N30 - Why unions HAD to strike for ALL

Why were the strikes important? Why are the trade unions so vital to the fight against the coalition government? How did the strikes help those not in unions or not on strike?

Lets make one thing clear - these strikes have to be about far more than public sector pensions. Yes, because of the anti-union laws in Britain, the unions need to have a specific reason to strike. The public sector pension reforms were that reason.

But while striking over unjustified pension reforms is perfectly valid, this struggle needs to be seen in the wider context of the anti-cuts movement. To not see the strikes in this context lends ammunition to the anti-strike, right wing attacks on the trade unions.

To strike over a single issue, that divides the private and public sector into two opposing camps, plays into the hands of the government. The media make easy and simplistic comparisons between the public sector and "taxpayers", between "gold plated" pensions and how hard done by the private sector is, and they make ludicrous comments about the "cost to the economy".

These arguments are easy to dismiss, but it is worth doing so again.

Of course we all know that public sector workers are taxpayers, they pay the same income tax and National Insurance as you and I. But more than that (after all, without further analysis that does lead to a "money recycling scheme"). Once public sector workers have been paid for their labour, labour which they have sold to an employer, they then pay VAT on the things they buy, they tax their cars, pay stamp duty on their homes, have tax taken from the interest on their savings, pay inheritance tax when they die.

Moreover, the wages they have earned by selling their labour power to the state, they then spend. They line the pockets of the supermarket share holders, they are exploited by the energy monopolies, they keep their money in banks and owe vast debts to mortgage companies.

Public sector pensions are not gold plated. One example highlighted in the news was of a young woman in her twenties, who would have to retire three years later, pay £75 a month extra towards her pension and receive £6,700 a year less at the end of it.

Underlining the whole dispute has to be that private sector pensions are so bad. Everyone in the country, especially those in the private sector, should be on strike. Why should private sector employers, and the stock market they use to make investments, get away with paying such awful pensions?

And why are the trade unions so important in the fightback? Because for all the visibility of the occupy movement, for all the leafleting and stalls done by various anti-cuts groups, only the unions can potentially bring the country to a standstill. Only the unions can get the attention of the world's media. And lest we forget - the trade unions are the biggest democratic organisation of ordinary people in this country. Plus of course, the TUC has endorsed an alternative - the People's Charter.

Written by Tim Gulliver
Exeter and south Devon Branch Secretary
South West England and Cornwall Media Officer