Real wages continue to fall but Labour will continue public sector pay freeze

Today is the start of TUC Fair Pay Fortnight. The TUC has produced figures to show that the much-trumpeted recovery has not halted the continual decline in real wages.

The TUC estimates that real wages have fallen by over £2,200 for the average worker, since the Tories came to power. They also point out that the relentless attack on our wages has led to a loss of tax revenue to the Government of at least £33 billion. That's more than the planned £30bn of cuts that Tories, Liberal Democrats and LABOUR all voted should be made on the next Parliament, whoever wins the election.

Here, in Wales, wages fell in average by a further £300 last year.

Miliband, at Welsh Labour Conference, in Swansea this last weekend, spoke about Labour's pledge to increase wages. The Mirror today hailed this as a "hike in wages" but look at the detail. Labour is promising £8 an hour by 2020. That's just 15p more than the Current Living Wage outside London. It's already less than the London Living Wage; by 2020 it will be less than the Living Wage - what we're told we need to get by on - for all of us.

Even the Living Wage only provides enough to get by on when supplemented by working benefits in many cases. That's why the Bakers Union, BFAWU demanded and won TUC backing for £10/hour - the real minimum needed for workers. Unlike Labour, TUSC backs official TUC policy and demands £10/hour now.

In any case, Labour's claims to want to address the issue of falling wages can't be taken seriously while they remain committed to maintaining the Con-Dems' public spending cuts, including the cap public sector wage increases.

TUSC supports all workers taking action to halt the decline in their living standards, something else Labour has repeatedly failed to do.

Use Fair Pay Fortnight to highlight the issue of low pay.

Support the BFAWU/Youth Fight For Jobs/Hungry for Justice campaign for £10 Now!

Build TUSC as a political alternative, fighting to reverse the decline in workers' real wages.

Swansea's Labour Council is not a Living Wage Employer!

A fighting socialist and trade unionists platform includes Ian Hodson, Bakers' Union President (on right) at Socialism 2014

And neither are 21 out of 22 local authorities in Wales!

An aspiring Labour politician has sent me a link to the GMB website in an attempt to prove that City and County of Swansea is a Living Wage employer.

The story on the site, which is over a year old, uncritically repeats claims by the then Labour leader, David Phillips, that Swansea's Labour councillors had agreed to pay the Living Wage. What it fails to mention is that, by the time that most of the lowest paid workers received it, the level the Council were paying was already out-of-date - 20p less an hour than the Living Wage Foundation said workers needed to get by on at the time.

Councillor Phillips also failed to mention that the payment of a "living wage" (at less than the Living Wage rate) was partially paid for by cuts to other payments to council workers and charging them for the privilege of going to work, through car parking charges. These cuts left some workers facing a 10% drop in wages and when some protested they were told to "sign (new contracts) or be sacked"!

It gets worse though. The Council made it crystal clear that this was a one-off and that there was no commitment to increase council workers' pay in line with the Living Wage. This was reinforced when then council cabinet financial spokesman, now Council Leader, Rob Stewart, moved this year's cuts budget. In the papers accompanying the budget, it states plainly that the Council is not committed to becoming a Living Wage employer and has not budgeted for the increase in the Living Wage that has just taken place.

I decided to double-check just in case, with uncharacteristic modesty, Labour councillors had decided to increase the wages of their poorest workers without making a song and dance about it. On the Living Wage Foundation website you can get lists of Living Wage employers in each region. There are 33 in Wales and only one of them is a local authority. It isn't City and County of Swansea! Labour leads half the local authorities in Wales and yet 21 out of 22 are paying poverty wages! No wonder nearly a quarter of workers in Wales earn less than the Living Wage.

Was the GMB's enthusiasm to promote Labour councillors' unsubstantiated claims to be a Living Wage employer a result of their long outdated link with Labour?

Even the Living Wage, although it would represent an increase for tens of thousands of Welsh workers, isn't enough. The GMB at this year's TUC seconded the motion moved by the Bakers' Union, BFAWU, that the TUC demand the minimum wage be raised to £10 an hour.

This weekend, at the Socialist Party's annual education event, I heard Ian Hodson, President of the Bakers' Union explain why. Anything less than £10 leaves low paid workers needing their wages to be topped up by means-tested benefits in order to get by. This is state subsidising of employers who pay poverty wages.

£10 an hour was overwhelmingly carried at the TUC but TUSC candidates will be the only ones demanding immediate implementation of TUC policy on pay now and at the general election. After all, if the minimum wage had kept pace with bosses' sky-rocketing pay, the minimum wage would be worth £19/hour now. We call on all trade unionists to support us in demanding £10 now, with no exceptions on age or other grounds. If you're in an affiliated union ask why your union's finances go to support a Labour Party whose policy is for £8 an hour (15p more than the current Living Wage) in 5/6 years' time and not TUC policy.

Swansea's Labour Council pays poverty wages

The Living Wage was increased today to £7.85. The Living Wage Foundation, the body that sets the level of the Living Wage, says that they have now accredited over 1,000 Living Wage employers.. Swansea's Labour Council isn't one of them!

While the Council seems to be very generous in paying councillors - the basic wage is £13,000+, over £1,000 month for what for many is only a top-up for their day job - they're not so generous with their workers.

Last year, the Council claimed to have paid the 'Living Wage' but at a level which was already out of date (£7.45 when it has already been increased to £7.65). And, as the papers for the council meeting that set this year's 'cuts' budget make clear, councillors saw it as a one-off and definitely were not committing to future increases in line with a rising Living Wage. The increase for some workers was also offset against huge cuts in incomes for others as the Council threatened workers to "sign (new contracts) or be sacked".

The Living Wage Foundation sets the Living Wage at the level they say workers need to get by. By paying less, Swansea's Labour Council is paying poverty wages.

The Labour Party have made a big fuss over Ed Miliband's pledge to raise the Minimum Wage to £8/hour.. in 2020! In 5/6 years' time workers can look forward to earning 15p more an hour than what the Living Wage Foundation says you need today.

In fact, even the Living Wage is only enough to get by on when topped up with benefits - a case of the state subsidising low paying employers. That's why the Bakers' Union, BFAWU, moved the motion, overwhelmingly carried, at this year's TUC, to demand the Minimum Wage be raised to £10/hour. TUSC campaigns for TUC policy; if you're in an affiliated union, ask why you're union is funding the Labour Party when they promise nowhere near it.

Of course, it's no good having even a good hourly rate if you're not sure to get enough hours' work in the week to put food on the table.. Like the workers Swansea's Labour Council employs on zero hours contracts.

The Labour Party promises to regulate zero hours contracts but that's not good enough. Zero hours contracts have played a big part in the increase in poverty for many workers and they should be scrapped.

Labour has been in power in Swansea for 2 and a half years and still the Council pays workers less than the Living Wage and uses zero hours contracts.

They're also outsourcing services and jobs to low-paying employers who use zero hours contracts and other forms of casualisation, to drive down wages.

The Labour Party won't support TUC policy to end poverty wages or commit to scrapping zero hours contracts. Isn't time Labour stopped posing as a workers' party and taking votes off genuine workers' representatives?

If you're a low-paid worker living in the Uplands then vote, Ronnie Job, TUSC Against Cuts on November 20. Wherever you live, help us build the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) as the no-cuts alternative for the General Election and beyond.