www.socialistworker.co.

uk

HE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ON pay on Tuesday 4 February is a welcome opportunity to step up the pressure on the employers and the government over our pay claim. The Tories, using fiddled and selective figures, are trying to persuade us that our living standards are improving. They are notand local government workers know it only too well. Public sector pay has fallen by 0.4 percent over the last year, even before inflation is taken into account. Soaring prices for food, utilities and other staple living costs have led to a major cumulative cut in the real value of our pay. The Treasury expects inflation to increase by a staggering 17 percent over the next four years. Yet average pay rose by just 2.1 percent last year. In local government, it didnt rise at all for the third year on the trot, meaning workers are worse off by about 15 percent. Other public sector workers have fared almost as badly with a mere 1 percent increase overall. Chancellor George Osborne claims that we are all in it together, but top bosses pay increased by a massive 14 percent last year. Their median salary is 568,500. If they cant get by on that, it was topped up with an average 553,200 bonus.

STOP THE CUTS AND SMASH the paY FReeZe!

T
Strikes

We need strikes to...

up to the Tory austerity agenda. He previously said he would follow Tory spending plans for the first year of a Labour government. But now he has signed up to public expenditure cuts right until 2020. Instead of pandering to the bosses, he should be telling Labour councils to agree our pay claim in full.

Glasgow residential care workers strike rally

over pay this year. The day of action today must be the springboard for a ballot for a serious programme of strikes across local government. The Glasgow residential care workers who have so far held two 48 hour strikes against the imposition of new shifts that will mean a pay cut are showing how to fight. Send messages of support to: enquiries@glasgowcityunison.co.uk Unison, Unite, EIS and UCU members in Higher Education are striking together again for 24 hours over pay on 6 February. We should be out with them. Labour has pledged a tax rise for the richest. That has enraged the bosses. But Labours Ed Balls has also signed

We need to lay down a marker that we will not accept austerity either now or from an incoming government whether Tory or Labour. Every government imposed pay freeze on workers in this country has sooner or later been broken by mass strikes. That is what we need to be prepared do if we are going to reverse the decline in our living standards, beat the Tories and austerity. Lets make 2014 the year we smash the Tory pay freeze and drive back their cuts agenda!

Austerity

Imposed

While the government promises yet more austerity for us if they win the election next year, it has handed big business billions by slashing the corporation tax paid on profits and awarding income tax breaks to Britains biggest earners. And in the councils the axe will fall on thousands more jobs this year as new budgets are set. In Birmingham city council for example, 1,000 more job cuts were announced before Christmas. Many local government workers understand that it will take major national strike action to force the employers to give us a decent pay rise, break the pay freeze imposed by the government and to stop the cuts. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis has promised coordinated strike action

I would like to get Socialist Worker regularly I want to join the Socialist Workers Party
Name. ................................................................................................................ Address............................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................... Phone.............................................e-mail........................................................
Unison290114

Return to SW industrial, PO Box 42184, London, SW8 2WD e-mail industrial@swp.org.uk or phone/text 07986 936094

Circulation 020 7819 1171 Editorial 020 7819 1180