It was abundantly apparent at the Labour Party conference that the Labour Party is eager to prove that it can be trusted to act in the interests of the boss class. From fuel allowance cuts to refusal to abolish the two child benefit cap, to talk of sacrifice for the economy.
Aat the same time, Labour has made a deal with the trade union leaderships that it would move to settle pay disputes and to offer minimal and inadequate reforms over workers’ rights and strike laws. To a lesser or greater extent it has so far been successful, getting various sectors to agree to derisory wage settlements. All that might change in the future.
There is widespread discontent in workplaces around wages, and terms and conditions. Many workers have little faith in the Labour government defending their interests. Labour’s planned austerity measures, including the statement that no further funding of the NHS and so called “reforms” , for that read increased NHS privatisation, will aggravate the situation.
There will be calls from union bureaucrats to “ give ’em a chance,” to hold back strike action and give Labour time to act. This may not avoid looming struggles to come. Nurses in the RCN union have voted overwhelmingly to reject a 5.5% pay offer and there will be new pay rounds in spring 2025.
The recent strike wave of 2022-2023 brought many workers out on strike for the first time, and showed that solidarity works and that strikes can be effective.
Alongside this, there is the distinct possibility that Labour will raise tuition fees, excluding many working class youth from higher education and putting greater pressure on those still able to attend. This will come together with the determination of Labour to let some universities, now in dire economic circumstances, go to the wall. Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills, confirmed this by stating : “We’ll let some universities go bust.”
The nurses should be backed in any forthcoming industrial action. Their anger was expressed in a two thirds rejection of the 5.5% offer, out of 145,000 voting in the ballot. To a certain extent, they were encouraged by the limited pay victory of the junior doctors with a pay increase of 22%. But primarily, nurses’ anger is fuelled by both derisory pay AND the growing staffing crisis. Forty thousand nurses have left the NHS in the past year, indicating the state of play there.
This comes alongside the decision by other health unions to accept below inflation pay offers. The Unite leadership failed to offer advice to its members on how to vote, but 35% of them voted to reject the 5.5% offer (not reflected among members of Unison, where only 23% voted to turn down the offer).
To repeat, if the nurses go into action, despite any manoeuvres by the RCN leadership, they must be fully supported, as must any localised industrial actions in the health service. The Labour government and the media will round on the nurses, saying that their demands are unrealistic, and that greedy workers like the nurses are the reason that the fuel allowance payments were axed. This divide and rule propaganda must be answered with the utmost solidarity.
Image: Photo by Steve Eason (Creative Commons License)