Unions united yesterday against the coalition’s plans to sell off the justice system to the highest bidder.
New TUC research exposed the Con-Dem coalition’s plans to hand the most profitable 70 per cent of probation work and an ever-increasing number of prisoners over to shady private firms.
Already one in six inmates are held in privately run prisons, and with fewer staff combined with increasing overcrowding unions warn that the prison system is in meltdown.
Our members face serious violence, crumbling workplaces and exposure to dangerous drugs — it is outrageous we still cannot legally use our industrial muscle to fight back and defend ourselves, writes STEVE GILLAN
Working in a high-risk sector, prison officers’ calls for proper PPE must be heeded – and the POA will be fighting to ensure effective protection at work is delivered, writes MARK FAIRHURST



