Sun Shines on New Worker in Charlton!

NEW WORKER supporters, friends and readers enjoyed the first reasonably sunny, warm, dry day for several weeks last Saturday in a south London back garden with the annual New Worker garden party in Charlton.
Comrades enjoyed good food and drink and discussion on topics ranging from the early Christian church and the spin-doctoring prowess of the Emperor Constantine, to current events in Pakistan, to home-brewed wine, to football matches and parking. A toddler also discovered that apples grow on trees.
The event raised just under £60 for the paper.

Tube strike threat wins better pay

MEMBERS of the RMT transport union last week called off a planned 72-hour Tube strike after TubeLine – a private consortium in charge of work on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines – made an improved pay offer. Around 1,000 RMT members had been set to walk out on strike on Wednesday.
The improved offer follows the union warning TubeLine boss Terry Morgan that he should stop throwing petty insults around and get around the table to negotiate a solution to the current pay and conditions dispute. This followed Morgan claiming that the planned strike was “political”.
The union was demanding that pay and conditions for TubeLine employees should be raised substantially to bring them up to those agreed by Metronet for people doing identical work.
Meanwhile more than 120 RMT cleaners working for OCS on its Eurostar contract will strike for 24 hours from 06:00 on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th August, in their campaign to end poverty pay and win decent working conditions.
The cleaners, whose hourly pay is more than £1 an hour below the London Living Wage, returned a 100 per cent vote for action and will not book on for shifts that commence between 06:00 on Monday 25th August 25 and 05:59 on Tuesday 26th August.
“Eurostar trades on its ethical reputation and claims to tread lightly on the planet, yet it seems happy for OCS to stamp all over the people who keep their trains and stations clean,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.

Boris loses another top aide

TORY London mayor Boris Johnson last week lost his third senior adviser – one of seven deputy mayors he appointed to help him with the technical aspects of trying to run the capital. Tom Parker resigned as chief of staff for Transport for London after just two months in office, when Johnson told him he would not, after all, be given control of TFL as he had been promised.
Parker was appointed as one of the City of London’s most successful private equity businessmen with a brief to restructure the Greater London Authority and then do the same for TFl’s £6.5 billion budget. too political
But Johnson changed his mind and decided to take personal charge of TFl and said it was “absolutely crucial” to doing his job effectively. He said the decisions were “too political” for an unelected aide to make.
Trade unions had dubbed Parker “the Prince of Darkness” for his ruthlessness and cost-cutting in businesses he took over, like the AA and Kwik-Fit.
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone commented: “Tim Parker was supposed to be the cornerstone of Boris Johnson’s administration. His exit after just a couple of months in fact confirms the chaos which has existed in Boris Johnson’s administration since day one”.

Hiroshima remembered in London

by Robert Laurie

ON WEDNESDAY 6th August 1945 the United States Air Force dropped their atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing about 100,000 instantly and leaving countless others to die of cancers decades later. Peace activists mark the tragedy of Hiroshima every year and among the commemorations was that organised by CND in central London’s Tavistock Square.
The ceremony, established in 1967 by the then Camden Mayor Millie Miller was this year attended by about 200 people young and old. Compered by Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, the Workers Music Association and Raised Voices choirs sang in English and Japanese. The speakers included local Labour MP and former Health Minister Frank Dobson, Camden’s present Mayor Nurul Islam and local vicar Paul Hawkins. CND Chair Kate Hudson, veteran pacifist Pat Arrowsmith and thirteen year old Sonia from Children Against the War also spoke. Pat Arrowsmith said that while it was regrettable that there is still a need for CND half a century after it was founded in 1958 the movement has had a number of encouraging successes such as the non-proliferation treaties and South Africa’s abandonment of nuclear weapons under Nelson Mandela.
She took comfort in the fact that leading American politicians, when out of office, condemn nuclear weapons. Tony Benn concluded the ceremony by reminding the audience that the bombing of Hiroshima was the first shot of the Cold War because the incineration of the city was intended to be a warning to the Soviet Union.

Historic Korean victory celebrated

The historic victory of the Korean people against US imperialism in the Korean War was celebrated in west London on 26th July at a meeting that included discussions, a musical interlude followed by a barbecue held in the grounds of Saklatvala Hall in Southall. June 25th to 27th July was the month of solidarity with the Korean people. On 25th June 1950 US troops backed by the south Korean lackeys invaded north Korea and started a ferocious war that claimed the lives of millions until it ended with the Americans signing a humiliating armistice on 27th July 1953.

photo: presentation to Cde Jang Song Chol of the DPR Korean embassy in London

A lesson from history

SAM RUSSELL, veteran of the war against fascism in Spain, led a crowd of around 300 at the International Brigade memorial in Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank of the Thames last Saturday in the annual memorial event for those who went from Britain, ready to sacrifice everything, to stop fascism in Spain in the 1930s.
Other speakers and dignitaries included Paul Preston of the London School of Economics, Tony Lloyd, who chairs the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Spanish Ambassador and International Brigade Association secretary Marlene Sideaway – who delivered La Passionaria’s Standing Down speech from 1938.
Paul Preston told the crowd that the war in Spain was “the first part of the Second World War” and that “if people had listened to the International Brigaders the Second World War might never have happened”.

Boris aims to cut London budget

NEW TORY London mayor Boris Johnson has proposed cutting the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) budget by 15 per cent next year.
He has said delivering value for money and preventing youth crime were his priorities as he set out the guidelines for his first budget.
Both the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) could see increases in their budget for 2009-10.
The mayor will issue a draft budget for consultation in December. He will then present the draft budget proposals to the London Assembly in January.
Johnson said improving the quality of life for all Londoners was another priority and he has also made it clear new policies must meet his commitment to reduce carbon dioxide by 60 per cent by 2025.
His proposals will see no changes to the budgets of the mayor’s business wing, the London Development Agency (LDA) and Transport for London (TfL).
So far the sums do not add up but he has not specified where the cuts will fall to meet the 15 per cent budget cut.

A frolic at the Barbican

by Andy Brooks

IN THE 19th century British imperialism used its might to force feudal China to import opium from the India to offset the cost of imports of Chinese silk, tea and porcelain. China’s defeat also led to other humiliating concessions to Britain including the surrender of Hong Kong. This shameful episode is largely forgotten in Britain but not in China and it’s the theme of a vast piece of concept art now showing at the Barbican Centre in London.
Huang Yong Ping is an avant-garde artist who has lived in Paris for over 20 years but his heart in still in China and this new “installation” seeks to convey the meaning of this Victorian drug trade through a series of sculptures that propels the viewer into a 3D abstract painting. It starts with giant pipe cleaners and bowls that lead on to a toppled statue of Lord Palmerston, the architect of the Opium Wars, on an opium bed smoking from a colossal pipe. At the back Huang has recreated an East India Company warehouse packed with crates of drugs and shelves stacked with piles of opium balls.
“I consider the opium trade as a forerunner for today’s globalization: melting trade and the expansion of power. Sublimating the mind, while the body declines. Unveiling the violence and hiding the frolic,” Huang says about this controversial work he’s called Frolic after one of the American clippers custom-built to transport opium to China.
Huang Yong Ping was born in the port of Xiamen in 1954 and he was one of the founding figures of Xiamen Dada, one of China’s most radical avant-garde collectives in the 1980s. Though he is well-known on the international art scene this is his first solo exhibition in Britain which is part of China Now, the largest ever festival of Chinese culture in Britain.

Admission’s free at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery, Silk Street London EC2 from 11.00 am to 8.00 pm until 21st September.

photo: Huang Yong Ping with one of his works

Celebrating NCP Foundation Day!

In July the NCP celebrates the foundation of the Party on 15th July 1977 and this year was no exception. Friends and comrades from home and abroad gathered at the Party Centre in London last weekend to meet and greet comrades that included Jang Song Chol from the DPR Korea embassy in London, Explo Nani-Kofi from the African Liberation Support Campaign Network and Pratyush from Revolutionary Democracy, the Indian communist review. NCP leader Andy Brooks spoke about the NCP’s struggle to build a Bolshevik party over the past three decades and Dolly Shaer made a rousing call for the Special Appeal during the formal part of the social and comrades showed their commitment by raising £1,425.93!

photo: Jang Song Chol and Alex Kempshall

Stalin and the British Road to Socialism

New

STALIN & THE BRITISH ROAD TO SOCIALISM

Article by Vijay Singh
plus original documents

£2 plus 50p P&P
NCP Lit. PO Box 73 London SW11 2PQ
cheques payable to to the New Worker.

Labour MPs back Tube cleaners

LABOUR MPs last week expressed support for striking cleaners on the London Underground who walked out last Thursday 26th June and called for an end to poverty pay on the Underground. Some cleaners are on pay rates of little more than £5.50 and are demanding a living wage of £7.20 per hour.
John McDonnell MP, who chairs the Labour Representation Committee, said: “It is a disgrace that poverty wages are being paid to workers facing substantial increases in their living costs, and who provide an essential service for Londoners.
“This level of exploitation of vulnerable workers is barbaric in a so-called civilised society.
“Some of the managers and shareholders of the companies employing these workers should try living on these wages in our capital city.”
Jeremy Corbyn MP said: “We won the ‘London Living Wage’ under Ken Livingstone to end poverty pay on the London Underground. Where is Boris Johnson on this issue?”

Keep flood risks secret say spooks

THE INTELLIGENCE agency MI5 last week came into conflict with flood risk experts as it called on the Government to keep secret maps of areas liable to serious flooding if any of the country’s dams were to break, because, they claim, terrorists might use the maps to work out which dams to attack to have maximum impact.
Specialists in the Cabinet Office and the Environment Agency are calling for more information to be made public as the risk of major flooding increases with climate change. catastrophic
Recently previously secret information revealed that record rainfall at the Ulley reservoir near Rotherham in Yorkshire nearly led to failure of the dam, which would have had catastrophic consequences.
MI5’s own London headquarters are on the north Thames embankment close to Lambeth Bridge. Any damage to the Thames Barrier could see their building flooded – along with the Houses of Parliament and most of Whitehall.
Meanwhile the Fire Brigades Union is warning that a year after summer floods caused havoc, the safety of rescue crews remains at risk because Fire and Rescue Services remain under resourced to cope with major flooding. Fire and rescue crews still lack even basic safety equipment such as waterproof clothing, boots and life jackets.
The warning comes from the FBU, whose members were praised for their key role in rescuing over 7,000 people from floods in June and July last year. It is also urging them to adopt Scotland’s lead and introduce a legal duty on fire and rescue authorities to respond to major floods, backed up with extra resources.
The call comes as the FBU publishes a wide-ranging report, Lessons of the 2007 floods – the perspective of fire crews, produced by the Labour Research Department. It draws on the experience, expertise and perceptions of crews involved in last summer’s floods, alongside official reports and Government documents. U-turn
The report charts how Ministers performed a U-turn only three months before last summer’s downpours, when they decided not to include response to major flooding in the Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) Order for England.
The lack of a legal duty means fire and rescue authorities in England are still prevented from applying for new funding for the extra equipment, training and personnel needed to deal with the increased risk of flooding climate experts predict.
The Government now faces mounting pressure to make responding to floods a statutory duty as both the FBU and leading fire chiefs say it is needed to prepare for and respond to future flooding. Scotland already has a statutory duty in place.

Solidarity with Czech hunger strikers

MEMBERS of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament staged a protest in Whitehall last Saturday in solidarity with protesters – including hunger strikers – in the Czech Republic who are campaigning against American plans to install a massive missile system in their country. A number of leading political and cultural figures have joined a hunger strike in Prague. They are protesting at the Czech government’s continuing negotiations with the US to build a missile defence radar near the city.
The hunger strike is being organised on a “chain” basis, with people participating for 24 hour slots – the hunger strikers called an international day of action on the 22nd June to increase pressure on the Czech government.
The European Union has not reached an agreed position on the installation of the US Missile Defence system in Europe, despite the risk of the military bases putting Europe on the front line in future US wars.
They are essential to US war plans and any future US enemy will attempt to destroy them. Opinion polls show majority opposition to the system across Europe.
CND is asking supporters to write to their MEPs to express your opposition and demand a plenary debate in the European Parliament on the role of US Missile Defence in Europe.

BNP back confused Boris

by Caroline Colebrook

THE NEO-Nazi British National Party last week gave its support to new London Mayor Boris Johnson’s decision to drop the main anti-racist theme from London’s annual Rise festival.
Richard Barnbrook, the only BNP member of the London Assembly, strongly welcomed Boris Johnson’s decision to cut anti-racism from the Rise music festival funded by the Greater London Authority.
And then within a few days Boris was forced to ask a senior adviser, James McGrath, to resign in a race row after he said that African-Caribbean people should go back to the West Indies if they did not like the new mayor.
McGrath had been asked in a tape-recorded interview if Johnson’s mayoral victory would trigger an exodus of immigrants from Britain to the Caribbean, he replied: “Well, let them go if they don’t like it here.”
McGrath, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff who hails from the north Australian state of Queensland, made the comment in a meeting last month with Marc Wadsworth, a black activist and London-based journalist.
Hours after his comments appeared on an internet news site at the weekend, Johnson announced his senior advisor, who played a key role in his win over Labour’s Ken Livingstone last month, had quit.
“It is with great regret ... that I have accepted the resignation of my political adviser, James McGrath,” Johnson said in a statement.
Meanwhile Boris himself was making blunders by the hour. When interviewed on BBC television’s local London news programme, he seemed unaware that he had banned anti-racism from what has traditionally been an anti-racist festival.
He also seemed to be unaware that that he had barred the traditional Cuba Solidarity Campaign stage for being too overtly political.
It seems he had delegated the arrangements for the festival to an underling and had little idea of what the festival was or what his officers were doing with it.
And he had failed to read a crucial briefing about an agreement that his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, had negotiated with the Government to protect London council taxpayers from having to fund any escalation in the costs of the 2012 London Olympics.
Johnson said he was concerned about cost over-runs, but when asked in a BBC interview about the memorandum, he said: “I rather doubt that it exists. There is a doubt the agreement that was struck between the former mayor and the Labour Prime Minister about the exact extent of London’s obligations.”
He added: “There is a dispute at the moment between the GLA and the mayoralty and the Government about who is up for over-runs in so far as they may or may not occur. The details are far from clear.”
The mayor’s comments in a BBC interview were seized on by Ken Livingstone and the Government who both contacted the BBC to correct his mistake.
Livingstone described the comments as “bizarre” as the document is widely available. “I find this bizarre,” he said. “It was published in the House of Commons library, Boris could have seen it as an MP; I gave a copy to every member of the London Assembly.
“It specifies in writing, with the Government’s signature and mine, there will be no increase in the council tax and no increase in fares if there are any further cost over-runs.”
The Rise Festival started life in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence murder and McPherson Report as the TUC organised Respect anti-racist festival. The idea was taken up by Ken Livingstone when Mayor, who promoted seven annual festivals during his mayoralty. During the Livingstone years the name was changed from Respect to Rise.
The changes to the festival have antagonised the major trade unions who have always been involved in the organising and funding it.
For the past five years Unite has co-produced a programme of Latin American music and dance at Rise, a close fit with its organising campaigns, working with London’s Latin American community who are often on the margins of the labour market.
The Latin American show has gone from strength to strength and is seen as one of the high points of the Rise Festival.
Unite’s London Regional Secretary, Steve Hart, has tried to negotiate with the Mayor’s Office to resolve the impasse but has always come up against the same barrier: Unite is welcome to participate but it can’t participate if it involves Cuba Solidarity Campaign as its partner.
Steve Hart said: “The ban on Cuba Solidarity Campaign is the direct application of a political pre-condition on Unite in its sponsorship of the Latin American stage at Rise. Censorship is unacceptable to my union. I feel that I am left with no alternative other than to withdraw our intended funding of the Latin American stage at Rise in 2008.”
Samuel Tarry, who chairs Compass Youth and is London Young Labour’s anti racism officer said: “The fact that Boris Johnson, the new Mayor of London has already moved to make such a blatant political gesture is indicative of what we will come to expect from the new Tory administration at City Hall.
“You would have thought given the accusations of racism levelled at Boris Johnson from the Black and Asian communities in London during the Mayoral election then, he would have made every effort to dispel those ideas. Instead at a time of increased racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism he pulls the plug on the anti racist message of one of London’s biggest free music festivals.
“Given the momentum of the BNP at the moment and the fact that they openly backed his run for City Hall he has given them another opportunity to come out in support of his agenda and claim credit for this move”

New Worker pamphlets


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London protests Bush visit

SEVERAL thousand demonstrators gathered in Parliament Square last Sunday evening at short notice to protest at George Bush’s last state visit to Britain as he arrived in Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
A huge police operation, involving 1,200 officers – some on horseback, some with shield in full riot gear and steel barriers – barred any entry into Whitehall.
The protest began peacefully but as Bush arrived at about 6.30pm there was a surge towards the barrier and some clashes with the police. There were 25 arrests.
One protester, Suzanna Wylie, 29, was left bleeding from a head injury after being hit by a baton. She had been linking arms with protesters at the front of the crowd, trying to stop demonstrators surging forward.
She said: “I’ve been on lots of demonstrations before and every one of the Stop the War demonstrations has been peaceful.
“This time because Bush is here, specifically because Bush is here, because of his own security arrangements, they won’t let us demonstrate. If they let us demonstrate, there would have been none of this.”
Behind the surge traffic police promptly stopped any attempt at managing traffic around Parliament Square or in any streets in the area – which were congested with traffic.
Some drivers were hesitant to plough through the moving crowds of demonstrators, others were not. Eventually it was left to bus inspectors to intervene in a potentially very dangerous situation and direct the traffic.
Meanwhile the traffic police just looked on. They had clearly been given orders that only George Bush’s safety was of any importance.

Boris bans politics at Rise Festival

NEW LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson has decreed that London’s annual Rise festival is to drop its anti-racist theme. The festival originated as the Respect festival, organised by the TUC and major trade unions with the purpose of combating racism among young people and providing them with a great free music festival at the same time.
When Ken Livingstone was elected the first Mayor of London his office took over organisation of the festival, with the trade unions and the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) still strongly involved.
The name changed a few years ago to avoid confusion with the newly-formed Respect political party.
This year’s event has been set for 13th July and a spokesperson for Boris Johnson said this year’s festival would go ahead but without any anti-racist message.
“Boris has made a commitment to go ahead with the Rise festival this year but wants to emphasise its cultural and community dimensions.
Johnson, during his election campaign, was obliged to apologise for describing Africans as having “watermelon smiles” and writing about “piccaninnies”.
The NAAR commented: “The sincerity of Boris Johnson’s claimed commitment to opposing racism in his election campaign is shown to be false by the fact that one of his first decisions is to abandon Europe’s biggest anti-racist festival.”
Johnson has also barred the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s Big Cuba Fiesta stage from this year’s event.
The Greater London Authority’s director of arts policy, Munira Mirza, wrote to CSC saying: “It is no longer appropriate to have overtly political organisations involved in the programme or in the community area.”
CSC director Rob Miller responded: “It is outrageous that the new mayor of London has taken such a discriminatory position against Cuba Solidarity … We hope that this silly act of political censorship will even yet be overturned.”

Free the Cuban Five!

Free the Cuban Five was the message of protesters outside the American Embassy in London on 5th June. The emergency picket was called by Rock Around the Blockade as part of the world-wide campaign for the release of the five Cuban political prisoners held in American jails for fighting terrorism.

Chinese short-film festival in London

A SERIES of short films showcasing the creative voice of 25 Chinese artists was launched last week at the Hayward Gallery in London's South Bank, Britain's largest arts centre.
Capturing the prevailing mood of life in China today, My China Now is a collection of 33 short documentaries, animations, art house films and features that are to be screened for the first time in Britain. Throughout June and July this year, the collection will be screened at the Hayward and selected venues across Britain as part of China Now, the country's largest ever festival of Chinese culture.
"With the limited funding, we try to commission Chinese artists to explore in a visual sense the transformation, economy, people's life and the human part of China," said Karen Smith, curator of the project, who is based in China.
"We want the artists who are not necessarily film-makers to make their own expressions through documentaries, youth culture or animation, and challenge the many negative British perceptions of China with humour, art, talent and freedom," added Smith who is considered one of the leading Chinese contemporary art specialists.
My China Now, in collaboration with Intelligent Alternative Beijing, approached 25 leading creative talents, each of whom is helping to define contemporary culture in modern China, and asked them to provide a film for the project that captured their impressions of China today. The collection includes 12 new commissions by China's leading contemporary artists Wang Qingsong, Cao Fei and Xue Li and award-winning film director Pan Baocheng.
The collection, which ranges from the social effects of urbanisation and the fascination with China's new wealth to skateboarding, fashion and pop culture, presents humorous animations alongside social documentaries to celebrate the diversity of life in China today.
Through a diverse range of subjects that address the burning issues of the times, the short films explore the many facets of everyday life in China, including alienation, consumer consumption, poverty, economy and human ambition. Produced by members of China's growing creative community, the collection contains 12 new commissions, 16 short films and five special edits.
The screening at the gallery will last until 30th July.
China Now is a six-month nationwide festival of over 1,000 Chinese events, including exhibitions, performances and activities spanning Chinese film, cuisine, comics, art, literature, science, technology, business, education and sport across Britain. It's intended to celebrate the Chinese culture in the run up to the Beijing Olympics slated for August.
Xinhua news agency

A Film from Germany

GERMAN street theatre came to London this week with the screening of The Funeral or the Heavenly Four at Marx House on Monday to an audience that included NCP leader Andy Brooks, Michael Chant of the RCPB (ML) and members of the London District of the NCP.
The 45-minute short, directed by Thomas Schmitz-Bender, is essentially a film within a film, covering an avant-guard Berlin street project to commemorate the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. The drama played over two days with many spectacular highlights, including a convoy of Soviet tanks at the Reichstag; speeches by veterans from the four Allied Powers, the funeral of the “unknown soldier” and a replay of last RAF raid on Potsdam with sirens wailing and a fly-past by a British bomber dropping leaflets for the next day’s events. And at the Glienicker Bridge, where spies were exchanged during the Cold War, the old border with the German Democratic Republic was redrawn in chalk across the road to mark a reunification that has brought nothing but disaster to millions of working people in eastern Germany.
The “heavenly four” are the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the United States that brought Nazi Germany to its knees in 1945 but Schmitz-Bender’s purpose was to point out that the German people themselves must act now for peace and not rely on others again for liberation.
The theme from Bertholdt Brecht’s poem, The Legend of the Dead Soldier, runs throughout the film which was introduced by Stefan Eggerdinger from the Workers’ League for the Restoration of the Communist Party of Germany (AWKPD) that played a major part in its production.

Public sector pay protests

‘Don’t blame us for inflation’

PUBLIC sector workers from many walks of life – including firefighters, health workers, prison officers and civil servants – descended on Westminster at midday last Monday to protest at Government efforts to cap public sector pay rises at two per cent, which they say amounts to a pay cut given the rising cost of living.
The Speak Up for Public Services lobby united all 26 TUC trade unions involved in public sector work to call for fair pay for public service workers.
On the morning of the protest the TUC published the results of a survey it commissioned from YouGov, which shows public backing for an increase in public sector pay.
The research shows 90 per cent of those questioned support the incorporation of housing and energy bills into Government estimates of the cost of living.
Ministers base public sector wage negotiation on the consumer price index, which excludes housing.
Sixty-eight per cent of those surveyed said it was “unfair if public servants regularly get pay increases lower than those in public companies”.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “This poll shows very wide public support for the fair pay principles at the heart of union campaigning.”
The trade unionists told MPs that public service workers show their dedication and commitment by responding to national emergencies, tackling floods and their aftermath, preventing the spread of foot and mouth, tackling terrorism and crime and delivering health, education, justice and welfare services to the country.
Yet below-inflation pay rises means real terms pay cuts for public service workers – and they deserve better, Parliament was told in no uncertain terms.
The Government and employers must be in no doubt that they face a wave of strikes over the summer and autumn if there is no improved pay offer, warned union leaders, including Unison general secretary Dave Prentis.
Speaking to a packed hall before the Westminster lobby, Prentis paid tribute to public service workers – “the unsung heroes of our communities, the extraordinary people my union is proud to represent and who are now bearing the brunt of a real attack by this Government’s unfair and unjust pay policy.”
“If you really want to tackle inflation, tackle corporate greed,” he said, urging MPs to stand up for the public service workers who voted them in, to treat them with dignity and respect, so they don’t have to worry about how they are going to survive.
However a large tranche of Unison members – those employed by the NHS – last week voted to accept a very poor pay deal that will give them a total rise of eight per cent over three years – at a time when the cost of living is rising very fast.
An individual postal ballot of 452,000 members working in the NHS saw 64.91 per cent of those taking part voted to accept the three-year offer worth 8.1 per cent – and more to some members.
This result means that Unison and the Royal College of Nursing, the two largest NHS unions, representing the overwhelming majority of NHS staff, have now endorsed the multi-year agreement.
But Unison head of health Karen Jennings pointed out that the union had negotiated a “re-opener” clause “that we will not hesitate to trigger if inflation continues to rise”.
Meanwhile further education unions have rejected the employers’ latest pay proposals, which failed to put any new money on the table when negotiations reopened on Monday.
Unison and the other five further education unions are seeking six per cent or £1,500, whichever is the greater. Instead, the employers came back with a proposed pay rise of three per cent over 10 months (which is only worth 2.5 per cent over the year). Like their opening offer, it provided no underpinning for the lowest paid staff.
And at the Unite annual conference in Brighton, joint general secretary Derek Simpson condemned the Government’s two per cent public sector pay cap as “a disgrace”.
Unite has 250,000 members working in the public sector, supported Monday’s lobby of Parliament.
Gail Cartmail, Unite assistant general secretary, said: “Our members work hard to keep this country up and running. They should not be forced to take the blame for inflation. Unless the government want to be facing a recruitment and retention crisis within the public sector they need to treat these workers with the respect they deserve.”