Category: cost of living

Blog: The government paves the way for Austerity 2.0

“It’s going to be rough” is what we’re hearing in news reports from government sources today. That’s the reality of toxic public spending cuts that are being threatened in Westminster’s latest narrative.

Sound familiar? Well, it is, because we’re heading to Austerity 2.0. We’ve been here before – the first round was painful, damaging and lasted over a decade. In a speech about the economy in 2010, on his plans to deal with the fallout of the global economic crisis, David Cameron said: “The measures that we need to deal with it will be unavoidably tough … I make no bones about that, but we will get through this together.”

Well, of course, we weren’t in it together at all. And here we are again, slap bang in the middle of our NHS strike ballot over pay, hearing rumours that Rishi Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are planning to make public sector workers poorer, with a proposed limit on public sector pay rises to 2% in 2023/24.

Driving down living standards and the quality of life for public sector workers won’t make the UK more prosperous and isn’t a price worth paying.

I spoke this weekend at our national disabled members’ conference about the challenges ahead, because it’s important to acknowledge that the cost of living crisis bears down heaviest on our disabled members.

But I also spoke about how all our members are the real wealth creators in society. It’s a false economy to depress public sector wages and to starve services of funding. In the end, it forces dedicated and experienced staff out the door.

The likes of Amazon and Google – who should be paying their fair share in tax – rely on our members to keep their businesses booming. They need access to a workforce that’s been educated and is are fit and able to work, that can drive on roads that are well-maintained, and where health and care services are available for workers and their families. And if an accident happens, businesses will call 999 to get help from an emergency service.

More importantly, austerity affects peoples’ lives so profoundly that its legacy can last for generations. Over the last decade, the demand for food banks has soared and now even these charities are struggling to feed everyone who needs help. Child poverty has increased to shameful levels, and we haven’t seen the economic growth we were promised.

We’ve been saying this for 12 years now, while campaigning to protect our public services. We’ve been saying to the government that their ideology doesn’t work – it ruins lives.

But we won’t stop campaigning against this damaging Tory government until they’re kicked out of power and our public services are no longer in their hands.

The article Blog: The government paves the way for Austerity 2.0 first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Help ensure MPs understand the reality of the cost of living crisis

UNISON is urging activists and members to lobby their MPs and call for a general election in Westminster next Wednesday, 2 November.

The lobby takes place during the worst cost-of-living crisis in 50 years. Everything is going up but wages. The Tories crashed the economy with their mini-budget and all the signs are showing that they will try and fill the hole in public finances created by their own mistakes with a fresh wave of austerity.

This will place public services under unbearable strain, as they are still struggling to recover after the pandemic and 12 years of cuts and low investment.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that the cuts implied by the government’s economic mismanagement could lead to 200,000 jobs being lost. Added to this, further austerity will have implications for pay settlements in years to come and condemn millions of people who are dependent on benefits to poverty in the months ahead.

The lobby is an opportunity to tell MPs about the reality of the cost of living crisis and to make it clear that cuts are not the answer.

Instead, we need higher pay, investment in public services and for benefits to increase in line with inflation.

This government simply has no mandate for more cuts.

Where relevant, the lobby is also an important opportunity to speak with MPs about current pay disputes and ballots in the NHS, higher education, the Environment Agency, the Food Standards Agency and the Care Quality Commission.

Sign up here

The TUC is co-ordinating the lobby and helping to arrange the meetings with MPs. However, once you have signed up, UNISON will be in touch with you to provide a briefing note.

If your workplace is in a different constituency to where you live and you want to meet the MP for where you work, please enter the postcode for your workplace on the sign-up page.

The day will end with a rally at the Westminster Methodist Central Hall at 6-8pm. The rally will feature contributions from trade union members, general secretaries and celebrities and focus on the need for an election.

It’s time to let voters choose a new Westminster government.

The article Help ensure MPs understand the reality of the cost of living crisis first appeared on the UNISON National site.

UNISON retired members focus on the cost of living crisis

Hundreds of delegates gathered in Telford today for UNISON’s retired members’ conference, in order to decide the union’s priorities for its 167,000 retired members across the country.

Chaired by Libby Nolan, the conference opened with a short speech from the mayor of Telford, Raj Mehta, who thanked members for their work in providing public services that society relies on.

The business of the day was focused on how the cost of living crisis is affecting the retired population, with subjects discussed including:

  • people being forced to choose between heating or eating;
  • bus passes;
  • prescriptions; and
  • the triple lock on state pensions.

Cost of living crisis

Coming on the day that inflation reached 10.1%, the first motion to be unanimously passed was on increased support for pensioners through the cost of living crisis. 

Irene Humphreys, introducing the motion on behalf of the national retired members’ committee said: “Heat or eat is not just a soundbite, it’s a real choice that people are being forced to make. The cap on energy prices is only guaranteed until next year”.

Earlier this year, 5.3 million people in the UK were choosing between heating their home and eating. Conference heard that pensioners are among those most likely to be worst affected by increases in energy costs.

Bob Deacon, speaking on behalf of UNISON Wolverhampton City local government branch, said: “The ‘cost of living’ crisis is misnamed, it’s an ‘opportunity to raise the rate of profit crisis’.” 

Roger Banister from the North West region told delegates: “Most people within this room can remember when energy supply was provided by nationalised companies, and I can say without any false nostalgia that it was better than how it has become under private ownership”.

Mr Banister added: “I’m sick of the Tory way of running things, and sick of older people suffering as a result of privatised energy control. Let’s take it back into public ownership, and plan it properly for public good, not to private profit”. 

All motions relating to the cost of living crisis were passed unanimously by delegates.

Pensions

Other motions voted through included calls for the triple lock on pensions to be secured in legislation and for the government to increase investment in social care.

These came before Prime Minister Liz Truss confirmed, at the day’s prime minister’s questions (PMQs), that she is “completely committed” to the retaining the triple lock on state pensions, which rules that the state pension must rise each year in line with the highest of three possible figures – inflation, average earnings or 2.5%.

Free prescriptions

One of the longer debates centred on free prescriptions, and the idea floated in February this year by the previous prime minister, Boris Johnson, to raise the age for free prescriptions from 60 to 66.

Introducing the motion, chair of the national committee Rosie MacGregor said: “People aged 60-65 are often prescribed medication for longer-term conditions which they’ll have to take for many years.

“Introducing prescription charges for this age group will mean people don’t take medication, and some patients struggling to make ends meet may be tempted to ration their own medicine or even worse, be tempted to avoid doctors appointments.”

Ms MacGregor urged conference attendees to “stay vigilant” around future threats to free prescriptions, stating: “The government continues to show contempt for pensioners”.

Another delegate noted: “this will have a knock-on effect on people taking their medication. People will be readmitted to hospital”.

Conference also passed motions on free TV licences for over-75s, support for a national care service, improvements to public transport services and a call for UNISON to lobby the government for a commissioner for older people in England. 

In her closing speech (after PMQs), Ms MacGregor said: “Clearly Liz Truss has been listening to us, as today she committed to the triple lock. However, how long is her party committed to keeping her in place?”

The article UNISON retired members focus on the cost of living crisis first appeared on the UNISON National site.

‘Co-ordinated action unites us,’ McAnea tells TUC congress

“Our purpose binds us – co-ordinated action unites us.” That was the message at the heart of Christina McAnea’s speech to the TUC’s annual congress in Brighton today, as she moved a successful UNISON motion on Higher pay to tackle the cost of living crisis.

The general secretary had opened by telling delegates that she had been on a picket line recently in Blackpool. It was “early one morning, in the wind and the rain …

“I was talking to our UNISON members. Most of them were cleaners, caterers or porters, who work in the hospital but for a private company – OCS.

“They don’t get full NHS pay and conditions, and even during the pandemic – working Christmas day – they only got flat rate pay.

“Their ask was reasonable: pay parity with the directly-employed workers doing the same job.

Ms McAnea said that she had asked one of members how she travelled to the picket line so early.

The member replied that she walked. An hour to work/the picket line and an hour home.

“Because she could no longer afford the bus fare.”

That, said the general secretary, was the reality that was forcing people take strike action even when it meant losing pay.

She continued by telling the hall: “The picture inside our NHS hospitals is not much prettier. Almost 30% of employers have set up foodbanks to help feed their staff and another 20% are planning to bring it in.”

It was, said Ms McAnea, “a shameful period in our history.”

She reported that a care worker, forced to work 60-70 hours a week to pay her debts, had asked: “Is this life, what do you think?”

The general secretary told congress that, while working people have struggled through austerity, a deadly pandemic and are now in a devastating cost of living crisis, they face a repeat of the “penny-pinching austerity” inflicted on the country since 2010.

“Meanwhile, the UK government has been playing roulette, racking up debt on the public tab.

“All their gambling always ending with the same result – working people lose out.”

And she had surprising words of thanks for Conservative MP Sir Crispin Blunt, for his wise words over the weekend, agreeing that, “Yes, ‘the game is up’.”

But Ms McAnea said that “this should never have been a game, because it’s far too serious for that.”

With the government trying desperately to blame someone or something other than itself, it was time for it to take responsibility for a decade of spending cuts, for the political choices that have made the economy weaker and working people poorer.

The latest, desperate chaos at the heart of government she said was not “desperation to save the country, but desperation to save the Tory Party.”

But the party is sinking in the polls as mortgage repayments, energy bills, and food and travel costs are up.

“The country can’t take any more,” said Ms McAnea. “Workers can’t take any more. Only a general election … can get rid of this lot of chancers”.

She then turned her attention to the people who are putting the interests of working people first: trade unionists.

And emphasising that UNISON already works with other unions, she made the message clear: “Our purpose binds us – co-ordinated action unites us”.

The article ‘Co-ordinated action unites us,’ McAnea tells TUC congress first appeared on the UNISON National site.

A gamble with pensioners’ lives: retired members confront the cost of living crisis

UNISON’s retired members’ conference will be held in Telford this week, 18-19 October. The agenda includes several cost of living related motions specific to pensioners, from eating or heating to bus passes, prescription costs and state pensions.

Recent statistics show that one in five pensioners – more than two million people – are already living in relative poverty in the UK. 

Chair of UNISON’s national retired members’ committee Rosie MacGregor said: “Retired members are very worried right now. I’ve had several people contact me with their concerns around rising inflation and the cost of living, who are worried about whether they will have enough food this winter.

“People are worried about having to choose between heating and eating, and I’ve already heard from a number of people who are buying blankets because they don’t think they’ll be able to afford to put the heating on. I’m also hearing from people living in rented homes, who are worried about rising rental costs.”

‘I don’t remember in my lifetime a time when things were like this’

Given the rapidly increasing cost of living, the ‘triple lock’ on pensions is a pressing concern for UNISON members, Ms MacGregor said.

“Many of our retired members have occupational pensions, but many people who have worked in low-paid jobs, who did not contribute to pension funds, are reliant on the state pension. There’s no wiggle room for rising living costs.”

The basic state pension is £141.85 per week for those born before 1951, and £185.50 per week for those born after. The triple lock is a rule that means the state pension must rise each year in line with the highest of three possible figures: inflation, average earnings or 2.5%.

Ms MacGregor said: “The government removed the triple lock for this year and have said they would reinstate it for April 2023. But with so many U-turns this government is making, there is no guarantee that they won’t renege on the triple lock.

“I don’t remember in my lifetime a time when things were like this. Liz Truss and the Tory government are gambling with everyone’s lives, particularly pensioners.”

A wealth of experience

UNISON has around 167,000 retired members, and is the only British trade union with a retired members’ group. Retired members have a wealth of experience and knowledge that make them a valuable part of UNISON campaigns and decision-making within the union.

Their conference will also hear a motion to lobby the government to introduce a commissioner for older people in England. This position exists in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

A report earlier this year from the Centre for Better Ageing found that more than 80% of respondents said the government was failing to ensure a decent life for older people, and over two-thirds of 2,000 adults in England surveyed supported the appointment of an independent commissioner to look after the rights of older people.

Ms MacGregor recommends that retired UNISON members who are experiencing financial difficulties should contact There For You, UNISON’s welfare support.

“I know there’s a reluctance among some people, who see it as charity, and either feel ashamed to show how poor they are to someone, or feel like it’s a handout that other people deserve more. But it’s there for a reason, and I always tell people ‘go ahead and do it’”.

Contact There For You

The article A gamble with pensioners’ lives: retired members confront the cost of living crisis first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Tories ‘cannot be trusted’, after screeching economic U-turn

“A government that dumps virtually its entire economic slate in the space of a month simply cannot be trusted.”

That was the verdict of UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea today, after the fourth Conservative chancellor this year performed a series of screeching U-turn on his predecessor’s catastrophic ‘mini-budget from just a few weeks ago.

After Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting ‘fiscal event’ on 23 September triggered panic in the markets, with the pound falling against the dollar and leading, eventually, to his sacking as chancellor by Prime Minister Liz Truss.

In an unprecedented catalogue of U-turns, new chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed this morning that he is reversing many of the measures announced – including the planned cut to income tax.

Income tax will stay at 20% indefinitely, instead of being reduced to 19%.

The cap on energy prices is now only guaranteed to April 2023. The mini-budget had announced support for two years, but a Treasury-led review is due to take place in the spring to prioritise those most in need.

Many UNISON members are now facing a financial cliff edge in April, when the price cap is predicted to increase up to £5,000 a year for an average household, with protections only retained for the most vulnerable.

Other proposed tax cuts that have now been abandoned include:

  • the cut in dividend tax;
  • VAT-free shopping for overseas tourists;
  • the freeze on alcohol duty; and
  • the easing of the IR35 rules for the self-employed and contractors.

The Treasury expects the reversal of these measures will raise more than £32bn by 2026-27.

Cuts to stamp duty and the reversal of the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance contributions will remain, as they were already too progressed in their implementation. The removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses also remains.

The government has indicated that further “difficult decisions” on tax and spending are due, with an expectation that the government plans to cut £38bn of spending on public services. All ministers are due to meet with the new chancellor this week to decide spending plans.

Ms McAnea said: “Liz Truss promised again and again to shield people from rocketing energy bills, but even that help now lies in tatters. Struggling families will be aghast.

“Threatened spending cuts mean essential services, key workers and the public will pay a heavy price for the government’s reckless – and wholly unnecessary – gamble.’

And the general secretary continued: “The current crisis is entirely of the government’s making. The UK’s reputation on the international stage has been trashed and families’ budgets squeezed like never before.

“This sorry state of affairs must come to an end. The lame duck prime minister has to step aside, and an election called right away to put the country out of its misery. That’s the only way to get the economy back on track.”

The article Tories ‘cannot be trusted’, after screeching economic U-turn first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Government can’t be trusted and must go, says UNISON

Government can’t be trusted and must go, says UNISON

Responding to emergency measures announced by the chancellor today (Monday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:

“A government that dumps virtually its entire economic slate in the space of a month simply cannot be trusted.

“Liz Truss promised again and again to shield people from rocketing energy bills, but even that help now lies in tatters. Struggling families will be aghast.

“Threatened spending cuts mean essential services, key workers and the public will pay a heavy price for the government’s reckless, and wholly unnecessary, gamble.

“The current crisis is entirely of the government’s making. The UK’s reputation on the international stage has been trashed and families’ budgets squeezed like never before.

“This sorry state of affairs must come to an end. The lame duck prime minister has to step aside and an election called right away to put the country out of its misery. That’s the only way to get the economy back on track.”

Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk

The article Government can’t be trusted and must go, says UNISON first appeared on the UNISON National site.

NEC hears that building for the NHS strike ballots is the ‘priority’

UNISON’s national executive council (NEC) met today and agreed that the forthcoming NHS industrial action ballots will be its priority after hearing details plans of the work being undertaken now to build turnout.

General secretary Christina McAnea updated the meeting on bargaining, negotiations, disputes and industrial action that the union is currently engaged in, across sectors.

On health, she noted that a ballot opened in Scotland on 3 October, with phone-banking set to start this week. The ballot for England, Wales and Northern. Ireland opens on 27 October.

“These combined ballots will mean we could be balloting over 400,000 members by the end of the year. The key priority is to turn out the vote to get over 50%. This is a huge logistical challenge and requires focussing our resources on the ballots,” observed Ms McAnea.

Earlier, she had said that, while the union will be celebrating Black History Month throughout October, “we don’t just do this for one month of the year, but make sure that this is a part of our work all year”.

More widely, the general secretary said that she couldn’t remember a time when a “new prime minister and a new chancellor have been such a unifying force!” They had no mandate, she said.

“But the mask has now completely gone. They’re not even pretending to be ‘one-nation’ Conservatives any more.”

Ms McAnea said that the government’s aim was to: “Take from the poorest to give the richest”, which “gives us a lot of ammunition”.

She also told the meeting that UNISON has issued proceedings with the High Court, triggering the start of the process to seek a judicial review of the government’s “new regulations to allow the use of agency workers to break strikes”.

The general secretary’s report also updated council members on the developing Together We Rise campaign and explained that the union wants every MP to be visited by a member at the We Demand Better lobby of Parliament on 2 November, organising jointly with the TUC.

Before Ms McAnea spoke, the meeting heard a shocking report from Lesia Semeniaka (pictured above), the international officer of Atomprofspilka, the Nuclear Power and Industry Workers Union in Ukraine.

Thanking UNISON and members for their “very important” moral and financial support, Ms Semeniaka said that she was speaking on the 232nd day of a war in which “Russia is committing genocide of Ukrainian people”.

She talked of recent civilian victims of Russian attacks, together with attacks on infrastructure and on educational and cultural sites.

“According to Putin, he is waging war on all Western countries.”

Ms Semeniaka said that the Russian leader’s wider aim is clear – to deprive Western European countries of fuel in the winter, provoking people onto the streets to overthrow democratic governments.

Speaking of union members facing torture by invading forces and being used civilians as a “human shield”, she reminded the meeting that the international Red Cross is being denied access to any Russian-held Ukrainian prisoners.

No international bodies have any influence over Russians, she said, labelling Putin’s forces as “terrorists”.

The meeting also heard reports on:

  • the state of pay claims and new ballots across service groups, including developments on phone banking to boost turnouts;
  • developments in internal the running of elections;
  • adopting 2023 as the Year of the Black Worker; and
  • received and accepted the latest financial statement.

The article NEC hears that building for the NHS strike ballots is the ‘priority’ first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Blog: Taking our cost of living campaign to a wider audience

Last week, we launched the latest phase of our cost of living crisis campaign, Together We Rise. Turning outwards to the wider public, we’re bringing the message home to as many people as possible, that poverty is a choice made by the powerful.

You might have seen one of our poster billboards, shared some of our campaign graphics or our video on social media – or even encouraged one of your friends or colleagues to sign our petition calling on the prime minister to end the pay crisis. A pay crisis caused by the current government in Westminster.

After a summer of political inertia – and a chaotic recent few weeks since Liz Truss became the new PM – it’s clear that working people will ultimately pay for the mistakes of Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng.

News reports today give us a worrying picture. Banks are setting aside more money for defaults as people can’t pay their mortgage after interest rate hikes, there’s a £62bn black hole in the UK’s finances and average pay has fallen by 4% in real terms. We know that percentage is greater for public service workers.

UNISON members are facing the reality of falling pay and that’s why industrial action ballots and strike action are intensifying.

So as Parliament returns today, now is the time to grab their attention. There is more we can do to get politicians to be on the side of working people. We’re asking all our members to lobby their MPs, either at their constituency surgery this Friday 14 October, or at our mass lobby of Parliament in London on 2 November.

It doesn’t matter what party your MP is from, we want all political parties to hear from public service workers about how the pay crisis is affecting them.

And if you’re one of the half a million UNISON members being balloted for strike action in the Environment Agency, NHS or probation, make sure you vote. Together we can make a difference and help create a better life for so many people.

These are the important steps you can take to play your part in our movement. And as UNISON’s general secretary, I’m speaking up for public services and our fantastic UNISON members at every opportunity – to the government, to the Labour Party, on the media and on the picket line.

Visit the campaign hub

The article Blog: Taking our cost of living campaign to a wider audience first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Let’s rise up in Westminster on 2 November – in UNISON

UNISON is urging activists and members to lobby their MPs next month as part of the Together We Rise campaign.

Working with the TUC and other unions, UNISON is organising a lobby of the Westminster parliament on Wednesday 2 November, between 2-6pm.

This will be an opportunity for members to meet their MPs and tell them about the reality of the cost of living crisis.

Where relevant, it will also be an important opportunity to speak with MPs about current pay disputes and ballots in higher education, health, the Environment Agency and the Food Standards Agency.

Sign up here

The TUC will co-ordinate the lobby and arrange the meetings with MPs. However, once you have signed up, UNISON will be in touch with you to provide briefing and priority campaign messages.

Since the lobby was first called, many members will have been further affected by the government’s budget, which pushed up interest rates, mortgage costs and seriously threatened the stability of the pensions system.

To fund the tax cuts announced in the budget the government is threatening a further wave of austerity.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that this could lead to 200,000 jobs being cut. Activists and members can use this opportunity to make it clear to their MPs that this is simply unacceptable.

If your workplace is in a different constituency to where you live, and you want to meet the MP for where you work, please enter the postcode for your workplace on the sign-up page.

The day will end with a rally at the Westminster Methodist Central Hall at 6-8pm. The rally will feature contributions from trade union members and general secretaries.

The article Let’s rise up in Westminster on 2 November – in UNISON first appeared on the UNISON National site.