Victory to the railworkers!

This has been a big week for the trade union movement. The TUC Join a Union website is seeing record traffic, with visits last week up 800%.

As RMT members stand up for their jobs, pay, and our services, they are giving hope and confidence to millions of workers. The last few weeks have clearly shown that if you want a pay rise, a secure job, and a decent life, you need to be in a union.

More than that the RMT and its leader Mick Lynch have done a great job of telling people what a union is for and why workers shouldn’t be asked to pay for high inflation with real-term pay cuts.

It’s a message that is getting through to the wider public.

POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR THE STRIKERS

Independent polling released by the RMT found strong support for rail workers to receive a fairer deal and for the government to intervene to address the railworkers concerns. A clear majority of the public also supports the railworkers’ right to strike when negotiations fail.

In a blow to the rail companies and the government, the poll also revealed widespread opposition to plans to cut thousands of rail jobs and showed the public also clearly opposed the government policy of allowing profiteering from the rail industry.

The national poll of 2000 people carried out by Opinium found:

Only 17% support cuts to staff on trains and stations and only 16% support the cutting of safety-critical workers from inspecting and maintaining the rail tracks. Opposition to both of these measures is high at 63% and 70% respectively.

70% of the public believe that railworkers should have a negotiated pay rise that takes into account the cost of living, whilst just 11% disagree.

59% believe railworkers have the right to strike if negotiations fail and only 18% are against this.

62% believe that the government should intervene to ensure rail companies meet the railworkers’ concerns. Only 14% are against this

84% of the public believe the profits from the rail industry should be invested in protecting jobs and services, as opposed to the 16% who believe they should go towards shareholder dividends.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch commented:

“This poll supports the evidence we’ve seen on picket lines this week. There is strong support for rail workers to receive a fairer deal and for the government to intervene to address railworkers concerns. A clear majority of the public also supports railworkers’ right to strike.

“There is also massive public opposition to plans to cut thousands of track, train, and station jobs and to the government’s policy of allowing profiteering from the rail industry.

“It’s time the government listened to the public instead of picking political fights with railworkers.”

Patrick Harrington, General Secretary of Solidarity, commented:

“The rail strike has become a focus for many working-class people’s anger at the Tories and the cost-of-living crisis.

“That’s why different groups of workers, some with their own pay disputes, are expressing solidarity with the RMT and visiting the picket lines to show support. I’d like Solidarity members to do whatever they can to ensure that railworkers win their Just fight. I know that times are tough for us all, but I’d urge you to make a small donation to their dispute fund here.

I’d also like you to say Hi to any pickets in your area at local stations and give them support and encouragement. Finally, I’d urge you to sign the petition against government plans to use scab labour against the strikers here.”

Bankers wax fat on our misery

At a time when workers are being asked for ‘pay restraint’ bonuses to fat-cat city bosses have hit a record high.

In March alone, finance chiefs in London shared £5.9 billion in bonuses as more than 16 million people in Britain face poverty and desperation.

Research by the TUC, based on figures from the Office for National Statistics, reveals that over the last year bonuses in the financial and insurance sector rocketed by 27.9 per cent.

Workers’ wages went up by only 4.2 per cent.

The figures put City bonuses at the highest since records began, and higher than the amounts bosses were paying themselves shortly before the global financial crash of 2008.

As bosses pocket their record gains, the Resolution Foundation expects the number of people in poverty in Britain to increase by 1.3 million this year – including 500,000 children – taking the total to 16.5 million, roughly a quarter of the population.

The TUC also reported continuing falls in the value of wages as bonuses soared.

Real wages across the economy are worth £68 less per month than a year ago, while the wages of public-sector workers fell even more – by £121 a month, said the TUC.

The fall in the value of workers’ wages for the whole of 2022 is expected to be at least £500.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “There is no justification for such obscene City bonuses at the best of times – let alone during a cost-of-living crisis.

“While City executives rake it in, millions are struggling to keep their heads above water.

“Working people are at breaking point, having been left badly exposed to soaring bills after a decade of standstill wages and universal credit cuts.

“Ministers have no hesitation in calling for public-sector pay restraint but ignore shocking City excess.

“It’s time to hold down bonuses at the top – not wages for everyone else.”

Ms O’Grady called on the government to clamp down on the “greedy bonus culture” by putting workers on company pay boards and introducing maximum pay ratios.

“And it’s time for the government to get wages rising across the economy by boosting the minimum wage immediately, funding decent pay rises for all public-sector workers and introducing fair pay agreements for whole industries,” she said.

The TUC is calling for government action including limits on bonuses as a percentage of total pay, availability of bonuses to all staff – not just fat-cat executives, public-sector pay rises in line with cost-of-living increases, and restoration of earnings lost over the last decade.

Corporate accountancy firm Deloitte has reported that the ratio of bosses’ pay to workers’ pay is now 81 to one. Pat Harrington, General Secretary of Solidarity union, commented: “How can a ratio of 81 to 1 be just. It’s both unfair and divisive. It’s obvious that the few are insulated from the cost-of-living crisis whilst the many bear the cost. So when the reactionary media attack the RMT and other unions for asking for pay increases I want you to remember that these same people are partying while ordinary folk have to think about what they can put on the table. We stand with our brothers and sisters – Victory to the RMT and all unions fighting for their members!”

SUNAK SHAMED INTO U-TURN

Tory Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been shamed into pledging financial support for households suffering in the cost-of-living crisis and U-turning on a windfall tax of energy firms.

The Chancellor was forced to add emergency measures to a £15 billion package aimed at lessening the impact of soaring inflation, including offering millions a £400 discount grant off their energy bills and a £5bn levy on oil and gas giants.

As well as ring-fencing £6bn for the universal payment from October — which does not have to be paid back and replaces his initial plan for a £200 loan — there was targeted support for the poorest, elderly and disabled, Mr. Sunak told MPs.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

CLEANERS & SECURITY GUARDS PROTEST DISRESPECT @ No. 10

Cleaners and security guards demonstrated this week against the “disrespect and discrimination they face on a daily basis” at government buildings across London.

A protest outside Downing Street highlighted how the mainly black and ethnic minority workers are “disproportionately impacted by poor working conditions and racialised inequalities,” said the United Voices of the World (UVW) union, which represents them.

The UVW announced the demonstration following the publication of Sue Gray’s report on widespread breaches of lockdown rules at the heart of government during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The senior civil servant’s conclusions, finally released on Wednesday after a four-month police investigation ended with Prime Minister Boris Johnson among more than 80 ministers and officials fined, detailed multiple examples of a “lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff” in No 10.

UVW general secretary Petros Elia said he was “not in the least bit surprised” by the revelations.

“We have thousands of members who face disrespect and discrimination daily in offices and government buildings across London, not just in Downing Street.

“It is disrespectful to have rowdy parties during the pandemic and expect cleaners to mop up after you, but it is also disrespectful to pay [them] poverty wages and not give them sick pay.”

The union represents outsourced cleaners at the Ministry of Justice who are still fighting for full sick pay rights.

One of those workers, Emanuel Gomes, died in April 2020 with suspected coronavirus symptoms after being denied financial support to stay at home.

His cousin Vicente Mendes said: “I feel very sad. Government employees receive sick pay, but cleaners do not.

“We are working just like them and we don’t deserve to be treated any differently.”

Pat Harrington, general secretary of Solidarity, said: “No worker should be treated with disrespect. There is a toxic culture throughout government, from the sexual harassment of staffers down to the way cleaners and security guards are treated that unions need to confront. We stand with our brothers and sisters and are progressing cases ourselves to address this.”

Government is “turning its back” on workers – TUC

The TUC has accused the government of “turning its back” on working people after ministers failed to include an employment bill in the Queen’s Speech.

The union body said that the government’s broken promise to boost workers’ rights will see “bad bosses celebrating”.

In 2019, the government announced it would bring forward a new employment bill to improve people’s rights at work, but despite committing to the bill on at least 20 occasions, ministers have shelved the legislation.

Commenting on the decision to exclude an employment bill from the Queen’s Speech, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“The prime minister promised to make Britain the best place in the world to work. But he has turned his back on working people.

“…bad bosses up and down the country will be celebrating.

“No employment bill means vital rights that ministers had promised – like default flexible working, fair tips and protection from pregnancy discrimination – risk being ditched for good.

“And it means no action on the scourge of insecure work and ending exploitative practices like zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire.

“After the P&O scandal, dragging our outdated labour laws into the 21st century has never been more urgent.

“But by shelving the employment bill, ministers have sent a signal that they are happy for rogue employers to ride roughshod over workers’ rights.

“Enough is enough. This is a government that just doesn’t get it – from the cost of living emergency to the insecure work epidemic.

“People can’t wait for greater rights and security at work – they need it now.”

On the seafarer minimum wage enforcement plans, O’Grady added:

“This proposal is feeble and likely unworkable.

“The government has done nothing to tackle the most flagrant labour abuse in years by P&O.

“Only stronger employment legislation that boosts worker protections and stops companies firing on the spot will prevent another P&O-type scandal.”

The TUC says that the following policies were all promised within an employment bill, and now risk being ditched altogether:

Ensure that tips go to workers in full.
Introduce a new right for all workers to request a more predictable contract.
Create a new single enforcement body offering greater protections for workers.
Extend redundancy protections to prevent pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
Make flexible working the default unless employers have good reason not to.
Allow parents to take extended paid leave for neonatal care.
Introduce a new legal entitlement to one week’s leave for unpaid carers.
In addition, the government consulted on reasonable notice period for shifts allocated and cancelled, and payments for cancelled shifts, which the TUC points out the government has “since gone quiet on.”

The union body also highlights that the government promise to make employers responsible for preventing sexual harassment risks falling by the wayside without the employment bill, as the policy needs primary legislation to carry it forward.

Patrick Harrington, General Secretary of Solidarity, commented: “The government is sending a clear signal to British workers that they are not a priority. Workers who were promised progress have been badly let down.”

Let’s really take back control

The P&O scandal follows the pattern of the sell-out of British workers. It’s sadly nothing new. The EU was subservient to transnational capital and, so far, the story of post-Brexit Britain isn’t looking that good either.

One of the landmark decisions of the European Court of Justice was the Viking case.

Viking is a Finnish ferry company. In 2004, when Estonia joined the EU, it took advantage of the EU’s single market to sack all its workers and employ Estonian ones on cheaper wages.

The Court of Justice stood by Viking, along the way ruling that the right to strike did not apply if a strike against the “free movement” of capital and labour had a chance of succeeding.

That sad story was a major reason why leading trade union barrister John Hendy called the EU “a disaster for the collective rights of workers and their unions”.

Fastforward to the present day and far from taking back control for the people it is multinational capital who call the shots.

P&O Ferries sacked its British staff to employ foreign workers. The 800 workers were sacked on 17 March in a Zoom call with thirty minutes notice. Replacement crews with cheaper foreign labour (paid an average of £5.50 an hour) had already been hired through agencies. DP World is the parent company of P&O Ferries and it, in turn, is owned by the UAE government. Trade unions are forbidden in the UAE.

As Workers magazine correctly states:

“The idea of taking control was the guiding spirit of the movement that won the referendum to take Britain out of the European Union. The idea was both powerful and clear: Britain should be free from the European single market, which imposes free movement of capital, goods, and labour.

Britain has now left the European Union after a long struggle to implement the decision. But there’s no sign of the greater control that millions of people were waiting for. Quite the reverse – in area after area the government is handing control to the unregulated free market.”

The RMT and Nautilus International, the trade unions representing workers sacked by P&O continue their campaign with pickets at ports and elsewhere. Unions have also called for a consumer boycott of P&O. This boycott is supported by the wider union movement, including your union, Solidarity. No honest working man or woman should use P&O ferries.

It’s the ordinary British Worker who must step-up and make taking back control real. It means increasing British self-sufficiency, growing our technology sovereignty, and advocating nationalisation where appropriate. We must organise as workers but also as consumers by boycotting the bad and buying the good. We must also bring political pressure to bear to ensure that the voice of the British worker is heard loud and clear. Solidarity is a small union, but we will do everything in our power to make this happen and we call on our brothers and sisters in other unions and all those who want our country to succeed to act too. Together we are strong!

May Day is our day!

Today (Sunday) is International Workers’ Day, an annual celebration of working people. May Day is unique. It’s the day in the year when we celebrate the bonds that bring us together as workers and trade unionists.

On May Day we should think about the benefits of Trade Union membership and share that with others.

It’s also a time to think about the difference unions (and union membership) make.

Unionised workers are paid on average five per cent more than other similar workers. This is equivalent to £1,285 a year based on the average wage.

Workers in Britain face an intensifying cost-of-living crisis. Energy bills are now rising 14 times faster than wages. One in three parents with pre-schoolers spend over a third of their pay on childcare. And last week, the ONS found that a quarter of people are already struggling to make ends meet – and worse is on the horizon.

Tough times lie ahead for British workers. As pressure builds for the UK economy workers will be hit with bogus disciplinaries, redundancises and attempts to alter their contracts and working conditions. The bosses will do their utmost to make workers the ones who pay for any recession.

That’s why workers need to band together in unions. Today is a good day to reach out and tell your friends and workmates that they need union protection. We would welcome them in Solidarity. Just email them this link to join: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0000QAEF8DYK

But even if they don’t want to join our union tell them they need to join a union. You will be doing them a big favour.

COST OF LIVING – UNIONS MUST FIGHT FOR WORKERS

Even the bosses’ preferred measure of inflation, the CPI, hit 7 percent recently showing the scale of the cost of living crisis.

Prices are rising at an average of 9 percent a year according to the most accurate measure of inflation, the RPI index.

Most types of food saw annual increases above 5 percent, including bread, meat, milk and fruit.

Gas prices were 28.3 percent higher in March than a year ago, while electricity was 19.2 percent higher. And this is before the soaring increases announced in April.

So if your pay, benefits or pension are going up less than that — as they are for nearly everyone — then you are taking a hit. For example, if you are on benefits and have just had the 3.1 percent “rise” imposed this week, in reality it’s a cut of nearly 6 percent. That’s a disaster for people who are already on the edge of being able to manage.

Official statistics say in January pay excluding bonuses grew by an annual rate of 4.1 percent. But the Resolution Foundation’s analysis shows these numbers were boosted by the end of the furlough scheme in September.

Furloughed workers received 80 percent or less of their usual pay, boosting growth rates as they returned to full pay.

After the latest inflation numbers came out, Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham spoke of the need to respond. “The double whammy of soaring inflation and falling wages is creating an historic cost of living crisis for workers,” she said. “The bankers and big business are trying to force workers to pay the price for the pandemic.”

Graham rightly added, “The only way workers can fight for ‘a better share of the pie’ is by building union strength and the power of collective bargaining. It’s not complicated.”

Tory Ferries minimum wage plans fall short

The TUC union federation has denounced the lack of a mechanism to enforce new minimum wages in the ferry industry.

The TUC said on Thursday that Tory government plans will be “unworkable” unless enforcement powers are strengthened.

The TUC pointed out that only the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has the legal right to board ships for inspection to address safety concerns and implement seafarers’ rights. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) inspectors, who are responsible for making sure workers are paid the minimum wage, do not have the legal right to board vessels for enforcement.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said, “A lack of enforcement will kick the legs out from under the government’s minimum wage plans. Our weak enforcement regime lets rogue employers like P&O ride roughshod over fundamental workers’ rights. Britain is in the midst of a crisis of enforcement that goes well beyond the maritime industry.

“Ministers must properly fund and empower enforcement bodies so they can recruit and train additional qualified inspectors and inspect more workplaces. That’s how you stop bad bosses from getting away with flagrant labour rights abuses.”

And the Tories let them do it. There are reports that the long-awaited Employment Bill will not be included in next month’s queen’s speech. O’Grady goes on, “If ministers fail to deliver the Employment Bill again, they will be toadying up to bad bosses.”

Pat Harrington, General Secretary of Solidarity commented:

“Of course, trade unionists must organise to ensure their legal rights are respected and increased. That is not enough, however. The P&O struggle shows that we must go beyond that and be prepared for more militant and confrontational action against bad bosses. Nor can the trade union struggle be separated from a political dimension. Just as the bosses rely on a near monopoly of political and economic power our challenge must come from both sides.”

“P&O must continue to be punished by a boycott for their anti-worker policies – don’t go P&O. This should go on indefinitely to send a message to bosses that if they mistreat their workers there will be a price to pay.”

Statutory Sick Pay is “below survival rate”

The minimal increase of £3 in statutory sick pay (SSP) means the essential financial support is still set “below survival rate,” the TUC has warned.

Wednesday’s rise in SSP to £99.35 a week means Britain’s sick pay, which is not available to those earning less than £123 a week on average, remains among the lowest in Europe, the union body said.

Solidarity and other unions have long called for more generous support to avoid people being forced to work when they are ill.

The problem reportedly led to many workers being unable to afford to self-isolate during the Covid-19 pandemic.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Time and time again we warned ministers that sick pay wasn’t enough to live on.

“After more than two years of the pandemic, it’s inhumane and counter-productive for ministers not to have fixed our broken sick pay system.

“Enough is enough. It’s time for decent sick pay for all — paid at the real living wage so people can pay their bills when they’re ill.”

It should be increased to £330 a week and the earnings threshold abolished, the TUC argued, which would open the scheme to an additional two million workers.

Institute of Employment Rights director Ben Sellers told the pro-worker Morning Star newspaper: “A marginal increase of £3 a week doesn’t begin to address the issue, while many workers fail to qualify for SSP at all.

“Covid has shone a light on how inadequate our sick pay system is in this country, with many workers being forced to go into work while ill, putting themselves and their colleagues at risk.

“Adequately resourcing sick pay works for everyone — employers, workers and the economy.”

SSP, which is not tax free, is available for most employees in Britain from the fourth day they are sick for up to 28 weeks.

However, according to official figures compiled by law firm Compensation Experts, workers in Iceland, Norway, Luxembourg and Denmark receive 100 per cent of their salary when off sick.

Employees in Switzerland get 103 weeks’ sick leave on 80 per cent pay, while their colleagues in Germany receive half pay for 84 weeks.

France and Italy only offer 50 per cent for 26 weeks, while Ireland has no legal minimum sick pay at all.