 10 per cent.

Violent crime, burglaries,robberies and car crime havealso fallen across the countyover the same period.

The reduction comes asfamilies battle a recession andthe force has lost more than300 officers and civilian staffsince April 2010, as it looks tosave £38 million over the nextfour years.

Senior officers todayattributed part of the crimereduction to cuttingbureaucracy to let officerstackle crime.

Assistant Chief Constable(ACC) Jane Sawyers said: “Wehave stripped out theadministrative functionsbehind the scenes.

“Officers running localpolicing teams no longer haveresponsibility for buildings,human resources and adminand can focus onperfor mance.”

20,000 VOTE ONPENSION STRIKE

Contingency plans drawn up to protect front line services

BY ALEX CAMPBELLalex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk

MORE than 20,000 public sector work-ers in North Staffordshire and SouthCheshire were today being asked toback mass strike action.

The strike action over a pensionsdispute could spark the biggestwalkouts in UK history.

Unison members across the regionare being balloted on a strike which willhit councils, the NHS and policefo rc e s.

It is the first time the union hasballoted its entire membership forstrike action and comes amid claimsGovernment plans will lead to biggerpensions contributions but worse pen-s i o n s.

The union has 9,600 members acrossStaf fordshire’s councils, 7,000 in theNorth Staffordshire NHS and SouthCheshire NHS, 4,500 members at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, more than 3,000

in Cheshire East Council, as well asmore than 2,000 working for Stafford-shire and Cheshire police forces.

If the strike goes ahead, each will beforced to draw up emergency contin-gency plans to cover striking workers orleave the public to face major disrup-tion to front line services.

Unison said the ballot follows eightmonths of failed negotiations, but theGover nment’s department for Com-munities and Local Government todaydescribed the threat of industrial actionas “completely unnecessary.”

Jane Heath, Unison branch secretaryfor Staffordshire, said: “We are urgingour members to vote yes in the ballot.

“We know they won’t make thedecision to strike lightly, but they havebeen left with little choice.”

Unison said 999 call centre operators,probation officers, nurses, social work-ers, teaching assistants, dinner ladies,hospital cleaners and council officerswill be among those voting.

Members will be asked to strike onNovember 30 with the prospect of fur-ther action to follow.

Stoke-on-Trent branch secretaryColin Walton said: “Hopefully memberswill vote yes, because this is what it willtake to send a statement to the Gov-ernment that we are not prepared tostand by and allow them to erode ourpension rights.

“Women in local government getbetween £2,000 and £4,000 per year inpension having worked for their life.

“They are not gold-plated pensions byany means. “It is something that every-body believes but is not supported bythe facts.”

Ballots will be delivered to the homeaddresses of members from today.

Results are due on November 3 andshould be announced by Unison on thesame day.

The Trades Union Council (TUC) iscalling for unions to unite for anational day of strikes on November30 and further ballots are likely.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Ser-vice has re-trained station managersand senior officers in front linefire-fighting amid threat ofindustrial action by the Fire BrigadesUnion.

The North Staffordshire TUC isholding a public meeting on Wednes-day, October 12, to discuss the Novem-ber 30 strikes.

‘Sums don’t add up’: Page 6

Will you be supporting industrialaction? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk

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