{"id":27982,"date":"2021-03-02T10:46:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T10:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=27982"},"modified":"2021-03-03T17:24:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T17:24:20","slug":"budget-has-govt-learnt-anything-from-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=27982","title":{"rendered":"Budget: has govt learnt anything from pandemic? \u00c2\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Budgets often only register with voters when some howler is made by the government, like George Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stupid pasty tax.\u00c2\u00a0Tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is different. This government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mismanagement of the crisis has led to the UK suffering the biggest economic\u00c2\u00a0hit in Europe, not to mention a tragically high loss of life. Much-trailed in the media, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon find out if this government has taken the right lessons from the past year.\u00c2\u00a0Will its vision help or hinder how we build out of the pandemic rubble, or will the wrong people once again be paying the price?<\/p>\n

Unite will be represented at the TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eve of Budget rally, joined by hundreds of our members, supporting the call of the unions representing six million people for a budget that recognises and repays the sacrifices of those on the frontline, from the shops to warehouses, care homes to paramedics \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and acts on the incontestable evidence that this is a disease of the poor, isolated and insecure.<\/p>\n

Throughout this pandemic our calls have been clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and they’ll be our tests for this budget: protect health, jobs and incomes, as set out in our 10-point budget plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Decent, skilled jobs are the quickest way to a more equal, recovered country, but while 2020 was a year of jobs destruction, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen little appetite for making 2021 a year for jobs creation. Tired and dubious proposals on freeports, as the press predicts, may help the rich get richer and bad bosses escape labour laws but they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t create the employment possibilities on the scale everyone agrees is needed.<\/p>\n

Investment needed<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needed is investment, a programme for thriving plants not sketchy freeports, a plan to protect existing jobs as well as creating new ones. We need announcements from the chancellor that will let workers like those at Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port and GKN, fearful that their futures rest on so far elusive government engagement, despite years of talking the talk, sleep easier at night. The prize is huge \u00e2\u20ac\u201c government support could give our plants life well into the 2030s.\u00c2\u00a0Conversely, more hand-sitting will lose the enormous opportunities of this moment.<\/p>\n

Our \u00e2\u20ac\u0098shovel-ready\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 projects<\/a> plan shows where the fastest and best returns for our people and planet are to be found.\u00c2\u00a0But decisions are being made now in boardrooms around the world about where new technology investments will be made.<\/p>\n

Companies will be listening carefully on Wednesday to the words from this government and comparing them to the actual deeds and cash advanced by our competitors.\u00c2\u00a0On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak better be short on rhetoric and longer on action and cash because if he is not, UK workers will lose out.<\/p>\n

And manufacturing really does matter because for every one job it creates, it supports four more in high streets and communities across the country.\u00c2\u00a0If Rishi Sunak is sensible then he will seize on the opportunities to revive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and, yes, level up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our economic fortunes by ushering in an era of investment in broadband, better housing and emerging technologies the likes of which this country hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen since the likes of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098white heat of technology\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0Towns like Crawley where the main employer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Gatwick \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has shed thousands of jobs while waiting for the promised aviation support package that never came, desperately need new employment possibilities.\u00c2\u00a0 Not tax wheezes and training gimmicks, real jobs that support families, communities and respect human dignity.<\/p>\n

Extend furlough scheme<\/em><\/strong>
\nThis is also why the term of the expected extension to the furlough scheme really matters.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thought that the chancellor will tack a few months onto the April cut-off but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dicing with jobs and the recovery.\u00c2\u00a0 As economists, including the IFS, agree we need extension until this pandemic is under control.\u00c2\u00a0 Political choices made by other leading European economies provide longer furlough programmes, securing competitive advantage by protecting skilled workers and safeguarding strategically vital infrastructure.\u00c2\u00a0The TUC says extend the jobs retention scheme until 2022; Unite agrees.<\/p>\n

One staggering shortcoming of this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pandemic handling has been its stubborn failure to help those on low and insecure wages isolate when they contract this vicious disease.\u00c2\u00a0 Sick pay in this country is inhumanely, disgracefully low, with the fortunate few able to access statutory sick pay expected to live on around \u00c2\u014113 a day. From Dido Harding to Jeremy Hunt, the government has been told that those who test positive for the virus will not isolate because they cannot afford to, yet still the government does nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 This failure to support the low paid is a relic of ideological austerity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it has no place in managing a public health emergency and is a danger to us all.<\/p>\n

Low pay \u00e2\u20ac\u0098epidemic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong>
\nThere is another epidemic in this country: low pay.\u00c2\u00a0The majority of the six million on Universal Credit are in work, just as the majority in the foodbank queues know that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too much month and not enough money.\u00c2\u00a0The idea that the \u00c2\u014120-a-week Universal Credit top up will be cut this autumn is unconscionable.\u00c2\u00a0The kids won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop eating and growing in September which is why unions like Unite will continue to fight this cut all the way.<\/p>\n

We know that there will be warm words for key workers from the chancellor.\u00c2\u00a0 They will be much deserved, but really the government has to stop clapping and start paying workers for whom it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been an exhausting and frightening year.\u00c2\u00a0 Secure jobs and a wage they can live on, one that keeps pace with the increased cost of living and makes up for a decade of lost earnings, are the least they deserve.<\/p>\n

If this government chooses instead to help the better off with more stamp duty freezes, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be clear whose side Sunak is on.\u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commonly agreed that the taxation system in this country needs a shake-up but the principle has to be that excess profits and corporation tax are where the government should focus its efforts, not the low wages of millions of public serving workers.<\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak, a committed fiscal hawk, has been forced to masquerade as a dove for the past year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Masked Singer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in number 11.\u00c2\u00a0The question is, does he choose tomorrow to whip off his disguise and reveal his true identity? Soon we’ll know the truth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is he stuck in February 2020, singing the same old Tory songs, delivering the wrong results, or will he recognise that the world has moved on and match the enormity of this moment for our people and nations?<\/p>\n

This comment first appeared in LabourList<\/a>, March 2<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

By Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary \u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mismanagement of the crisis has led to the UK suffering the biggest economic\u00c2\u00a0hit in Europe, not to mention a tragically high loss of life. Much-trailed in the media, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon find out if this government has taken the right lessons from the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[177,1295,55,1309,44],"wps_subtitle":"Will workers be paying the price of govt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s errors? Unite GS Len McCluskey writes","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27982"}],"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=27982"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27986,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27982\/revisions\/27986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}