unity at the TUC in Brighton Tuesday 11 September 2007
PUBLIC SECTOR PAY
UNITED ACTION IS THE KEY by To ny Conway The succesful united public s e c tor union action in March 2005 led to the government b a cking down on its proposals to force ex i sting public service e mp l oyees to work beyond agreed pensionable age. It also enabled unions to agree new schemes which safe g u a rded good arrangements for new e mp l oyees. We should remember that the government sta ted its proposals we re not negotiable—unity proved ot h e rwise. If we fa st forwa rd to Au g u st 2007, we see Prime Minister B rown at a TUC general council meeting stating that public s e c tor wo rke rs cause inflation and that the current pay re st raint is just i fied as a means of ensuring the British economy stays st rong. We see thre a te n e d legal action against the POA whose members have had to put up with unp recedented numbers of prisoners, and who wa l ked out because of below-inflation pay increases over a number of years. L ets be clear. The government’s inflation ta rg et of two per cent based on an EU index, the CPI, is not the real inflation figure for low-paid wo rkers in the public secto r, many of whom claim tax credits and are on or j u st above the minimum wa g e . The majority of public secto r worke rs earn less than £15,000 and cannot afford homes, holidays or a decent living. It's
no wonder that turnover ra te s are at an all time high. This year's TUC needs to recognise that unity in action as s h own in 2005 is the means by which we can break out of the st ra i g h t - j a cket of public secto r pay re st raint. Basic awa rds of two per cent when inflation is double that is just not enough – and with house price inflation is 5 times higher it is unacceptable. All public service unions are n ow in a battle on pay, some because the government has staged a recommended incre a s e , some due to the fact there is no increase at all. Whatever the reason, all the problems start with the government 's pay re st raint and its wish to blame l ow paid wo rkers not the fat cats in business for rising house prices, higher inte re st ra tes and the levels of debt. We need united action in defence of public servants and their pay. At a time when big business is paying out pensions to its friends of over £200,000 per anum, it's obscene to ex p e c t wo rke rs to survive on the levels of pay pressed on public sector wo rke rs. Motion 48 from PCS and supported by the NUT and POA is a positive pro g ra m m e and should be supported by the m ovement, ta ken into our communities and the Labour Party conference later this month. To ny Conway is a member of the PCS national exe c u t i ve
rally TODAY! 12.45PM HILTON BRIGHTON METROPOLE Defend UK manufacturing; equal treatment for agency and temporary workers; end of privatisation of public services; employment rights to protect jobs; building affordable housing for working people. Hear Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley of UNITE, Carolyn Jones of the Institute of Employment Rights; Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham Chair: John Haylett, Editor, Morning Star Refreshments will be provided. Sponsored by Unite.
‘CLASS’ IN THE CLASSROOM by Bill Greenshields At Congress this year, teacher unions are working with antipoverty organisations and campaign groups on unemployment to host fringe meetings on the devastating effects of social class divisions on the achievement of working class children and on ‘social cohesion’. The message is clear. Social inequality does not arise as the result of the ‘failure’ of education and other public services. It is class inequality – the widening gap between the haves and have-nots which is central, endemic and essential to our capitalist society – that leads to disaffection of large numbers of young people, to
educational underachievement, to lack of aspiration and to social breakdown, including poor pupil behaviour, crime and violence. The academic research evidence to back this up is there for all those who wa n t to see it. But there are many who don’t. It suits both Tory and New Labour governments to point to the symptoms and bl a m e teachers and other public sector workers for them. Their ‘solution’ is a fragmented two or three tier e d u c ation service, increasingly dominated by private sector control, with ‘diverse’ academic and vo c ational pat h ways in which continued overleaf