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Unions tell ministers to stop ‘hiding behind’ pay
review bodies in strike talks
TUC and Unison say government is not negotiating in
good faith, while PM accuses union leaders of being ‘unreasonable’
Robert
Booth, Aubrey Allegretti and Gwyn Topham
Wed 7 Dec
2022 22.30 GMT
Union
leaders have told ministers to stop “hiding behind” pay review bodies in winter
strike talks amid warnings that industrial action on the railways could
continue for six months.
As a
rolling wave of industrial action looms, Frances O’Grady, secretary general of
the Trades Union Congress, and Christina McAnea, the general secretary of
healthcare union Unison, accused the government of refusing to negotiate in
good faith and told the chancellor: “Now is not the time for smoke and mirrors.
Now is the time for genuine negotiations.”
The prime
minister meanwhile accused union leaders of being “unreasonable” and threatened
“new tough laws to protect people from this disruption”.
No 10 said
the government had not ruled out plans to stop industrial action by nurses and
ambulance staff.
It appeared
unlikely any change would come in time to prevent this winter’s widening pay
dispute which is threatening chaos in transport, health and the postal services
around Christmas and beyond.
Speaking
last night the prime minister did not dispute a suggestion the country was
heading for gridlock and said he would “do whatever I need to do” to protect
people’s safety and minimise disruption. He insisted the government was showing
“reasonableness” with its pay offers, while trying to tackle inflation, which
is still in double digits.
The
intensifying rhetoric came as border guards manning airport passport control
announced a new eight-day strike from 23 December to New Year’s Eve affecting
Heathrow, which has been planning for its busiest Christmas since 2019. Gatwick
and Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff airports, will also be hit.
It
compounds walkouts planned by nurses, railway workers, Royal Mail staff,
airport baggage handlers and civil servants in the coming weeks in protest at
real terms wage cuts with consumer price inflation running at 11%.
Train
drivers at 12 rail companies have also voted overwhelmingly to continue strike
action in a long-running row over pay. Aslef said the turnouts were “huge”,
showing how angry its members are.
Pay review
bodies set wages for a wide range of public sector workers and ministers have
repeatedly said they cannot interfere with their recommendations. However, the
government sets their remit and O’Grady and McAnea said: “If ministers
genuinely want to resolve these disputes, they must address what’s causing them.”
But Sunak
told parliament on Wednesday: “The government has been reasonable. It’s
accepted the recommendations of an independent pay review body, giving pay
rises in many cases higher than the private sector. But if the union leaders
continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the
lives and livelihoods of the British public.”
In their
letter to Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, demanding “genuine
negotiations” O’Grady and McAnea said that when cabinet ministers have met
unions “they have repeatedly refused to talk about public sector pay” adding:
“Ignoring the main issue on the table isn’t a negotiation.”
“No public
sector workers want to take strike action this winter,” they said. “They are
committed public servants who take great pride in their jobs and the
communities they serve. But the government has left them with no choice.”
The
Christmas walkout by airport border staff is set to have “significant impact”
on travel over Christmas, said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka who warned
ministers not to draft in the military as cover, saying there was not enough
time to train them properly. Serwotka has met government ministers but said
they were refusing to increase a 2% pay rise. He said his members had been “in
tears” at having to cope with the cost-of-living crisis and predicted unions
will coordinate actions.
A
spokesperson for the Home Office said it intended to minimise any delays if
strike action goes ahead, but warned: “passengers should be prepared for
disruption”.
Archie
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Meanwhile
the RMT union, which is already planning railway strikes from Christmas Eve to
27 December told the Guardian it believes it has a mandate to continue walkouts
well into 2023.
On Thursday
discussions are expected between the government and ambulance unions about
which 999 calls will still be prioritised if a planned 21 December strike by
10,000 ambulance workers goes ahead. Esther Rantzen, who founded the The Silver
Line helpline for older people, said: “If ambulances decide that trips and
falls are actually not serious enough for them to send a driver, I think it could
result in loss of life. I think particularly older people may well die because
of the strike.”
Steve
Barclay, secretary of state for health and social care, said there was still a
question over whether ambulances would cover “emergency responses to things
like heart attacks and stroke” but unions indicated it was likely they would.
One strike
was called off on Wednesday when Unite, the union representing 2,000 bus
drivers in London, said its members had accepted an 11% pay rise which was a
“significant improvement” on the 4% drivers were originally offered by
Metroline, a private company.
The Royal
College of Nursing, whose members are going on strike on 15 and 20 December in
parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, also accused the government of
playing “cheap and divisive political games” and urged ministers to focus on
negotiations.
Pat Cullen,
the union’s general secretary, said: “Hundreds of thousands of hard-working,
decent people should not be cast aside as ‘unreasonable’ for expecting better
for themselves, their families and their patients. The prime minister appears
out of touch with the public if he is intent on attacking nursing staff like
this.”
Labour cast
doubt on the idea that the government would bring forward anti-strike laws in
time to avert some of this winter’s industrial action.
A
spokesperson for Keir Starmer said: “The government is not serious about
avoiding these strikes. Barely a day goes by when we don’t pick up the
newspaper and read that the government has briefed out a new policy that is
going to get tough on this issue. It is not a serious government working in a
serious way for the people of this country.”
The
spokesperson could not give any concrete details on how Labour might handle the
negotiations differently, however. They refused to call on the government to
provide more money to departments, and would not say if the party would
introduce any new legislation should they win the next election.
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