YESTERDAY’S soaring inflation figures led trade union leaders to warn the government that members are demanding action against the wage-cutting three-year pay settlements.
The Consumer Prices Index inflation rate hit 4.4% in July, its highest level since records began in 1997, while inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rose to 5% from 4.6%.
Food prices were up a record 13.7% on the year.
UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said his members are increasingly angry over the 2% pay deals imposed by the government.
‘The government’s unjust public sector pay policy means that (our members) are having to cope with the biggest rise in inflation since records began, on a real pay cut.
‘The rise just confirms what our members have been telling us for months – they are facing unparalleled hikes in the cost of basics like milk, bread, cheese, petrol, gas and electricity.
‘The government’s unjust public sector pay policy means that teaching assistants, nurses, librarians, care workers, home carers, nursery staff and hospital cleaners are having to cope with the biggest rise in inflation since records began, on a real pay cut.
‘Instead of targeting the public sector workers who keep this country running, the government should turn their firepower onto the big city bonuses and corporate fat cats who are the real villains when it comes to fueling inflation.’
GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny said: ‘Inflation is impacting on the economy differently in different sectors. Food manufacturing, for example, is being squeezed leading to severe job losses.
‘Other sectors like oil and energy are fueling inflation by hiking prices. Action must be taken against this profiteering.
‘Action must also be taken to stop damaging speculation in the oil market. If action is not taken it is inevitable that wages will have to rise in response to these higher prices.’
PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘The credibility of the government’s argument that public sector wages fuel inflation is in tatters.
‘A quarter of the civil service earn less than £16,500 and many just above the minimum wage, meaning that the government’s policy of capping public sector pay is disproportionately hitting low income families.
‘In the face of rising food, fuel and housing costs, the government cannot continue to penalise the people who deliver vital services with pay cuts and pay freezes, and urgently needs to review its pay policy.’
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘These figures show that things are only getting tighter for families across the UK.’
Kate Jopling, Head of Public Affairs at Help the Aged, said: ‘The cost of living for pensioners is going through the roof.
‘The true rate of inflation for those on the lowest incomes is likely to be much higher than the figures released today. Older people spend more of their money on the very items which are going up the most.
‘2.5 million pensioners already live in poverty and 1.4 million live in deep poverty.’
Dave Wiltshire, secretary of the All Trades Union Alliance, told News Line: ‘This is no time for bleating about how bad it all is. This is a time for the trade unions to call action.
‘There must be national strike action for living wage rises that correspond to the real inflation rate.
‘These days that means about 20 per cent.
‘Trade unions must not fear bringing down the Brown government.
‘This is the only way to keep out the Tories, by going forward to a workers government that will carry out socialist policies.
‘This is what the workers want and this is what the trade unions must deliver.’