‘ANY attempt to break national pay rates must be met by the TUC calling an indefinite general strike to bring down this Tory-LibDem Coalition Government,’ ATUA National Secretary Dave Wiltshire said yesterday.
Public sector unions and the TUC condemned a call made by 25 senior academic economists in a joint letter published in ‘The Times’ on Tuesday, calling for ‘individually negotiated public sector contracts’.
Chancellor Osborne has declared his intention to end national pay bargaining as one of his next significant ‘reforms’.
The letter, echoing Osborne, claims national pay makes public services such as education and health ‘worse’ and that ‘public sector wages are out of line with local conditions in many parts of the country’.
The letter comes a week after the TUC voted in favour of discussing the practicalities of a general strike in defence of public sector pay.
One of the signatories of the letter, Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick University, said: ‘Any sensible public-sector pay system has to face up to reality.’
A Unite spokesman told News Line: ‘Unite is against regional pay bargaining and is strongly committed to defending national pay and national agreements.’
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘The main reason behind the government’s interest in promoting regional pay is a not very subtle attempt to hold down the pay of public service workers like nurses and paramedics.
‘The case for regional pay has been thoroughly debunked. It is unworkable, unnecessary and unfair.
‘These economists, who will enjoy a very decent pay package, should know better than to call for real terms pay cuts in low paid areas.
‘This would only entrench economic decline and make our recession worse.’
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Regional and local pay bargaining is unfair and would cause hundreds of thousands of job losses, as demand is sapped from local economies.
‘Forcing tens of thousands of schools, hospitals and other public sector organisations to conduct their own wage negotiations would also be a bureaucratic nightmare – wasting valuable time and resources, sapping staff morale and opening the door to tricky local pay disputes.
‘At a time when the government should be doing all it can to get the economy moving again, making teachers, nurses and dinner ladies outside of London poorer is the exact opposite of what’s needed.’
All Trades Unions Alliance secretary Wiltshire said: ‘They are saying that national pay awards are the cause of the economic crisis and somehow responsible for everything from businesses closing to hospitals closing and manufacturing going down the pan.
‘It’s absolute nonsense and has to be opposed completely by the trade unions.
‘If you lose national pay bargaining you lose the unions. It’s an attack on the unions, especially in the civil service, local government, the health service the Post Office and British Telecom.
‘The source of the crisis lies in the banks and the banking system and the way to solve it is to nationalise the banks and all the major industries without compensation and place them under the control of the working class.’
