Eve Miller, Unison young members officer, personal capacity
We’re well over 100 days into Keir Starmer’s rule, and we are seeing the continuation of austerity, taking from one mouth to feed another.
Rachel Reeves’s October Budget consisted of smoke and mirrors – but we can see clear as day that the cuts will not stop. We can still see that the £22.6 billion ‘extra’ for the NHS works out than a less-than-average 3.4% increase over the next couple of years. That doesn’t even scratch the surface to repair the damage done in cuts by the Tories. Local government, even with the £1.3 billion ‘extra’ pledged by Reeves, is left to figure out where the other £3 billion will come from to stop council service closures.
In Unison, the public sector union, this means that our members, and particularly young workers, are hit by the double burden of providing services with unsafe staffing levels and less provision, while receiving a low wage which needs to spread further in a world that costs more.
This is why it’s important for Unison to stand up to the Labour government, alongside our sister unions. Concessions have been won before from the Tories, so there is no reason why they can’t be won from Labour. Look at the recent strike wave, the biggest since the 1980s.
Young workers step forward
So how can we continue to build our unions for the challenges lying ahead? One of the most important things is to get new and young members and reps recruited. Over half of union reps are over 50 years old, which is very scary – not because I’m ageist, but because that means in the next 15 years or so, if we don’t get moving, over half of our reps will have retired and we’ll be left in a weakened position.
In the strike wave, many young workers went on strike for the first time. It is vital that we, as young workers, take responsibility and step up for the generations of activists before us to pass over the torch. We are the unions of the future.
Many of our union leaders praise Starmer’s government, pushing the idea that this is what we should expect, this is the ‘sensible’ approach and is all that we should ask for.
But we won’t stand for attacks on the working class. Young members getting into the regional forums and to conferences allows us the opportunity to debate the issues with thousands of reps. The resolution I proposed on council cuts – for no-cuts budgets – has gone through the West Midlands young members forum to go to the young members conference.
We’re all new at some point. But working together as socialists and young trade unionists, we can campaign for the fighting trade unions we need. We are the fighters of the future!
Socialist Party young members’ leaflet for the conference adds:
Young members still face a lower minimum wage for the same amount of work – far short of the £15 minimum wage that is this union’s policy. Yet the Budget was celebrated and paraded by Unison’s general secretary.
Many of our young members are crippled by the burden of student debt and soon, under Labour, we will be paying back thousands more in fees and interest. Alongside this, we are paying disproportionate rent and bills whilst earning less money in our pay cheques.
For most workers, life under a Labour government will continue to feel a lot like life under the Tories: real pay well below where it was a decade ago, and public services crumbling. Starkly, most Unison members have received poor pay offers. This has especially been the case in local government in England and Wales.
The trade unions must be at the heart of opposition to Starmer’s austerity by being prepared to mobilise members to fight industrially, and by taking steps to establish their own political voice – a new mass workers’ party. Unison young members conference takes place 29 November – 1 December
