For fully funded services and a pay rise – back public sector workers voting for strikes
For a union-led weekend demo demanding an end to austerity
Scott Jones
So many of our public services are barely worthy of the name. Many are no longer publicly owned, neither do they fulfil our needs or do the job they are supposed to. And this is not the fault of the underpaid and overworked staff – nurses, teachers, librarians, and so on – who keep them running. It’s due to years of privatisation, cuts and little or no pay rises. It needs to end. But of the ‘changes’ promised by Andy Burnham’s government, this isn’t among them.
That’s not good enough, especially when Burnham’s talk of mass council housebuilding has also been dropped. Rent controls have also been ruled out, as has an increase in the level at which workers have to start paying tax. Even on the pension triple lock, Chancellor John Healey just ducked the question when asked. And what of pay for public service workers? School and college teachers, and civil servants are having to ballot for strike action this Autumn to claw back some of what they haven’t received for years. Many others would be up for a fight too, if given a lead by their trade unions.
Things are getting harder across the board. In the NHS, waiting lists in England are getting even higher and in Wales they’re so bad that the Welsh government is talking about patients not getting automatic follow-up appointments following operations. The rising cost of renting has accelerated after a three-year slowdown. Prices show no sign of letting up in the supermarket.
We need fundamental and urgent change, funding for our services, pay rises and help with the cost of living. And the money is there. Healey has promised to “control public spending” at the same time as pledging to instead spend billions more on ‘defence’. Not to mention the billions avoided in tax every year by the super-rich and big corporations, plus all the money sitting in their bank accounts.
Trade unions need to launch a struggle against austerity and the cost-of-living crisis, demand that the wealth in society is used for the benefit of all. A starting point would be a union-led weekend demo this autumn. It could bring together workers balloting for strikes with those ready to join the fray.
A demo is now the policy of the TUC which represents millions of trade unionists. Now the fight is on to put pressure on the trade union leaders to make it happen!
