I have been fortunate to spend time this week listening to UNISON members talking about the issues that were affecting them most in their workplace.
On Wednesday, I met members in the region’s NHS ambulance service and on Thursday I met local government workers in Cambridgeshire.
The conversations were wide-ranging but there was one issue which came up often – money or, to be precise, the lack of money in their pocket.
I could have been speaking with any group of members, from any public service, living in any county of our region. They would have all said the same. They are already feeling the pain of the ongoing cost of living crisis.
They didn’t need to read the official statistics demonstrating that real earnings this year will grow at the worst rate since the 1970s or household incomes will fall by the largest amount since records began in the mid-1950s. They are reminded of how bad the situation has got every time they go the supermarket, fill up their car with petrol or read an email from their energy provider.
Last week the Chancellor could have used his mini-budget to help workers out in this difficult time. He could have raised the raised the national minimum wage to at least £10 an hour, restored the £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit and raised all benefits by at least the rate of inflation.
He could have scrapped the National Insurance increase entirely. He could have used a windfall tax on the eye-watering profits of energy companies to reduce household energy bills and improve public services. He could have proposed a new public-sector pay policy which ensured workers wouldn’t have yet another real-terms pay cut this year.
Sadly, he did none of this. Instead, he resorted to his usual smoke and mirror tactics. He announced tax cuts (some of which only kick in in 2024!) which will offset around a sixth of the net tax rises he has personally introduced since becoming Chancellor in February 2020.
The level of indifference about the real and urgent pressures on household finances is staggering.
Of course, we weren’t surprised to learn that the Conservatives don’t prioritise working people. UNISON will not stop pressuring them to do more to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. The government must act now and deliver an urgent plan to ease the financial pressure on millions of workers.
We will continue to campaign for government funding for an above-inflation pay rise across the entire public sector.
This will obviously make a difference in our members’ daily lives. Many have already cut their household expenditure to the bone and don’t know what else to do. They are left with an invidious choice of heating their home or putting food on the table.
A fair pay rise for public-sector workers will also help employers recruit and retain workers needed to deliver vital public services. Councils, NHS trusts, schools and colleges are all finding it hard to fill vacancies as workers can get paid more working in supermarkets or as delivery drivers.
We can’t let the Chancellor off the hook. We need to stand together to get working people the pay rise they definitely deserve.
Main pic: Rishi Sunak looking over his spring statement. Credit: HM Treasury/Flickr.