After April 10th show of strength, unions must mount fight against low pay
Minimum Wage - Get tough with skinflint bosses!
APRIL 1 is the first day of Labour’s new minimum wage, of £3.60 an hour. But as employers groan about paying even this pitiful rate to adult employees (and just £3 for young workers), ministers are already giving them a nod and a wink that firms which break the new law may get away with it.
Stephen Byers, Peter Mandelson’s successor as Trade and Industry secretary, has promised that the legislation will be enforced with a "light touch".
What does this mean?
The clear implication is that instead of using the weight of the state machine to ensure that tight-fisted employers pay up, more subtle methods may be used to cajole them and persuade them – or nothing at all may be done unless the workers involved are brave enough and sufficiently organised to take the case to court.
It’s no coincidence that the same Stephen Byers also argues that creating wealth (for the employers) is more important than distributing it (to the workers and those who need state benefits).
With ministers like this in charge, it is clear that even the legislation of a minimum wage will not be enough. Unions will have to organise low-paid workers and fight for their rights.
But £3.60 is not a living wage. Three years ago the trade unions were demanding £4.26 as a bottom-line figure, and even then it was clear that it is not enough to guarantee a decent standard of living at the turn of a new century.
Far from settling for the £3.60 figure, low-paid workers need to organise, campaign and fight for more. The trade unions who have given support to the April 10 demonstration for a living wage, but done little or nothing on the ground to build big delegations to march must be called to order.
Just as the minimum wage is a scaled-down version of what the unions demanded, so the Fairness at Work legislation, diluted though it is, offers trade unions increased scope to organise and negotiate for improved pay and conditions. These opportunities, after 15 years of defeats and retreats by the trade unions, must be grabbed with both hands. Here is a real chance to step up the fight for a living wage, relying on the anger and strength in the workplace, not on Blair,
March for a Living Wage!
April 10th 1999
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Backed by:
TUC, UNISON, AMO, ASLEF, BECTU, BFAWU, BIFU, CWU, CSP, FBU, GMB, GPMU, MSF, NATFHE, NAPO, NUJ, National Union of Students, PCS, UCATT, RMT, TGWU, TSSA, British Youth Council
More info:
http://www.unison.org.uk/livingwage/pages/index.html
Byers and the feeble advocates of "partnership" with low-paying bosses.
There is no doubt that April 10 will be a major show of strength by UNISON and by the forces on the left committed to fight low pay.
It will be in the weeks and months after this set-piece of rhetoric that we will be able to judge how serious the union leaders really are about taking up the fight for a decent living wage for all.