Did their Tory bosses order the BBC to keep coverage of the strikes off its website yesterday?
Apparently the only way to see the size and scale of the march that took place in London was via German television.
See for yourself:
I’ve scrolled through several of your webpages @BBCNews but can’t seem to find a video or much at all about U.K. #strikes Do we now need to rely on foreign news to find out what’s happening in our own country? 🤷🏻♀️ https://t.co/lvuqkq8m7P
But the BBC belongs on the ‘naughty step’ – again.
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That Tory pose of refusing to talk about pay isn’t working at all, is it?
Here’s the GMB Union:
So that’s February 6 and 20 and March 6 and 20.
And let’s remember that, however these strikes end, ambulances still won’t be arriving with callers within the government-set time limits, because the government simply doesn’t provide the resources to make this possible.
Their argument that strikes are responsible for poor response times is a lie.
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Pittance: key workers have put up with pathetic pay rises – if their pay can be said to have risen at all – for far too long and are ready to quit because of it.
Around one third of key workers in the public sector (32%) have already taken steps to leave their profession to get a job in another field or are actively considering it, according to new TUC polling published today.
According to TUC analysis, that means around 1.8 million public sector workers are seriously thinking about quitting their jobs for good.
In both education and health and social work, the proportion of key workers who have taken steps to leave or are actively considering it is around the same, at about a third of the workforce (34% in education and 31% in health).
The new TUC polling, conducted by YouGov, comes as the union body warns ministers that public services are facing a “mass exodus” of key workers unless ministers deliver “decent pay rises” for key workers.
The government imposed significant real terms pay cuts on key workers in the public sector earlier this year, sparking a wave of ballots for industrial action across education, health and local government this autumn and winter.
Unison, RCM, NASUWT and NEU started balloting their members this week.
Pushed to the brink by low pay
The government’s decision to hold down pay for key workers in the public sector is worsening the public sector recruitment and retention crisis, according to the TUC – highlighting the new poll findings.
Almost half (45%) of key workers in the public sector say the government approach on pay has made them more likely to leave their job in the next one to three years.
For workers in health and social care, the number rises to 50%.
Of those that say they have taken steps to leave or are considering leaving, around half cite low pay (52%).
Feeling undervalued (47%), a poor work life balance (33%) and excessive workloads (31%) are also major factors.
Latest data shows that NHS England is operating short of almost 130,000 staff due to unfilled vacancies. This represents a vacancy rate of 9.7 per cent.
In the education sector, one in eight newly qualified teachers (NQTs) leave the profession after one year in the job, with almost one-third of NQTs (31%) leaving within their first five years.
The union body says that these unfilled vacancies, on top of a decade of underfunding, has left public services “cut down to the bone” – placing huge amounts of pressure on public sector workers.
Brutal decade of pay cuts
The union body says key workers across the NHS face another year of “pay misery” after more than a decade of having their wages held down by successive Conservative governments.
Recent TUC analysis shows that many frontline staff in the NHS will see their pay packets shrink this year in real terms:
Nurses’ real pay will be down by over £1,100 this year
Paramedics’ real pay will be down by over £1,500 this year
Hospital porters’ real pay will be down by £200 this year
Maternity care assistants’ real pay will be down by £600 this year
The TUC says that this year’s pay cuts come on top of a brutal decade of pay cuts for key workers in the public sector.
Recent analysis by the union body shows that in real terms:
Nurses’ real pay is still down £4,300 compared to 2010
Paramedics’ real pay is still down by £5,600 compared to 2010
Porters’ real pay is still down by £1,300 compared to 2010
Maternity care assistants’ real pay is still down by £3,200 compared to 2010
In the education sector, teachers have already lost around a fifth of the value of their pay due to government pay cuts between 2010 and 2021, according to the NEU.
The real term pay cuts imposed this year will see the majority of teachers’ pay worth 25% less than it was in 2010, according to NASUWT analysis.
NAHT analysis suggests school leaders’ pay is down 24%’ since 2010.
Support urgently needed for key workers
The TUC is calling on the government to urgently prioritise key worker pay and public services funding in their fiscal event on 17 November.
The union body says ministers must:
Give key workers in the public sector cost-of-living proofed pay rises
Raise the minimum wage to £15 an hour as soon as possible
Invest in public services – reversing the impact of rising inflation and ensuring the spending measures set out in the 2021 comprehensive spending review are not only delivered but improved upon
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“Key workers in the public sector helped get the country through the pandemic.
“But many are now at breaking point because of a toxic mix of low pay, unsustainable workloads and a serious lack of recognition.
“After years of brutal pay cuts, nurses, teachers, refuse workers and millions of other public servants have seen their living standards decimated – and now face more pay misery.
“It is little wonder morale is through the floor and many key workers are considering leaving their jobs for good.
On the prospect of industrial action, Frances added:
“If there is large-scale public sector strike action over the months ahead, the government only has itself to blame.
“They have chosen to hold down public servants’ pay while giving bankers unlimited bonuses.
“Ministers must change course. Without decent pay rises for key workers in the public sector, we face a mass exodus of staff.
“And it would be bad for our economy. As the country teeters on the brink of recession, the last thing we need is working people cutting back on spending even more.
“More money in the pockets of working people means more spend on our high streets.
“Enough is enough. It’s time to give our key workers in the public sector the decent pay rise they are owed.”
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People who work 15 hours a week – or less – will lose benefits in the latest Tory attack on the poor.
It’s not being reported on the BBC today (September 23), but Kwasi Kwarteng was set to announce that from January next year, 120,000 benefit claimants could see their payments reduced if they fail to work up to 15 hours a week, meet regularly with their work coach and take active steps to increase their earnings.
So people who are already struggling to make ends meet amid the Tory-created cost-of-living crisis are to be punished while – for example – bankers are to enjoy huge increases in income with the removal of the cap on their bonuses.
There is no good reason for either measure but the Tory excuse for hammering the working poor is that there are 1.2 million job vacancies after Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presumably the people being targeted are being expected to take 10 jobs each.
There’s an elephant in the room here, though: how much do these 1.2 million jobs pay? What holidays are offered? What about sick pay? In short: will people actually be better-off for taking them?
New Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith says they will: “We are committed to helping people on lower incomes to boost their pay – because we know work is one of the best ways to support your family and help grow our economy.
“Whether it’s increasing their hours in their current role, entering a new sector or switching careers, we want people of all ages and all stages to be able to progress into fulfilling careers.”
But is it just propaganda?
Maximilien Robespierre thinks it is:
“Give them a job – any job – to meet a target… and sell it as work to help people out of a disaster – that being the cost-of-living crisis.
“Notice [Chloe Smith] did not say anything here about better benefits. Many people can’t work, or find jobs that either suit their skills or are in their vicinity.
“This is about punishing people at the bottom and reducing numbers on benefits, which we have seen comes at a huge human cost.“
Gratitude to Open Democracy for putting together a video clip showing Jacob Rees-Mogg demonstrating his extreme antipathy towards working people.
He believes that no employee should have paid holidays; that the minimum wage should not be raised, even in the face of rampant inflation; that national pay bargaining should be abolished so that wages in the UK can become a postcode lottery; and that the Victorian Age was one of the finest in British history.
This man is now the UK’s Business Secretary. You see the problem?
Check out the clip for yourself – along with Maximilien Robespierre‘s commentary:
Oh, and this is on-point too:
From a bloke that works 26 weeks a year, 4 day week, part time hours and gets paid full time 52 weeks a year + unlimited expenses paid by the taxpayers – the hypocrisy is blatant. pic.twitter.com/EibqTYaRBR
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Therese Coffey: is her latest attack on UC claimants an attempt to break forthcoming industrial disputes?
I spotted this on David Hencke’s Westminster Confidential site, which you really should be reading.
Let’s set the scene:
The Department of Work and Pensions is to tighten the rules significantly to force 114,000 existing Universal Credit claimants into work as job vacancies soar across Britain.
She is changing the rules so far more people will have to go on what is known as an intensive work search regime where they will be monitored continually by work coaches on how many jobs they have applied for and why they didn’t get them.
The [Social Security Advisory] committee approved the idea on February 4 but agreed to keep the decision secret until last week when it published the minutes of a meeting between DWP officials and the committee.
To make the change the government is using a regulation to uprate what is known as the Administrative Earnings Threshold – a device which sets the level of benefit and earnings dividing those who only receive ” a light touch” regime – ie occasional checks whether they are seeking work – from their local job centre and those put on intensive work search programmes. Those who refuse or don’t co-operate properly with face benefit cuts as a sanction.
It will move the level from £355 to £494 a month for a single claimant and from £567 to £782 a month for a couple. At present some 250,000 people covered by the intensive work search programme are in work – this will increase the number by 50 percent. The government justify it by saying the new level brings it into line with recent rises in the national minimum wage for those in work.
Some of us already knew the above. I’ve reported it already.
But here’s the really nasty part:
Questioned about the current job vacancies level encouraging this move officials said: “the vacancies position the labour market is considered by some to be hot which could be driving inflation.”
In other words by getting more of the unemployed into work, employers would have a bigger pool of labour and would not have to offer higher wages or even compensate people for the rising cost of living.
There may now be an even more compelling reason as Therese Coffey wants this to be law from September 26, since the government plans to use agency workers to break the coming strike wave. What would suit ministers would be if the unemployed could be drafted in as agency workers leading to confrontation with striking workers on trains, buses, schools, the NHS, and the post office with shouts of ” scab” and bringing the police in to make mass arrests of strikers.
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We thought this window-writing was by a child in care. It seems it might have been by a carer instead.
Here‘s another crisis the Conservative government has created for itself:
Desperately needed social care staff are quitting their jobs to work in the tourism and hospitality sector because they are ‘burnt out’, the sector has warned.
Exhausted staff are leaving the key worker roles to fill shortages in other sectors, as pubs and restaurants struggle to find enough staff.
Urgent action is needed to stop a “tsunami of unmet need” rippling across essential services this winter, the care regulator has warned.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says health and care staff are “exhausted and depleted” and working under intense levels of pressure.
The vacancy rate in care homes has steadily grown to reach 10.2% as of September – meaning in a year’s time one in 10 care home staff will not be in that job, the CQC said.
And what’s the Conservative government’s response? Make those who are left work harder.
It’s shocking – and ridiculous at the same time. Watch Peter Stefanovic’s video to grasp the full meaning of what Tory minister Gillian Keegan was backed into saying:
“If I understand this correctly faced with a care quality commission report talking about an exhausted and depleted workforce you’re saying work more hours”
That was just the start of the biggest car crash interview of the week. Watch in disbelief pic.twitter.com/R3UBXj2R1z
For fairness, here’s more of that interview, without interruptions:
“If I understand this correctly faced with a care quality commission report talking about an exhausted and depleted workforce you’re saying work more hours” pic.twitter.com/QapS7KecwH
I wouldn’t be surprised if every care worker who saw those clips – or the full interview when it was screened – quit their job at once.
It is clear that they aren’t valued and will simply be worked until they drop – and then blamed for the holes in the care system they leave behind.
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Boris Johns- oh no! This is just a pig! But if Johnson’s fate was the same as that awaiting up to 150,000 porkers, he would undoubtedly have thought twice before telling all those porkIES about Brexit.
Who thought the sunlit uplands, post-Brexit, would look like this?
Vegetables rotting in the fields, meat being incinerated, and millions using food banks or even going hungry
And now we’re being told that potentially 100,000 pigs will be killed – not for their meat, but because there is a nationwide shortage of butchers and abattoir workers.
The crisis has been blamed on an exodus of eastern European workers, many of whom returned to their home countries after Covid-19 travel restrictions were eased but have not returned.
That has meant the abattoirs where they worked are operating at as much as 20% below capacity – unable to take as many pigs as normal – leaving farms overcrowded.
The UK faces a shortage of pigs in blankets this Christmas as a lack of butchers threatens to disrupt supplies of pork, industry leaders have said.
Over to our pigs-in-blankets correspondent, Katy Brand:
Culling healthy pigs while also warning of a shortage of pork products on the shelves is genuinely the maddest shit I have ever seen. Brexit is insane. I am never going to be bamboozled into believing otherwise. Honestly, the maddest shit I have ever seen.
At least nobody is trying to blame this crisis on Covid-19.
The shortage of butchers and abattoir workers represents a significant threat to the UK economy.
How much is a pig worth? How about 100,000 – or 150,000, as we’re now hearing the losses rumoured to be?
A lot of money, This Writer would reckon.
My neighbour farms 2500 cows over 3 farms. He voted for Brexit. Today he shared his concern for other farmers and the future of farming. His words were “it’s all very disturbing and costs are spiralling”. He regrets voting for Brexit
And James Rees’s neighbour isn’t the only one. Here‘s Peter Mortimer, 73, whose pigs aren’t ready for slaughter and will therefore miss the currently-mooted cull, but who
said rising costs and a lack of local labour were among issues that had made his business in Metfield, Suffolk, “unsustainable”.
“It’s about time he [Boris Johnson] realised action is needed immediately to sort this problem out,” said Mr Mortimer.
“He doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand the situation – he’s lost the plot.”
Asked why he was bowing out, he said: “There have been a few issues, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was that I needed to employ some more staff, and I advertised locally and I got no response at all.
“The job involves getting your hands dirty – like abattoir work – and people don’t want to get involved.
“We’ve also got high feed prices – wheat passed £200 a ton on Friday, and its unsustainable to feed pigs, with the prices we’re getting [for them], for any length of time.”
The knock-on effects are frightening. The abattoirs are losing money, as is every other business along the chain from farmer to plate.
And those of us who enjoy a nice slice of pork, or bacon, or gammon, or sausage, or – yes – pigs in blankets will end up going without.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson and his Brexiteer friends are still saying Brexit will bring enormous benefits to the whole nation.
I have a doubt, though.
How will our businesses prosper if they have all gone bust because of Boris Johnson’s short-sightedness?
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