I THINK the union members who picketed the Market have scored an own goal.

Most people who trade in the market are by no means wealthy, they certainly will lose money if they can’t trade and are not responsible for setting public sector pay.

Unions, of course, have a right to strike and to express their grievances, but they are increasingly frustrating workers in the private sector, who have had bigger cuts to their pay, have far less job security and are unlikely to receive any redundancy pay if their employer goes bankrupt.

There is also the big discrepancy in pension provision; the average private sector workers earning £15,000 will receive an average employer contribution to their pension of six per cent or £900.

The taxpayers fund a public sector worker 19 per cent, or £2,850 a year, a figure that has been increasing throughout the years of austerity.

The tax bills of the average earner now amounts to 50 per cent of their earnings. Where is the fairness in that? There are many talented and dedicated public sector workers, but I think they are being poorly represented by some union leaders who think it is acceptable to picket and disrupt the trade of some of the town’s hardest-working and least secure workers.

Cllr Martyn Cox Westhoughton north and Chew Moor