‘The TUC leaders must act to defend jobs or make way for those who will,’ Dave Wiltshire, national secretary of the All Trades Union Alliance, said yesterday.
He was commenting on a TUC report which said: ‘More than 3.3 million workers (13 per cent of the workforce) are not confident they will still be in their job in a year’s time according to a new YouGov poll commissioned by the TUC.’
It added: ‘Workers in medium sized businesses are the least confident with 18 per cent of staff in those with 50 to 249 workers saying they are not confident of being in their jobs in a year, compared to 12 per cent in big workplaces (more than 1000 employees).
‘Those in low paid jobs are less secure than those in better paid jobs.
‘The least confident about keeping their job earn between £10,000 and £15,000 and the most confident earn more than £50,000.’
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said of the findings: ‘Of course this does not mean that unemployment will rise by anything like three million, but it does show just how jittery people have become about the economy and their own job.
‘The economy will inevitably slow this year and next, given the credit crunch and the impact of higher oil, food and commodity prices.’
He concluded: ‘These findings add to the growing pressure on the government and economic policy makers to put growth first by doing all they can to restore confidence and boost investment.’
Asked what the TUC intends to do to defend jobs, a TUC spokeswoman told News Line yesterday ‘we will be announcing a new economic strategy at the TUC Congress’. This includes calling for a cut in interest rates and a change in government policy.
ATUA national secretary Wiltshire warned: ‘The TUC leaders know that on countless occasions they have presented alternative policies of this type, only to see them dismissed contemptuously by the Labour government.’
He stressed: ‘The only policies that can meet this huge crisis are quite simple: where job losses are threatened, the unions must demand a cut in hours worked, with no loss of pay, to ensure that not a single job is lost.
‘Those industries that insist they have to close must be occupied to prevent asset-stripping and the unions must demand their nationalisation without compensation, under the control of the working class.
‘Similarly, those banks that have become insolvent must be taken over and properly nationalised, not just propped up with the taxpayer guaranteeing their profits.
‘This Labour government is incapable of carrying out these basic demands and must therefore be removed through the mobilisation of the entire trade union movement in a general strike.
‘It must be replaced by a workers’ government committed to socialist policies.’