Debt and pension-deferral insult fuels workers’ determination
Dave Griffiths, Coventry Socialist Party
The strikes of Coventry’s HGV drivers and Rugby bin workers have continued into yet another week, but if anything the determination of the workers has increased.
As the Rugby dispute loomed, their council rushed out ‘support’ letters, offering anything but a pay rise. It offered debt advice, loans, and even a deferral of pension payments.
This ‘offer of help’ was “the insult that tipped the ballot for strike action,” said one of the Rugby workers. “They offered us to go into debt or have a lousy pension. That told us how inadequate our wages really were.”
Not to be outdone, Coventry council also wrote offering to support the workforce regarding the cost-of-living crisis, also looking at loans, and helping with access to food banks!
Union members responded that a pay rise might help!
Both the Tory council in Rugby and Labour council in Coventry have encouraged their workers into debt rather than pay a fair wage.
So it was a very disappointed bin worker, Alan Checklin, who addressed a cost-of-living crisis rally in Coventry. He explained that he had been a Labour Party member for years but, “they don’t seem any different to the Tories. [The two parties] are two cheeks of the same arse.
“I burnt my [Labour] card the other week… A Labour MP had offered help, but nothing came of it… Not once has any Labour councillor visited us on the picket to talk or ask questions.”
Talks in both disputes continue. A deal fell apart in Rugby when it became clear that loaders would have to work extra hours to get their rise. Perhaps the council was following the advice of Tory ministers who tell us all to work more hours to survive this crisis. Councils may be tripping over themselves offering advice, but workers see action as the way to secure a defence of their living standards.
