Cost of Living Crisis!

In work poverty is not a new phenomenon. The problem of working people falling below the poverty line has been getting worse since the financial crisis of 2008. But it’s getting worse. What we’re seeing now is a major surge in the number of people struggling to make ends meet, as the impact of the cost-of-living crisis kicks in. The current high inflation is driven by the surge in the cost of energy. And it is driven by pandemic impacts. The crisis demands a political solution. We must ask: Why are real wages falling faster and further in the UK than in other G7 countries?

The answer is the failure of our political response. What we currently have is near full employment, record breaking profits – especially in sectors like energy – and falling real wages for workers. The idea that what we take from that is that it’s ordinary people who now need to just shut up and accept a sharp fall in their living standards is totally wrongheaded. Workers are fully entitled to organise and stand up for their livelihoods and living standards. It’s dishonest for government ministers to spin inflation as the reason people can’t have pay rises. Inflation is the very reason they need pay rises. The much bigger danger is the risk of recession because pay is not keeping up with prices. That means people buy less, businesses sell less, and the economy is at risk of getting caught in a downward spiral.

Wales Says No to Austerity 2.0!

The UK Government likes to parrot the line that “work is the best route out of poverty” as a justification for their attacks on the most vulnerable and in need of social security benefits. Yet the truth is for tens of thousands of workers in Wales it’s simply not the case. 1 in 3 children in Wales are being brought up in poverty – and two thirds of those children are in working households. Their parents are working but they can’t escape poverty. Why is this happening?

It’s the result of a failed economic model – built on the growth of insecure work, attacking trade unions, de-funding enforcement bodies that are meant to keep bad bosses in line, and underinvesting in the modern, green infrastructure that Wales needs. Wales simply can’t afford austerity 2.0. The UK Government must step up and recognise that more than a decade of underfunding and underinvestment in Wales has been a disaster. Welsh workers deserve better. We need a reversal of the underfunding of public services in Wales and a significant uplift to allow Welsh Government to award public sector workers a decent inflation proof pay rise. Fair work, well paid jobs are the only route out of poverty. That’s why the TUC is calling for the minimum wage to be raised to £15.

Research conducted for the TUC found that in some areas of the country 1 in 4 people admit to having skipped meals due to the cost of living crisis. Meanwhile, half the population say that they’ve cut back spending on food, electricity and heating. We hear daily stories of frontline NHS and Social Care workers sleeping in cars in between shifts because they can’t cope with the rising cost of petrol. People are pawning personal possessions or turning to problem gambling to try and pay a bill.

More workers are taking on second or third precarious jobs to try and make ends meet. An unbelievable position for us to be in the 21st Century. Workers in Wales across both the public and private sector simply aren’t prepared to accept the massive cuts to their real terms incomes. That’s why we’re seeing teachers, nurses, rail workers, barristers, civil servants, call centre, postal workers organising and balloting for industrial action. Investment in our public sector workers is an investment in our public services. Look at our teachers: the value of their pay has dropped 25% in the last 12 years. And they’re being asked to take another big cut this year. At what point do we say enough is enough?

Shav Taj General Secretary WTUC