uniteLANDWORKER Comment
LABOUR MUST DELIVER FOR WORKERS
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham writes
One hundred and ninety-one years ago in 1834, six farmworkers were arrested in Tolpuddle, Dorset. These workers, later to become known as ‘the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ were charged with having taken an illegal oath. But their real ‘crime’ was to have formed a trade union, workers coming together to push back on pay cuts.
Our union draws inspiration from these early struggles but too many of their issues still resonate today.
Real-terms pay cuts since the financial crash in 2008 crisis are still a reality for millions of workers. Despite having no role in creating that crisis they paid for it through austerity.
Meanwhile the government gave unlimited bonuses back to those who were responsible – the city bankers.
Then we had Covid and who was it that stepped in? Not the bankers and the bosses. Again, it was everyday working people – supermarket staff, agricultural workers, bus drivers, council workers, NHS staff – that were sent out to keep the country going and suffered for it. Some paid the ultimate price.
After that was the cost-of-living crisis, and once again the same working people were being told not to ask for a pay rise as it drives up inflation (total poppycock, by the way) while their bills went through the roof and the public sector was run into the ground. And we know it was profiteering – record profits and real-terms pay cuts – that drove that crisis.
Now we have a Labour government, but we still haven’t seen much action to reverse that.
After a strong campaign from Unite, Labour finally rowed back on the winter fuel
DIARY DATE
Not anymore – October 2012 AWB protest. Labour stood in solidarity with Unite
Join Unite at this year's Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival, July 18-20. See page 7 for more or visit
www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk
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cuts but now they want to impose divisive and sinister plans for disabled benefits cuts. They keep making the same mistakes, attacking the most vulnerable in our society.
In Birmingham we have a Labour council backed by the government attacking bin workers in order to pay for bad decisions by politicians. These workers woke up one morning to be told they would lose up to a quarter of their pay, up to £8,000 – “fire-and- rehire” by any other name. This is just wrong.
Agricultural workers who Labour supported in 2012 when we campaigned against the abolition of the agricultural wages board have been met with silence in 2025 on demands to introduce pay justice for farmworkers.
This has to stop. People need to see and feel the benefit of having a Labour government. They need a government on their side that delivers for them – in their pockets. Until that happens this Labour will continue to see everyday people turning away from them.
Sharon Graham General Secretary
Mark Thomas
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