Home   News   Article

Workers don't strike unless there’s a good cause





John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is an account of impoverished Mid-West farmers migrating to the ‘promised land’ of California in the Great Depression.
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is an account of impoverished Mid-West farmers migrating to the ‘promised land’ of California in the Great Depression.

I’M on strike today! Like millions of other public-sector workers whose pensions are under threat I feel compelled to take industrial action. It’s not something I do lightly. No-one wants to go on strike. But if you were boxed into a corner and everything you’ve worked towards for the last 30 years was going to be jeopardised what would you do?

The Government, in the aftermath of the Lord Hutton report on the long-term structural reform of public-service pension schemes, has decided we all have to work longer, pay more and receive less.

To win public backing for its stance it has spread a series of myths and fallacies about the nature of our so-called “gold-plated” pension scheme. It’s the envy of the private sector apparently. The Tory Lib Dem coalition says it would be unfair to expect taxpayers to foot the bill for our privileged pension pots.

Speaking recently on the Andrew Marr Show the Conservative cabinet minster, Francis Maude, told viewers the unions had to “take it or leave it” as the current offer was “as good as it gets”. He conceded a widespread disruptive strike at a time of “huge fragility for our economy” would cause “immense damage”.

Let’s just remind ourselves it was the banking sector’s reckless risk taking and excessive greed that created the mess we are all in, not public-sector workers.

The Scottish Police Federation, a conservative body one might imagine, has described Westminster government plans to increase its contributions in Scotland by 3.2 per cent as an “affront to democracy”.

Not the sort of commentary you’d expect from upholders of the law. It seems everyone’s heckles are up.

Here’s how the trade union UNISON has exploded just a few of the myths:

Myth – People are living longer which means they’re claiming their pensions for longer.

The schemes were revised to take account of this three years ago – so scheme benefits and costs are now 25 per cent lower. Life expectancy has increased, but less so for manual workers and the low paid.

Myth – There’s a big public-sector pensions deficit that has to be repaid.

There is no funding gap – the public-sector schemes were assessed for long-term risk and adjusted accordingly three years ago and are now very secure. Both the local government pension scheme and NHS pension scheme are currently cash rich with income far exceeding outgoings – some £2 billion in the case of the NHS.

Myth – Public-sector workers have it too good with huge pensions.

The average public-service pension is around £7800 a year; for women working in local government the average is £2800 a year, while the median for women working in the NHS is £3500 a year. Hardly huge pensions.

Saving towards an occupational pension in many cases means a person is receiving fewer welfare benefits during retirement – saving the taxpayer money.

SIR Richard Branson is poised to become a major force in UK retail banking. The billionaire entrepreneur is seeking to take over the nationalised Northern Rock from the taxpayer. The bank whose collapse led to a run on the country’s banking system – the first in 150 years – is being sold off to Branson for £747 million.

This represents a loss to the British taxpayer of £400m. Yet finance analysts predict Branson’s investment will rise to £1bn in just a few years. Despite this, Chancellor George Osborne says it’s the best deal for the British taxpayer.

Just last week the Government announced a new scheme to kick-start the private-sector housing market on the back of taxpayers’ money.

Under the terms of the £400m deal mortgage loans will be lent to private individuals with a dramatic reduction in the deposits currently required. In recent years borrowers have had to source between 25 per cent and 30 per cent as a down payment. Now all they will need is 3.5 per cent of the value of the property they intend to buy with the taxpayer picking up the liability for any future losses.

Strange how the Government defines what is in the best interest of the British taxpayer!

A new survey commissioned by Unite found fewer than one in 10 people believed public-sector pensions were “gold-plated”.

The poll of 1000 people showed the unions were trusted three times more than the Government for providing accurate information.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has said the Government’s pension offer is a “significantly better deal”.

Yet the Government’s own online calculator directly contradicted Alexander’s better deal examples, revealing, instead, less generous outcomes. In some cases 30 per cent less than Alexander had suggested, according to Newsnight.

In the meantime Deborah Hargreaves, chairwoman of High Pay Commission, has said she is shocked by the “stratospheric” pay awards given to company directors.

While conceding real pay is going backwards for the average worker it has been revealed that last year alone the FTSE top 100 directors received an average 49 per cent pay increase for a mere three per cent increase in profits.

With the average pay in the UK reckoned at £25,900 it seems the average FTSE top 100 chief executive rakes in an eye-watering £4.2m. Back in the 1980s a “respectable” company director’s salary was 13 times the average salary: today it is between 75 and 80 times more than the average wage.

It has led some commentators to suggest the British economy has been infected by the US inequality virus.

MELVYN Bragg took television viewers on a fascinating journey last week in John Steinbeck: Voice of America. The Noble-prize-winning author, who died in 1968, is perhaps best known for his controversial novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

The 1939 epic is a no-holds-barred account of impoverished Mid-West farmers abandoning their dust-bowl homesteadings during the Great Depression and migrating to the “promised land” of California.

As they journey along America’s “Mother Road” – Route 66 – they encountered all sorts of hostility and harassment. The promised land turns out to be riven with prejudice, violence and exploitation.

They find themselves no match for the wealthy and ruthless agri-business moguls. Their lives in squalid labour camps become desperate and futile. When they try to secure basic rights and wages they are branded “commies”.

Their unrest, exacerbated by political extremists, broke out into riots in California’s cities.

The scenes and conditions to which workers were subjected – and graphically described by Steinbeck – remain to this day a scandalous blight on America’s industrial relations. So much so that The Grapes of Wrath is still treated with disdain and suspicion in some states.

Ian Hyslop took viewers on another journey during the BBC documentary, When Bankers Were Good. Hyslop referred us back to the “spectacular philanthropy” of Victorian financiers who, at the same time as running successful businesses, also pioneered prison reform, better educational opportunities for workers and their families and improved housing conditions. When one eminent banker’s reckless speculation on the stock exchange brought such ruin to his company, its investors and the workforce it led him to commit suicide. John Sadler’s suicide letter noted how: “I have ruined too many. I could not live and see their agony...”

Business secretary Vince Cable says he wants to see “responsible capitalism” – not the “vast extreme awards paid completely unrelated to the performance of companies”. He has called on company directors to exercise pay restraint. It’s a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

That’s why I’m on strike.


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.


This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More