Conference should be launch pad for renewed mobilisation

Labour MP Kim Johnson told the meeting in Brighton last night (19) that 14 years of neoliberal policy has had a devastating effect on the public sector.

“Public sector workers are expected to do more for less and have been disrespected again and again,” she said. “We are still living through Tory austerity and what we need is a clear change of direction and a fundamental rethink of who our politics serve, and if we don’t if can result in a Reform UK prime minister in four years’ time.”

She said Reform opposes workers’ rights and wants to put money in millionaires’ pockets.

She also said the Labour government needed to do more to bring public sector contracts back in-house “where they belong.”

Keep fighting

The outgoing RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch told the meeting, chaired by PCS President Martin Cavanagh, that unions and their members “have got to keep fighting and what we’ve got to bear in mind is that we are an independent workers movement.”

He called on PCS members and all union members to “get out in their communities and rebuild the working class movement from the bottom up.”

“We need a functioning labour movement and we need to recommit ourselves to organising our class,” he said.

“You have to get match fit for the big issues by winning the small battles every day at work.”

Mick told the meeting that the minimum wage should be an irrelevance as poor employers should not be subsidised by taxpayers and should pay wages to workers that afford them some degree of comfort.

“Outsourcing has ripped up collective bargaining. We need collective bargaining on a sectoral scale,” he said.

PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote told the meeting, also broadcast live on social media, that people hadn’t just wanted a change of government when Labour won the last general election by a landslide but wanted a change of direction.

“And whether it’s been taking away winter fuel payments from pensioners, attacking disability benefits or aping the language of Enoch Powell about migrants, this government has alienated many of the people that desperately wanted the change that Labour promised,” she said.

“For too many people the cost-of-living crisis has not eased. Rents continue to soar, energy and water bills have been hiked, as have council tax, rail and bus fares.”

She explained that PCS members are anxious with suggestions that pay will only rise by 2.8% this year, below the forecast rise in inflation of 3%. And the comprehensive spending review next month comes with talk of tightening departmental budgets and the always ominous “efficiency savings.”

“Austerity and public service cuts were wrong when the Conservatives did it and it is wrong if and when Labour does it,” she said.

“Our public services have not recovered from the intense years of austerity. So, whether it’s on pay or jobs, we will need to prepare to take action.”