Striking nurses making their point in Manchester, January 2023. Photo Workers.
In mid-December the government announced that the review bodies for public sector workers are awarding rises of 2.8 per cent for 2025. Timed just before a holiday, ministers hoped to catch workers off guard, looking forward to a rest. They could not be more wrong.
Unions responded swiftly and unanimously, denouncing the proposed award as a cut in real wages. Even the Institute for Fiscal Studies acknowledges that in real terms pay is still below what it was in 2010.
Calling on the government to drop its take it or leave it stance and reopen negotiations, Royal College of Nursing general secretary Nicola Ranger described the offer as deeply offensive. National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede noted that a “sky high workload and real term pay cuts has resulted in a devastating recruitment and retention crisis within teaching.”
Unions representing public sector workers are gearing up for a fight. They know that the pay awards secured over the last two years were forced from government with millions of workers involved in protracted strikes and other forms of action. And largely with public support. A whole new generation of unionists has recent memory of how powerful they can be when they choose.
• A longer version of this article is on the web at www.cpbml.org.uk