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From The Socialist newspaper, 6 January 2016
UK wage growth will be lowest since 1920s
Dave Semple, PCS union rep (personal capacity)
Chancellor George Osborne's pet austerity apologists at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) have released figures predicting wage growth of just 6.2% over the decade to 2020. This is less than half the 12.7% growth from 2000 to 2010.
Since 2010, growth in prices (inflation) has outstripped wage growth even using the lower estimate represented by the 'consumer price index'.
OBR figures reveal that only from 1900 to 1910 and from 1920 to 1930 was wage growth lower, at 1.8% and 1.5%. These were decades of serious attacks on the union movement.
The 1901 Taff Vale judgment allowed bosses to sue unions for loss of earnings during strikes. The 1927 Trades Dispute Act banned sympathy strikes and mass picketing, and restricted unions' political funds to members specifically opting in.
Parallels with the 2015-16 Trade Union Bill are clear.
Timidity
It is the timidity of union leaders which encourages attacks both on workers' rights and on wages.
In October 2014, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) staged the "Britain Needs a Pay Rise" march. Turnout was high and angry. Behind the rhetoric, however, the TUC and right-wing leaders of the major unions opposed calls for concerted strike action over pay.
There is a clear thirst to fight for more. Public sector union PCS organised monthly "pay day e-actions" in late 2015, including 5,000 emails from individual members to one civil service boss. The recent rock-solid strike action by train workers against Arriva in Wales shows this too.
Decisive, coordinated, escalating action on pay would inspire millions of workers to take on the anti-union laws, and rally the un-unionised majority. This is what the Socialist Party campaigns for.
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 6 January 2016:
What we think
2016: Crisis-ridden capitalism will meet with bitter mood of resistance
No retreat on resisting council cuts!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Support junior doctors' and student nurses' action
Another black man shot dead by the police
UK's private rail fares six times public rates
Birmingham Labour to axe at least 1,200 jobs in £165m cuts onslaught
UK wage growth will be lowest since 1920s
NHS England chiefs block hospitals from publicising emergencies
What we saw: Sadiq Khan's promises on London transport
Socialist Party feature
Floods, climate change and capitalism
Carlisle Socialist Party's action plan on floods
Profit system exacerbates flooding
Tories' hypocritical green policies pledge
Renationalise the water industry
International socialist news and analysis
No government majority as Podemos partially recovers
Workplace news and analysis
Union action needed to defeat attack on student nurses
Nationalise rail now! Rail workers strike around the country
Steel: public ownership needed as private buyers threaten pay and pensions
Condescending Tories savage Yorkshire fire service
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Dark comic book fantasy throws light on abusive relationships
"I chose to be involved in politics, Michael Crick"
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
A 'People's Budget' to defeat cruel cuts
Stop the closure of Calderstones hospital!
2015 marks best fighting fund total this century!
Eleanor Marx: celebrate a life of struggle for socialism
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