Youth workers on strike in David Cameron's constituency

Slammed: youth workers in David Cameron's constituency on strike against cuts
12 April 2012

Youth workers in the Prime Minister's constituency went on strike today in protest at public sector spending cuts.

Members of Unite in Banbury, Oxfordshire, were taking industrial action all day as part of a campaign against cuts the union said will lead to the loss of 80 jobs of workers who care for hundreds of vulnerable young people across the county.

The union said David Cameron recently visited a youth centre in Witney to discuss the aftermath of the riots but was turning a blind eye to the "devastation" of the area's youth service because of spending cuts by the county council.

Doug Nicholls, national officer of Unite, said: "Youth workers in Oxfordshire will be taking this day of action with a heavy heart, but are determined to challenge the council's short-sighted decision to dismantle its top-class youth service.

"Many workers will be taking action for the first time. Our members work with some of the most marginalised young people in our society - those living in poverty, fighting loneliness and struggling to engage. The jobs they do make a difference to young lives.

"The Prime Minister had the audacity to speak from his so-called favourite youth club in Witney last week in the wake of the UK riots, but failed to defend the county's dedicated team of youth workers.

"Young people have been given a very rough ride by this Government and now Oxfordshire County Council wants to slash its youth service budget when it already ranks a dismal 104th out of 118 local authorities for net expenditure on youth provision."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in