During the last pay rounds under the Sunak Tory government we were offered 2% initially. This was a slap in the face from a political cast that was pretty much out of touch with our working class reality. The unions had to react to that and after a short round of limited strikes the offer was improved to 5% plus a one-off payment between £1,655 and £3,789 – that was a total increase of up to 10.4% for the lowest Bands. The Tories didn’t want to give us more, but facing NHS, rail, teachers and postal strikes at the same time freaked them out.
The current Starmer Labour government offers us 5.5% for 2024/25. This government has a much closer grip on the unions. Starmer himself knows how to use state power in more subtle ways than a lofty money-bag like Sunak. He is able to sit in union headquarters one day and the headquarter of the intelligence services the other. His government has put the junior doctor strike on hold by offering 13% less than the junior doctors demanded. The union now recommends to accept this offer – they might not have done that if the offer had come from the Tories.
Recently the Labour party demonstrated how to neutralise and integrate internal opposition. Only 7 out of 404 Labour MPs voted against one of the worst austerity measures the Tories introduced, the two-child benefit cap. These MPs were suspended by the Labour leadership. At the same time these MPs are used to maintain the illusion that ‘Labour can be changed’. Any party opposition that wants to improve things significantly for NHS workers and patients will be dealt with in the same way.
“But it is better for the workers, they will be better off in the end”.
We will see. Currently it looks like the unions will recommend to accept the offer, rather than to struggle for more. That would mean that we would receive a smaller increase than last year – and decades of real wage losses would not be reversed. The improvement of staffing ratios is not even on the table.
As workers we only receive more when we ask and fight for more – and a Labour government is way more skilled in preventing us from doing so. We should not let them, both in our and our patients’ interest.
To calculate new wages if current pay offer goes through (get tissue for tears ready): click here!
