{"id":24063,"date":"2020-10-05T15:06:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=24063"},"modified":"2020-10-05T15:06:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:06:53","slug":"winter-on-the-dole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=24063","title":{"rendered":"Winter on the dole?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Conservative chancellors have got form when it comes to a casual disregard for the jobs of ordinary people.<\/p>\n

Thirty years ago, Norman Lamont was telling us high unemployment was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098price worth paying\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for his head-banger economics.<\/p>\n

Now we have Rishi Sunak.\u00c2\u00a0 A\u00c2\u00a0better communicator yes,\u00c2\u00a0but who in\u00c2\u00a0a few short months has\u00c2\u00a0gone from \u00e2\u20ac\u0098whatever it takes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to throwing in the towel on whole sectors of the economy like aviation, tourism and hospitality.<\/p>\n

The\u00c2\u00a0government is\u00c2\u00a0not even bothering\u00c2\u00a0to try anymore \u00e2\u20ac\u201c instead it is adopting the brace position for the four million we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re warned\u00c2\u00a0will be on the dole this winter.<\/p>\n

Despite the fanfare, the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) is in no way the proper follow-on from\u00c2\u00a0the Jobs Retention Scheme.\u00c2\u00a0 It lumps struggling employers with costs too heavy to bear at a time when demand has not yet returned and on-off lockdowns play havoc with consumer confidence.<\/p>\n

Yes, some employers will find the JSS very helpful, in\u00c2\u00a0high-skilled industries where the cost of firing workers only to have to retrain at a later date make no sense.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working with those employers right\u00c2\u00a0now to save every job we can.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Little incentive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the great majority of businesses will find little incentive to use a scheme that can make it more costly to keep people on the books.<\/p>\n

Yet again, the UK has looked at what similar countries are doing and decided that we can do worse.<\/p>\n

Gordon Brown and his Alliance for Full Employment (AfFE) are spot on when they say that the\u00c2\u00a0country stands on the edge of the worst recession in three hundred years but the\u00c2\u00a0Tory government is\u00c2\u00a0doing far too little, much\u00c2\u00a0too late to\u00c2\u00a0halt the oncoming mass unemployment tsunami.<\/p>\n

In these\u00c2\u00a0unstable times, France and Germany provide jobs support\u00c2\u00a0for longer and at a higher level.\u00c2\u00a0 They will attract the investment that saves jobs, not us.<\/p>\n

While French and German workers can rest easier in their beds at night, UK workers are being left to fret for their futures by a\u00c2\u00a0government in\u00c2\u00a0thrall to the doctrine of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098creative destruction\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

With only weeks until the JRS ends and diminishing faith in the JSS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 capacity to save jobs on the scale so needed, it will be down to us – workers, unions\u00c2\u00a0and the Labour party -\u00c2\u00a0to metaphorically knock ministers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 heads together.<\/p>\n

We will not allow a\u00c2\u00a0government that\u00c2\u00a0does\u00c2\u00a0more to protect the future\u00c2\u00a0of grouse shooting than of bar workers, that causes\u00c2\u00a0redundancy notices to\u00c2\u00a0fly around like confetti, to\u00c2\u00a0fail our people.<\/p>\n

Working people and their unions are crying out for a proper plan to save and create jobs. The chancellor must hear our voices – and act.<\/p>\n

A jobs carnage has been predicted.\u00c2\u00a0 The time to avert it is\u00c2\u00a0now.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This comment first appeared in the Daily Mirror<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty years ago, Norman Lamont was telling us high unemployment was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098price worth paying\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for his head-banger economics.<\/p>\n

Now we have Rishi Sunak.\u00c2\u00a0 A\u00c2\u00a0better communicator yes,\u00c2\u00a0but who in\u00c2\u00a0a few short months has\u00c2\u00a0gone from \u00e2\u20ac\u0098whatever it takes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to throwing in the towel on whole sectors of the economy like aviation, tourism and hospitality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[1330,1433,160,1309],"wps_subtitle":"A jobs carnage has been predicted \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the time to avert it is now, writes Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24068,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24063\/revisions\/24068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}