Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Fresh fears over council job losses were raised today because local authorities were having to make huge savings under the Government's public spending cuts.
The GMB said there could be 1,000 jobs lost at Sandwell council in the West Midlands as the authority had to make £64.6 million of savings over the next three years, which the union warned would have a "devastating impact" on services.
Mohammed Khalik, the GMB's regional organiser, said: "Sandwell council have told GMB that there will be a reduction in staffing of between 600 and 700 over the next three years. Looking at the financial figures I think the job losses will be a lot higher. I fear that over 1,000 jobs will be lost.
"Cuts of this magnitude will be devastating for services, jobs and the economy in Sandwell. The impact on the vulnerable and how this impacts at a human level has not been factored in by the Tory Liberal authors of these cuts. GMB will be seeking contact with community groups and users to look to mitigate the worst aspects of these cuts."
The GMB yesterday warned of thousands of job losses at Derbyshire County Council, Leeds City Council and Stoke on Trent City Council because of Government spending cuts.
The union said the latest cuts were on top of thousands of threatened job losses at local authorities across the country as they deal with reductions in their budgets.
The union said it had been told Derbyshire County Council was planning up to 2,000 redundancies over the next four years, Leeds City Council was aiming to cut up to 3,000 jobs and between 2,500 and 3,000 posts were under threat at Stoke on Trent.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments