YCL condemns TUC backed pay cut for the lowest paid

Taken from www.ycl.org.uk


The TUC’s call for a pay cut for workers earning the minimum wage has been accepted by the government. The TUC had requested that the National Minimum Wage be increased by 3%, far below inflation, whilst workers wait for economic growth ie. more profitable monopolies.  Consequently the full rate of the NMW has been increased by 2.5%, the rate of 18-20 year olds has been increased by 1.2% and the rate for 16 & 17 year olds by just 1%.

Inflation for September 2011 stands at 5.6% and that is the minimum amount by which the cost of living has increased.

YCL Acting General Secretary, Mick Carty, said that “the least young workers can accept is a TUC that promotes their interests not one which ignores the fundamental class antagonism in society and continues to attempt to find a compromise with the monopolies”.

South West TUC leads delegation of low paid workers

Taken from http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-20143-f0.cfm?regional=8

Low paid workers will next week tell members of the Low Pay Commission visiting Cornwall they must be bolder and raise the National Minimum Wage (NMW).

The Low Pay Commission is an independent body set up to advise the government on the impact of the NMW and next week two commissioners are in Cornwall.

The South West TUC is leading a delegation of low paid workers from around Cornwall to meeting the Commission. It will include low paid workers from the tourist industry, agency workers, care assistants, young worker representatives and migrant support workers. They will tell the Commission the county is one of the most expensive places to live in Britain, with the average annual earnings sitting at £20,997 (compared to £25,277 in England) and the average house costing more than nine times that (£191,000), compared to seven times the average annual wage in England (£164,800).

Quantitative what? Inflation and monetary policy

Capitalism is an inherently unstable system. It is cyclical in nature. Precariously balanced between inflation and deflation, boom and bust, growth and depression.

Inflation

Inflation is commonly portrayed as a “rise in the cost of living”. It is measured by the government in two ways: the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI). These measures track the prices of commodities.

On one level, inflation is the result of supply and demand. Recent fires in Russia have led the Russian government to stop exporting grain. This shortage of grain will increase the value of grain in world markets, causing the price, and that of other products such as bread, to be inflated. Conversely, were there to be an increase in the supply of grain, its value would fall, and the price would be deflated.

But this supply and demand can only partially account for inflation and deflation. Were grain to be as common as grains of sand, it would not become worthless. There is still labour invested in the sowing and harvesting of grain, still labour invested in the grinding of grain into flour, and the baking of flour into bread. The absolute value of an item is determined by the labour power invested in its production.

However, with industrialisation, the amount of labour needed to make bread has fallen. Whereas in the past, bakers would spend ten minutes kneading dough to make a single loaf of bread, now vast machines can knead hundreds of loaves of bread at once. Bread can be made without being touched by a human hand. This increase in the supply of bread will at first make the capitalist more money – he has more bread to sell. But as the market becomes flooded with mechanical bread its value will fall, its price is deflated. We then have very cheap bread, but less people employed to make it, and less people employed means a reduction in the ability of our workers to buy the commodities!

So what else can determine the changing price of a commodity?