The Need for Warwick 2
Today, the PCS union announced that their members had voted in favour of industrial action. These public and civil servants are the very people upon whom this Government relies to deliver its agenda.
They are taking this action, with an all-out strike on 31st January, because of job cuts and privatisation which threaten public service delivery as the National Audit Office and several Select Committees have already found. PCS members also voted to strike because of pay. Over a quarter of civil servants earn less than £15,000, and are currently threatened with a below inflation pay rise - meaning a real terms cut in wages.
Today was also the TUC lobby of Parliament, and was attended by union members from across the public sector threatened with privatisation, job losses and pension cuts. The Government is heading for a 'Spring of Discontent' in the public sector, unless we urgently change course.
That's why I'm calling for a 'Warwick 2', which should include:
- The immediate introduction of a Trade Union Freedom Bill in line with ILO standards
- The end of privatisation and the return of rail, air traffic control and other services to public ownership
- Support for free and comprehensive education, and an end to Foundation and Trust schools
- An increase in the basic state pension and immediate restoration of the earnings link, and new protection for company pension schemes
- A new Health and Safety regime with stricter powers, adequate enforcement resources and effective Corporate Manslaughter legislation
- The development of a dynamic and interventionist industrial strategy to protect and grow the UK's manufacturing industries
- A positive duty on the public and private sectors to promote equality, including mandatory pay audits to close the gender and race pay gaps
posted by John at 1:31 PM
9 Comments:
I just heard Peter 'Judith Chalmers' Hain on World at One - he opposed legalising secondary action - so much for him being on the left - he won't even back Labour Party conference and TUC policy
Me too. Weasel words from Hain but I'm not surprised. Great programme, John. If only we hada Cabinet which would do it but who knows what 2007 will bring.
We don't need a Warwick 2, we need the agreements made in warwick 1 acted upon.
And if we do need a Warwick 2, then the agenda for discussion should be set by the Unions, not by the government.
Of course we should be on Warwick 3 by now or better still not need to have any Warwicks because we have a leadership that respects conference policy and listens to the Unions properly instead of threatening to break the link with them altogether which they won't so or there will be no Labour party.
I heard the W at 1 also and I think Shaun Leigh is more aware of the real situation within the Labour party than the scope of the report woudl suggest having spoken to him at conference.
Is it me or is all this emphasis on Deputy Leadership candidates another way of not having to have John's views aired??
Or is it the healthy paranoia again!
State of the Union address coming up
it would be great if as suggested in the preamble to this Congress voted against Bush's extra troops to Iraq and cut off the funds so he couldn't send them
it will be interesting to see what develops after this
we all need to get John known as the anti-war candidate as that's what he is; simple!
I filled out the form to go on Question Time as it will be near me soon and one of the questions they ask is what your position on Iraq is on the online form. I said I'm an anti-war activist and take a McDonnell/Tony Benn line so maybe they will invite you on John!
If anyone else wants to fill it in go to BBC site/questiontime
you can also suggest your friends and colleagues if hoping to attend as a group as our branch Labour party is.
Warwick 1 was very limited and TUC policy (and even Labour conference policy) goes further - e.g. restoration of TU rights, and ending PFI, restoration of earning link to pensions, etc
if and when hain digs up the pitch before the england-israel football match this year I would consider voting for him. not before.
I had to do my comment above about Warwick etc in a hurry so it didn't come out right. I meant that as Warwick one was so weak and the leadership have ignored it anyway because they only did it as the rest of the party had to figuratively hold a gun to their heads to get any non-neo con policies at all that we should eb way beyond that now, as most of the members are much lefter than the leadership whether they are trade unionists or not and for anyone who is anti-trade union which you shouldn't be in the Labour party; it's just the neo-con leadership who are: the only way wee can knock any sense into the leadership at all is through the trade unions as the CLPs are wesk, moribund and virtually non-existent in many places and their delegates to conference, policy forums (if they send any at all these days) are easily swayed adn manipulated by the leadership's arguments. Remember way back at the beginning when the Blairites managed to win the vote to unfairly cut single parent benefits; MPs like John rightly refused to go down this road and rebelled; it's a shame we couldn't have sacked the leadership then for selling out the people Labour was elected to help. I've just had my neighbour ( a Labour member) on the phone; she's been told her ten year old has been expelled from the after school club for a week, without warning - he's being silly but is no worse than any other ten year old though and he's going to stop going we decided now as he's getting too big anyway and the older child can look after him on the days she works. But they shouldn't eb able to exclude peole without warning but teh trouble is that it's really a private provider although it has had a start-up grant fron the local council but it's mostly funded from fees and the tax credit. It's in the grounds of our local primary school who supported having this wraparound provison to bascially serve the infant and junior schools not exclude the ones they don't want. I know the child's not a trouble-maker as he went to another club sucessfully before this one was built.However my neighbour (a single parent who's not getting the maintenance amount she should from her ex-husband anyway) now may face a long wrangle with the tax credit as of course the childcare has been paid for in advance till the end of the tax years. She says she can manage if it's hundreds but not if it runs into thousands...then they would have to get it back off her in instalments I think but it would be much simpler and cheaper to administer if childcare for this age was a univeral benefit at least for single parents unless perhaps they are unusually loaded; as it at least is for 3 and 4 year olds who get theor playgroup hours free which is a Labour innovation to be fair; (thats why we don't want the Tories any Cameron supporters out there as this is bound to be cut, the local private playgroup to me is £8 a morning and not registered for tax credits; also the staff let the kids run around getting into mischief as they were kind but not experienced.
I hit anon by mistake. Does anyone else find it's sometimes easier to get into "Post a Comment" by clicking on the time that the preceding comment was written? It's probably might just be my computer or broadband connection being slow and the mouse kept sticking that day as well but it sometimes means I press the wrong thing.
What a shockingly bad agenda. If you ever get elected to the leadership of this party then you may as well hand the keys to number 10 to David Cameron right now.
Nationalisation? Vast increase in public spending? Do you honestly expect the British people to ever accept this? You live in a dream world (or perhaps more appropriately, a nightmare world).
Get with the times. Remember what happened in the 80's - we lost and lost spectacularly. Don't make the same mistakes again.
John
Its been a bad week for final salary pension schemes.My own firm (Rolls_Royce)has just been closed its one of its schemes to new entrants as of 1st April 2007.Some of the Unions involved are talking about national industrial action.
However what is the alternative if deficits are running into not just millions but 100s of millions of pounds? R-R fund deficit is 485m up 125m since 2004.Royal Mail's is what, over a Billion ? Workers would have to edure massive rises in contrbutions to stave off eventual insovency. Criticise lack of consultation but have Left critics got any practical long term solutions except for cutting defence spending?(or abolishing the Royal family)
Scrap trident if necessary but still maintain Navy ship numbers to ensure that UK shipyard orders.
Regards.
David a GMB and Labour Party member.
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