‘Organise, mobilise, win’

Public sector workers such as nurses, firefighters, local authority workers and others, have, despite facing skyrocketing workloads in the face of austerity cuts, failed to see a pay rise in seven years.

Factor in inflation – which today rose to a record 2.9 per cent – and the government’s years-long public sector pay cap has translated into a massive real terms pay cut.

Last night (September 12) at the TUC conference in Brighton, Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail explained just how damaging this pay cap is as she spoke in support of Composite 9 on public sector pay.

She slammed the “rank duplicity” of the government’s rhetoric.

“We have been told that public sector workers have ‘gold plated’ terms and conditions and that their pay should be capped to help the private sector prosper,” she said.

“We all know that this is complete and utter nonsense. In fact, the exact opposite has happened with public sector policy contaminating the wider economy.”

“Cutting public sector pay has sucked out demand and added to the woes in the private sector during and following the 2008 crisis and recession,” Cartmail added.

She highlighted that public sector pay policy was “contaminating” private sector firms who see it as a “green light to follow suit.”

Cartmail explained how many organisations that benchmark against public sector agreement, such as social care providers, charities and advice organisations have applied the pay cap to their workers, making “a bad situation worse”.

She highlighted how the government is also “playing games with its definitions when it comes to what it terms the public sector.”

“We have seen a wave of privatisation, rolling back the state at a rate not seen since the 1990s, selling valuable public assets like the Royal Mail off on the cheap,” she said.

“At the same time, they have sought to hook in supposedly independent organisations and contractors within the public sector pay cap and new draconian anti-union legislation when it suits their purpose.”

She recounted how Unite members have experienced this exact same phenomenon themselves.

This year alone, disputes with Serco at Bart’s Health, Bank of England and in pensions disputes with the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency and Atomic Weapons Establishment have seen the government seek to impose derisory pay awards and renege on pension promises.

But with workers standing up and organising, they have in many cases prevailed.

“Unite’s Bank of England strike wasn’t won in the Board Room – Unite won that strike by the brave men and women who for the first time in 50 years walked out, took to the picket line and won overwhelming public support,” Cartmail said.

“In Threadneedle Street and on the streets of Whitechapel Bank of England and SERCO workers were joined by the Shadow Chancellor – John McDonnell – because he knows a bottom dollar, low wage economy is bad for workers, bad for communities and stifles economic growth,” she added.

“Yes, Britain needs a pay rise, and yes a real Living Wage – not the phony imitations of Cameron and May.”

Urging delegates to support the composite, Cartmail proclaimed that “enough is enough.

“We will organise, mobilise and win!”

The composite was passed.