THE TUC yesterday published a poll of over 3,000 voters which showed conclusively overwhelming support for workers rights and pay increases to match the inflationary cost of living spiral.
The poll, conducted for the TUC by Opinium after the general election on July 4th, showed the extent of support for workers rights and pay over a ‘wide political spectrum’ across all the main parties.
Almost two thirds of those polled (64%) supported workers having protection from unfair dismissal from day one of starting a job.
The same number supported the banning of zero-hours contracts and a majority supported a complete ban on managers using fire and rehire to drive down the pay and conditions of workers.
Adam Drummond, Research Director and Partner at Opinium, said: ‘There’s strong support for pro-worker policies we tested including living wage, unfair dismissal, sick pay, banning zero-hour contracts and banning the practice of fire and rehire. Crucially this isn’t just among Labour voters but typically also amongst supporters of other parties including the Conservatives and Reform.’
He added: ‘While Labour is generally more trusted than distrusted when it comes to making working life better and being on the side of working people voters will need to see them deliver.’
When asked by the pollsters what was the most important attribute or quality for a political party, the overwhelming majority of voters said ‘being on the side of ordinary working people’ was the most important.
Labour was elected with a whole host of pledges to repeal Tory anti-union laws and, within 100 days of a Labour government, introduce sweeping ‘pro-worker’ policies.
On this basis they won a landslide election, as the working class voted to dump the Tories demanding an end to the savage cuts to wages and the destruction of vital public services systematically carried out by the previous Tory governments.
However, despite all the pledges, Labour prime minister Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves have already made it clear that their only priority is keeping British capitalism afloat at a time when it is collapsing under the weight of a national debt currently standing at over a massive £23 trillion.
Last year, Reeves spelt out to the Financial Times that ‘I will never spend what we cannot afford’ that a Labour government ‘will not borrow to fund day-to-day spending and will reduce the national debt as a share of the economy.’
This rule, Reeves insisted, is ‘non-negotiable’. No government money for the NHS or any other public service beyond what a bankrupt British capitalist system can afford – precisely nothing.
This exposes all the claims of pro-worker policies and all Labour’s boasts of recruiting thousands of teachers and nurses while building thousands of homes across the country to ‘solve’ the huge homeless crisis.
Starmer, on his visit to Washington last week to attend a meeting of NATO where he pledged billions for the imperialist war against Russia, dealt a decisive blow to all those still clinging to the belief that a Labour government would act in the interest of workers.
When asked if he would agree to trade union demands for above-inflation pay awards for public sector workers Starmer emphatically replied ‘No’ as the public finances ‘are in a very poor state.’
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, stated: ‘This is not what we want to hear from the new prime minister.’
It might not be what the trade union leaders want to hear but this is the reality behind all Labour’s claims to be both ‘pro-business and pro-worker’ – the only side Starmer’s Labour government is on is the side of is the bosses and bankers.
A confrontation between Starmer’s Labour regime that wants to keep capitalism going at the expense of the working class, and a powerful working class that has shown it will not tolerate being driven back into the abject poverty of the 19th century, is inevitable.
The outcome of this confrontation will be determined by building up the leadership of the WRP and Young Socialists that is prepared to lead the fight for the TUC to organise a general strike to replace the Starmer-led capitalist government with a workers government that will expropriate the bosses and bankers and replace bankrupt capitalism with a socialist planned economy.
