The Unions Fight Back
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It seems that the capitalist class have found their scapegoat for the rising cost of living crisis in the defensive actions of the trade unions to protect their standard of living from rising prices with demands for higher pay. The war in Ukraine is not deemed appropriate to blame.
There is now in the pipeline a series of serious workers’ actions that are receiving condemnation from the government, even the Labour Party (no surprise there) and, of course, the media
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Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the railways were on the brink of major disruption which would cause misery across the country: “Children sitting exams will face the extra distraction of changing their travel plans. And vulnerable people with long-awaited hospital appointments may have no choice but to cancel.”Shapps said that workers were carrying out an “act of self-harm” by walking out, that union bosses were driving them to do so “under false pretences”, and that the strikes were ‘the last thing’ they should do.
The workers are simply to sit back passively, tighten their belts and sacrifice for the good of the nation
While CEOs receive staggering pay and bonuses increases! All perfectly justified..
The Government attacks ordinary workers daring to seek a decent pay rise at all!! …in effect accusing them of causing inflation!
The government might find itself out of step with people’s attitude towards the rail strike. Far from seeing it as “harming the public”, people might see it as a group of workers making a reasonable demand with a double-digit rise in consumer prices on the horizon — asking for something that they too think they should get.
Many of the right wing press have been using red herrings by referring to the wages that Train drivers get, it’s not them it is on strike. There’s is a separate dispute.
The Trots, et al are also not mentioning that LNER, Northern Trains and Southeastern trains are in public ownership.
The proposal to change the law to permit employers to bring in agency staff is perhaps the biggest strike-breaking action in recent times.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/20/boris-johnson-plan-break-rail-strikes-agency-workers
It has transformed a sectional industrial dispute into a political attack on the right to strike and deserves a cross-union response.
It may make agency workers vulnerable to threats of benefit cuts if they decline to break picket-lines.
From inews
No 10 planning to tear up restrictions on City bosses’ pay amid cost of living crisis
One key plank of the plan included “removing restrictions on director (and specifically NED [non-executive director]) remuneration as suggested by the London Stock Exchange Group to improve London’s attractiveness for listings”.
But with the cost of living crisis and a squeeze on earnings hitting millions of ordinary workers, the proposal may spark controversy.Outrage over banker’s pay
Bonuses in the financial and insurance sector grew by 27.9 per cent over the last year, while average wages in the same period grew by just 4.2 per cent. Some £6bn was paid out in City bonuses in March alone.
This is all the fault of the government….greedy Capitalists.
Government subsidises Rail to the tune of £4bn, ending up largely in shareholders pockets.
Starmer’s Labour Party ditches the unions
Looks as if the government are going to try and see off the RMT just as Thatcher did with the NUM. Could be a dangerous strategy as at least half the population are on the railway workers’ side for the obvious reason that they too want to get a wage increase to mitigate the rise in the cost of living and see the railway workers are trail-blazers.
But that other workers will follow the railwaymen’s example is precisely what the government is afraid of. That is why they are trotting out the traditional stuff about the danger of starting a wage-price spiral. That’s a scare story but if there is going to be a spiral it would be a price-wages spiral since other prices rose first.
On the radio yesterday, during interviews with the minority of workers not supporting the railway workers, more than one person said they didn’t see why the railway workers should get special treatment. A stupid argument but it is true that the railway workers shouldn’t be treated as a special case. All workers should be treated the same as them and get a wage increase of well over 2 or 3 percent.
The Labour Party sabotages UNITE union.
David Lammy says Labour should categorically refuse to back demands from airline workers for a pay rise of about 10%.
General secretary, Sharon Graham, calls his comments a “new low” for Labour, which could not be relied upon by working people. Graham said that the workers were not asking for a 10% pay rise, but the restoration of money taken from them when pay was cut during the pandemic.
Barristers strike across England and Wales in a dispute over pay and conditions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61946038
Barristers have been rallying outside a number of high-profile courts, including the Old Bailey in London and Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol Crown Courts.
Yet another ‘professional’ group of workers
Doctors are calling for a pay rise of up to 30% over the next five years, in a move that increases the chances of strike action.
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