By Ivan Bonsell
When Labour first came into power, there were indications that they would be open to ‘doing business’ with the unions. Initially, Starmer was keen to settle with resident doctors, on the basis that the new government could not afford to be picking an early battle over an issue that the Tory governments had inflamed.
Some public sector workers might therefore have believed that this heralded a new era of public sector pay rises. For the first time in decades, workers would see pay that kept up with the cost of living.
A decade of pay stagnation
The reality is that pay has fallen rapidly over the years since the great crash of 2008/9. A generation of public sector workers are now working for significantly less than their predecessors did, and many are unable to afford the basics.
The enormous strike wave of the years following the pandemic, where inflation reached double figures and workers fought across many sectors to keep standards of living up, achieved some notable successes. But despite a valiant demonstration of working-class determination, a generalised victory for all was not achieved.
With Starmer’s government determined to outdo both the Tories and Reform with anti-worker sentiments and reactionary policies, it’s no wonder that very few workers have illusions in Labour beingmore sympathetic to our demands when it comes to better pay.
Whipping up racism and division is now more their style, using their ‘war on woke’ as a distraction from their obsession with there being no money – which is true, if you’re relying on the billionaires to grow the economy for you.
However, with the current state of the economy, that is simply not going to happen – investing money back into the real economy simply does not offer enough profit in return, and for capitalists the bottom line will always be the top priority.
Where will the money come from?
With that in mind, NHS nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been offered 3.6% and teachers in England have been given only a partially funded 4%.
The former is not only a paltry offer but offers no real investment in an already substantially weak health service. The latter is not only a bad offer in terms of wages but being partially unfunded, the shortfall will partially come out of existing school budgets, meaning further cuts to crumbling services.
Similarly, local government workers have been offered 3.2% – totally unfunded – leaving local authorities struggling to find the additional pay from their existing budgets.
This will not lead to any improvement in services. Public sector jobs will be at risk unless the government finds the money to pay workers properly as well as being able to deliver quality services which many working people rely on.
The situation is most acute across Higher Education, where university finances are in a dire state due to years of funding cuts alongside an increasing reliance on tuition fees and marketisation.
Employers will offer very little on the basis that they ‘can’t afford it’. The capitalists will say there is no money, but they always find it for wars and tax incentives for their friends to invest.
Socialists support taxing the rich more, but fundamentally, taking the wealth and power away from the billionaires for good is the only way to fund a decent standard of living for all.
Organising a fightback
No group of public sector workers can afford pay rises below or close to inflation becoming the norm, and there is a massive responsibility on trade union leaders to step up and lead the fightback. With RPI inflation at 4.5%, even a pay rise matching this ignores the years of imposed real-terms pay cuts that workers have had to stomach.
It is crucial that trade union activists put pressure on their leaderships to prepare for significant action over pay this summer, in part because that’s the only way to win more money for their members. But it is also because the trade unions need to show that working people sticking together can overcome the dead end of Reform’s (and Labour’s) divisive ideas.
Union leaders not only have to lead battles for better pay and show an alternative to Reform – they need to begin the task of playing a major role in a new left party. Not just one that stands in elections, but one built on struggle that sinks deep roots across communities and campaigns and struggles in their interests.
This means clearly rejecting the idea that capitalism can’t afford pay rises for workers by promoting an alternative and arguing for it. There are going to be battles to be won over pay. Socialist Alternative will be involved in both the struggle for better pay and taking the practical steps necessary to build a party of struggle that trade unionists can be proud of.
