Editorial of the Socialist issue 1236
The Tories have been forced to make concessions on pay as a result of determined strike action – that’s the main takeaway from their announcement that they will honour the recommendations of public sector pay review bodies.
In the autumn, Rishi Sunak’s government would not negotiate with the public sector unions about pay. Then following strike action he was forced to. Just a month ago he would not honour the pay review body 2023 recommendations – still well-below inflation but higher than the government wanted. Now he says he will honour them in full. That means offers of 7% for police and prison officers, 6.5% for teachers, and 6% for doctors.
Now he says this offer “… is final. We will not negotiate again on this year’s settlements and no amount of strikes will change our decision.”
Well, we’ll see about that!
He was attempting to dig his heels in, not because the Tories are tough and strong, but because of their fear of opening up the floodgates to demands from other workers. As soon as this announcement was made, NHS workers in unions that had just accepted 5%, such as Unison, took to social media to say ‘What about us!’
Workers will be looking at this turnaround and correctly drawing the conclusion that striking works!
And the other takeaway has to be that more can be won. Now is not the time to release the pressure but to step it up.
As the BMA said regarding the offer to doctors, it “represents yet another pay cut in real terms and serves only to increase the losses faced by doctors after more than a decade’s worth of sub-inflation pay awards”. The same is true for the other workers fighting over pay.
These inadequate pay increases will be imposed anyway, so workers can bank them and fight on for more.
Now Sunak is desperately trying to assuage his fractured and restless party that this about-turn is ok because apparently, contrary to all the propaganda thus far, suddenly these wage rises won’t lead to inflation or affect borrowing.
Trying to appease the Tory right, he is even suggesting that the only people who will be adversely affected are migrants, who will have to pay higher visa fees and pay more to access the NHS.
We oppose any attempt to divide workers against each other using racism or any other methods.
That is why the question of funding for public sector pay is so important. In the case of teacher pay, for example, the government claims that it is providing funding for 3%, but the other 3.5% will come from existing budgets. That inevitably means cuts. Cuts to resources, perhaps cuts to the ‘nicer’ aspects of school life such as trips, and potentially cuts to the jobs of support staff. That’s why Socialist Party members are campaigning for the fight to continue – for inflation-proof pay rises and full funding.
In the life of this issue of the Socialist there will be national strike action by hospital consultants and rail workers in the RMT and Aslef, as well as action on London Underground and in multiple local disputes, such as St Mungo’s homelessness charity. In recent weeks there has been action by bin workers and Amazon workers, to name just a few. This is testament to the extraordinary resilience of the strike wave – both in terms of workers keeping on going, and of more layers coming in to action.
Leadership
That determination is what has driven forward the strike wave, pushing leaderships from below. Leaders who in many cases not only underestimated the willingness of their members to fight, but also continue to overestimate the strength of the Tories, attempting to wind down disputes in the mistaken belief that more cannot be won.
Leaderships are tested by these strikes. Rightly, the BMA leaders rejected these offers and are continuing their action – a sign of the transformation that has taken place as a result of years of austerity, inflation, and the strike wave itself, with layers who would previously not have been seen as part of the working class taking action, and propelling forwards the leaders of an organisation that was originally a professional body, not a trade union at all.
The ‘NEU Left’ leadership of the National Education Union (NEU), however, is recommending acceptance of 6.5%. But NEU members are getting organised and campaigning for reject, with Socialist Party NEU NEC members to the fore. The ‘Left Unity’ leadership of the PCS civil servants’ union is attempting to wind down its campaign having been offered a non-consolidated £1,500 lump sum, but again, members are campaigning, with Socialist Party members and the Broad Left Network taking a lead. In Unison, Socialist Party members have fought for the Time for Real Change grouping to take a bold fighting lead.
Unlike others – such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), who are now campaigning to say ‘no’ but are in alliance with these leaderships and have provided a left cover for the last period – in all of these cases, Socialist Party members have worked with others to put forward a fighting programme.
In the case of Unite the Union, it is vital that the gains made under Sharon Graham’s leadership are defended against those in the ‘United Left’ ‘Members First’ group who want to undermine them. These developments all pose the need for new rank-and-file lefts to be built that can campaign among the members and hold leaderships to account, and for fighting socialist candidates to stand for election – as in the upcoming PCS general secretary and assistant general secretary elections.
Anti-union laws
The pressure is also being applied to union tops to urgently prepare to act together, decisively, against the Tories’ planned minimum service levels anti-union laws – to defy and defeat these measures. RMT and Unite conferences have agreed motions put forward by Socialist Party members. That’s what makes the model motion and the lobby of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called by the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) on 10 September so important.
In response to demands from trade unions for inflation-proof pay rises, Keir Starmer will only commit a Labour government to “improving public service workers’ living standards throughout the parliament”. He has repeatedly warned of “tough decisions”, while shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves promises “fiscal discipline”.
That’s why the debates that have taken place at union conferences about political representation and workers’ candidates in the general election are a key part of continuing the fight on pay and funding.
