Building the Movement, Winning the Future
On Sunday 11th September, 5 Trade Union left organisations have organised a TUC fringe meeting under the slogans Building the Movement & Winning the Future. This has to be a step forward in the struggle to unite the various pay campaigns taking place in the light of what is a spiralling cost of living crisis.
An astute observer once pointed out that the British Labour movement was slow to stir, but when it began to move it moved decisively. This month’s TUC takes place against the background of a widespread series of strikes and ongoing ballots encompassing growing sections of the Trade Union movement and drawing in layers who have not previously employed the tactics of workers organisations, specifically the Criminal Barristers. The movement is stirring.
As we explained recently, the current wave of disputes is on a much higher level than in recent years, or even recent decades. It seems that the Trade Union movement is beginning to wake up after a long sleep. This is reflected in the motions from UNISON and Unite to the forthcoming TUC Conference which call for Coordinated action in the face of what everyone seems to accept as a profound cost of living crisis.
Coordinated action has to be the way forward if we are going to seriously defend our members. Linking together the pay battles, linking the different industrial sectors and working with our sister unions has to be an absolute priority. The cost of living crisis is a threat to all of us the threat of further massive hikes in energy prices will have a dramatic impact on workers and their families this winter. The new Truss Government is being pushed into making some concessions, but no doubt we will be expected to pay the cost further down the line.
With this in mind, its excellent to see that the left organisations in NEU, RMT, PCS, Unite and UNISON have come together to organise a fringe meeting at the TUC around the issue of coordinated action. In addition to leading figures from these five unions there will also be speakers from the Bakers Union and GMB as well as John Hendy QC.
Its no surprise that the calls for coordinated action are coming from the left. For too long we’ve heard senior union officials talk of “competitor unions” and of wanting to “keep their powder dry” or wait for a Labour Government to solve the problems. It’s evident that this is no time for prevarication. The Trade Union movement needs to place itself at the forefront of the movement to defend our class. There is no time to wait.
For many years Trade Union leaders could be heard arguing that “if the Miners couldn’t win, then what hope do we have”. The truth is however that the mood within the unions has been changing for some time. The movement has recovered and has had some very significant successes in recent years. In particular the RMT has delivered some spectacular ballot results in recent years, following the Tories imposition of the ballot threshold for industrial action. Most recently the ballot figures rejecting the Scottish NHS Pay Ballot Results:
GMB 97% Reject
Royal College of Midwives Almost 90% Reject
Unite 89% Reject
Royal College of Nursing 90% Reject
UNISON 91% Reject
The truth is that there is everything to be gained from coordinated industrial action in the face of the cost of living crisis and a lot to lose if members are left with falling living standards and huge gas and electricity bills. It is to the great credit of the left organisations in the five unions that they have called this meeting. What needs to come out of it is a campaign that reaches every union, every union branch and every member. We need a clear programme to address the crisis and we also need to draw the organisational conclusions as to how we deepen and extend the influence of Time for Real Change and our Comrades in the other unions over the next period.
"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number— Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you — Ye are many — they are few."