Political News: United to keep up the fight

Trade unions will need resolve and solidarity to resist new attacks on rights and pay, insists Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East 

The Covid crisis has put the question of publicsector pay back on the national agenda – in part because of the huge sacrifices made by workers in our public services in fighting this virus.

Prison officers are often overlooked in these discussions of public-sector workers, despite facing incredibly dangerous working conditions.

Shamefully, just as prison officers were facing heightened risks on the frontline, the government rejected recommendations from the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) for a proper pay rise for frontline officers.

In response to this I put down a motion in Parliament opposing the government’s decision and calling for a change to accept the PSPRB recommendations in full. The motion gained broad cross-party support with MPs from 8 different parties signing up to back it. However, despite this support, the government is still refusing this pay settlement.

The government’s refusal, which flies in the face of the commitment that the recommendations of the PSPRB would be accepted unless there were “exceptional circumstances”, is of course not the first time officers have been refused a pay rise.

The years of Conservative austerity hit workers across the public sector with huge real-terms pay cuts – with prison officers subjected to year after year of cuts. But make no mistake, the mistreatment of workers is not an exception under the Tories – it’s an intentional effect of their ideology.

And you don’t need to take my word for it – they have set it out as plain as can be in their own words. Back in 2012 a group of freemarket obsessives published a book claiming that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world” who “prefer a lie-in to hard work” and “work among the lowest hours”. The authors of that book have gone on to form a significant part of the current Conservative Cabinet, becoming the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Trade Secretary and the new Business Secretary.

While millions are worried about losing their jobs or how to manage after many years where they have faced real terms pay cuts, Conservative ministers see an opportunity to tip the scales of our rigged economy further against working people.

Earlier this year the government said they were investigating which workers’ rights should be cut. They were forced into retreat by united condemnation from our trade union movement. But this should serve as a warning to us all that, as we come out of the Covid crisis, we face an almighty struggle to make sure the government is not able to pay for this crisis on the backs of the working class.

In 2018, back when I was shadow justice secretary, I spoke at the POA conference. I remember clearly the resolve and solidarity of the prison officers and the POA leadership in the face of brutal cuts, unsafe conditions and years of attacks on pay. Our whole labour and trade union movement needs that same resolve and solidarity now to make sure we keep up the fight for decent pay rises across the public sector, and in defence of our public services and working class living standards against whatever attack the Tory government launches next.