“It is like having a law on burglary that simply decrees burglars should not make a mess”
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The “Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill” – join our protest on 1st February in Blackburn: 12.30pm outside the Town Hall
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has noted that “UK workers are currently enduring the longest pay squeeze in more than 200 years – with average pay still worth £85 a month less than in 2008. And in the public sector average pay is down by £204 a month in real terms compared to 2008″. We…
Would public sector pay awards be inflationary and unaffordable?
The British Government, through H.M.Treasury, asserted to the public sector pay review bodies in December 2021 that satisfying public sector pay claims in 2022 would be “inflationary”, and it has stuck to that position ever since. The argument it put forward, however, was not that such settlements would be inflationary in themselves. The proposition, instead,…
January Trades Council meeting – more than pay at stake as cost of living strikes spread
January’s Trades Council meeting was held shortly after the Trades Union Congress announced a day of national protest on Wednesday 1st February to “Protect the Right to Strike!”: TUC to hold national ‘protect the right to strike’ day on February 1 | TUC The Government is presenting a “Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill” to Parliament…
Solidarity required as workers try to combat rising prices and stagnating wages
2022 ended with several reputable organisations producing Reports emphasising the scale of the “cost of living” pressures facing British workers, which are the root of the current “strike wave”. The International Labour Organisation claimed, in its “Global Wage Report 2022–23”, that “for the first time this century, global real wage growth has become negative while…
Why we want you to join us on September 14th for a community screening of “Belonging: the Truth behind the Headlines”
“Belonging: The Truth Behind the Headlines” – in Blackburn Library Tickets, Wed 14 Sep 2022 at 18:30 | Eventbrite A free community screening. Doors open 6.30pm. Film at 7.00pm. “The Parliament which granted the franchise to a large proportion of the British working class in 1867 did so with a singular lack of enthusiasm. In…
“Levelling up” – public investment needed to address geographic inequalities
Whilst differences in local prosperity have been manifest at many points in British history, the current shape of the British economy owes much – as do so many things – to the impact of the Conservative governments of the 1980s. As David Smith put it, in his 1989 book “North and South”: “The consensus economics…
Banner Theatre comes to Darwen, Friday 24th June, 7pm, Derwent Hall – admission free
Alongside our local UNISON Local Government and Health Branches the Trades Council is promoting an admission-free performance in Darwen this June (Friday 24th) by the “Banner Theatre Company”. Banner Theatre is a socialist theatre company based in Birmingham. Formed in 1973, from a disparate collection of folk singers, drama teachers, office workers, broadcasters, technicians and…
The cost of living crisis – origins and inequalities
It suits the Government to present the current inflationary pressure on our living standards as something very abstract and global, that nobody is responsible for. It is a helpful explanation if you want to say that there is only so much that can be done and that everybody is, to a greater or lesser degree,…
Treat Conservative Council Tax claims with caution
In the lead up to the 2022 Local Council elections, senior figures in the Conservative Party made much of the claim that Conservative Councils set lower levels of Council Tax. Oliver Dowden, for instance, said that “Conservative councils charge the lowest taxes in the country”. And Victoria Atkins said that “If you look across the…