Standing united makes it harder for us to be treated as fodder
In Fran's column for PCS People she writes about the upcoming Autumn Budget and our stance on the Winter Fuel Payment.
The Labour government is due to unveil its first budget. We’ve been warned there will be “tough decisions”. We’ve been told it will be “painful”. But Labour has also pledged “no return to austerity”.
The budget announced on 30 October will determine the money available to government departments for the coming years. It shapes your pay, your job security and the quality of services you provide.
We are not mere pawns on a chessboard; we are in the union because we recognise that when we stand together it makes it harder for government ministers and employers to treat us like disposable fodder. We’re campaigning now, and will do after the budget, for the best possible outcome for members.
Through our organised campaigning we have managed to see off attacks to our jobs, pensions, pay and redundancy terms in the past.
We also know something else: the more of us that are in a union the stronger we are. So if one of your work colleagues isn’t in the union, ask them to join. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a rep or an ordinary member, we all have an interest in making PCS stronger.
This Labour government made a pledge not to return to austerity. We will hold it to that.
But at the same time, we will also welcome good decisions when they are made. The early announcement to scrap the illegal and immoral Rwanda scheme was a good one.
We welcomed the decision to take the railways back into public ownership, and it was also refreshing to hear Labour’s business secretary singing the praises of flexible working and working from home – after years of nonsensical stunts from Jacob Rees-Mogg.
And while negotiations are still ongoing, this year we have secured above-inflation pay offers. That now has to translate into a longer-term policy of pay restoration, undoing years of real-terms pay cuts.
Some members have asked me why I have been outspoken in defending the Winter Fuel Payment. There are three reasons: firstly, I want to stick up for our retired members, who worked hard serving the public, paid their taxes and deserve dignity. Secondly, I want those benefits to still be there when you retire, too. And finally, if they can get away with cutting benefits to pensioners, they’ll come after workers or benefit claimants next.
Some Conservative and Reform MPs have tried to pit public sector workers against pensioners. This is classic divide-and-rule. It is the profiteering corporations and super-rich we should look to for higher taxation – not the low incomes of pensioners or public sector workers.
Being in a union is about understanding the power of unity. If the budget does dish out pain to our members, we will take a stand together.