Since the birth of the coalition in the Downing Street Rose Garden back in May 2010, it has been the TUC and Britain’s unions that have been at the forefront arguing against austerity. We have organised the two biggest demonstrations against austerity since the election, coordinated action to defend our pensions, held off attacks on our workplace rights and fought against the privatisation of the NHS. At every turn we have mobilised and energised people to take action against the sustained dismantling of the fabric of our society and the tearing up of the safety net that exists to help the most vulnerable.

But as our stagnant economy bumps along with little sign of recovery and the public express their pain and anger, still the Chancellor stays the course. 

Falling living standards, no wage growth, basic food and energy bills rising, services and jobs lost and no plans for recovery and growth – all threatening a lost decade. In stark contrast, the past few years have been a veritable bed of roses for the richest; we’ve even seen a tax cut for millionaires. The victims of this recession continue to be those who did least to cause it.

With an election two years away, we are upping the ante; our biggest political challenge to get the government to change strategy still remains.

The TUC’s general council has adopted five ambitious and challenging campaign areas to prioritise in the run up to the next general election.  Our new campaign plan sets out five key priorities that will drive the work of the TUC over the next two years; Jobs and growth, fair pay, good services & decent welfare,  voice at work and strong unions

A jobs guarantee for young people, spreading the living wage across the public and private sectors, putting communities not profits at the heart of public services, and creating a stronger voice for workers in the management of companies are among our campaign aims.

We will champion and work with those who are helping to create a fairer economy – from paying a living wage to giving staff a bigger say in how their company is run. The campaign for jobs, growth and a new economy will mobilise resistance to austerity, with a series of events across the UK this summer, and will also provide a platform for advocates of pro-growth policies and new economic ideas. The TUC will work with and champion public and private sector employers who reach living wage agreements, as part of its campaign for fair pay and a living wage.

Opposing the outsourcing and privatisation of public services will be the focus of good services and decent welfare. Having overseen the fragmentation of the NHS, ministers now want to introduce the profit motive into Britain’s schools. The TUC will fight this privatisation drive, which we know the public doesn’t support.

Having helped see off some of the government’s attacks on employment rights in the Beecroft report, the TUC will continue to press for respect and a voice at work for UK employees. Finally, the TUC’s strong unions programme will train of a new generation of union reps to take the TUC campaign messages to non-unionised workers and workplaces and give a voice to a new generation of young employees.

The TUC is not alone in wanting radical economic and social change. We’ll be calling on communities and campaign groups nationwide to join our campaign for a new economic settlement that involves and works for the whole country.

The next election is likely to be fought over the economy and our living standards crisis. For the worker must not only have bread, she must have roses, too. We want to see decent jobs, fair pay, good services and a stronger voice at work at the heart of the plan to deal with these big economic challenges.

Please take a moment to read the new campaign plan and share it with your friends and colleagues.

Shame has never been the landed gentry’s strong point. They were out in force in the House of Lords this week to vote in favour of abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board that sets minimum conditions for over 150,000 rural labourers. The economy may be tanking and the cost of living rocketing but the answer to every question the government sets itself seems to be slashing workers’ rights and pay.

The Agricultural Wages Board is Britain’s last remaining wages council, providing pay protection for agricultural workers, including those living in tied housing. Abolition risks sucking millions out of local rural economies at a time when the village post office and local businesses  need workers’ spending power to survive.

The government went full steam ahead to abolish the board, despite a majority of those who responded to a consultation supporting its retention. And, surprise surprise, the Farming Regulation Task Force that recommended abolition included representatives of supermarket chains but not a single workers’ representative. The National Farmers Union must be living in a dream world if it thinks it its members will benefit from freedom to cut workers’ pay. Big supermarkets call the shots in the food industry and, if the wages floor is stripped away, they will demand farmers lower their prices.

Abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board is a serious attack not just on some of the most vulnerable workers in the country but on whole rural communities. Let’s be clear, driving down wages does not create jobs, it just makes workers and their families poorer.

The evidence following the abolition of other wage councils in the 1990s is that wages will fall. Now farm workers face the same fate. Highly skilled workers will now see their pay threatened with  overtime rates disappearing, holidays reduced and sick pay at risk. Protection in their tied homes will be reduced and rents increased. Getting rid of this body is an act of political spite for which the lowest earners in some of the toughest jobs will pay the price.

Instead of abolition, we should not just have wages protection in agriculture, but look at establishing modern wages councils for other industries too.  Those industries that can afford to pay more than the national minimum wage should do so. Just like the Low Pay Commission they would involve employer, union and expert voices.

After all, the economy is facing two crises; economic stagnation and falling living standards. That’s why we need action to boost wages for low to medium earners and wages led growth. There is an alternative to falling living standards, to services slashed to the bone and to benefit cuts that are plunging families into poverty – all whilst the richest get a nice fat tax cut. The fact is that the economy will continue to bump along until all workers, not just the top 1%, have more pounds in their pockets to get the economy growing again.

Polling from Unions21 published today highlighted the strength of public support for measures to increase pay at the bottom and curb excessive reward at the top. The findings make very interesting reading; nearly nine in ten people believe the minimum wage isn’t high enough to meet living costs; three quarters said they would be more likely to buy goods or services from a living wage employer; seven in ten support a cap on bonuses. And nearly half believe that centrally set pay rates for different sectors would be fairer.

We know that that there is public support for fair rewards. Voters want a government that’s on the side of the hard pressed working families, not just the well to do. The Chancellor should start with the Budget and this is the message trade unions will be taking to Westminster next week as we join with charities and communities on March 13 to rally for a Budget for jobs, growth and families.

The Government needs to wake up. Britain needs a pay rise.

Join the rally on 13 March, in London or online

Supporters carry the campaign’s banner on last October’s TUC march in London. Photo Alan Denny

The TUC gives its full backing to the Shrewsbury 24 campaign in its quest to right a 40-year-old wrong which – alongside the ban imposed on unions at GCHQ in the 1980s – rates as one of the worst attacks on organised workers’ rights in British history. We won’t rest until justice is done.

In the early 1970s these men experienced a grave miscarriage of justice. They were ordinary, decent men working long hours in difficult and dangerous jobs, who stood up for their rights and fought for fair pay, better safety and against the growing casualisation of the construction industry. 

They stood up against a cartel of employers – who had close links with the Conservative government of the day – and then what happened? After the successful strike, the 24 were arrested and charged with conspiracy to intimidate. Most lost their livelihoods, some lost their liberty. They were all demonised.

To date a web of government secrecy surrounds the men’s attempts to get justice but the time has now come to shine a light on the truth. A recent letter to the campaign reports the decision taken in 2011 by the then Justice Secretary Ken Clarke to suppress the documents relating to the 24’s arrests for a further ten years on the grounds of national security – a rationale that would be laughable if it weren’t so offensive.

When the Coalition government was first elected, the Prime Minister made an announcement, which is still available on the Number Ten website, promising that:

‘greater transparency across government is at the heart of our commitment to enable the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account.’

With that in mind, we call on the government to hold a parliamentary inquiry, release the documents immediately and quash the convictions.

Please take a moment to help the Shrewsbury 24 campaign get enough signatures for its e-petition to secure a parliamentary debate to call for the release of the documents and allow the men to clear their names.

> Sign the e-petition here

The economy is stuck in the middle of what at best looks like a lost decade. Jobs continue to go across the public sector – including in services like health that we were told would be protected. And while we should be pleased that unemployment hasn’t been as bad as many feared, it’s still far too high, especially for young people.

Unemployment looks set to rise again in the year ahead, and the hidden problem of under-employment is growing too – Many people in part-time jobs want to work full-time, and many more are working in jobs that don’t use their skills and education to the full.

Even for those in work, living standards are stagnating as wages fail to keep pace with prices. Family budgets are under real pressure, particularly when you look at what those on middle and low incomes actually spend their salaries on, such as food, childcare and transport.

In short our economy is sick, and the government’s medicine isn’t working. We were told that short-term pain would deliver long-term gain, yet all we see are nasty side-effects with no sign of a cure.

What is worse is that we now seem to be locked into a vicious downward spiral of cuts. And as they don’t work, the government cuts even more. That is why I’m starting the new year with a focus on the benefits up-rating cap – a measure that will do nothing to target the tiny number who play the system but will hurt millions of low-paid workers who rely on benefits to top up their poorly-paid jobs, and millions more without a job who are desperately trying to find one.

Reducing the living standards of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society, while attempting to tar them all as scroungers, is perhaps the very definition of a party determined to be seen as nasty. And, what is more, it will further depress demand and slow the economy. People on the breadline spend every penny of their income, and mainly spend it in the local economy – while those who will benefit from the cut in the 50p tax rate coming this year are as likely to save it or take it off-shore.

The government is failing to offer people a vision for the economy or hope for the future. What the great bank crash brought home is that we do not have an economy that works for ordinary families. Even before the recession, living standards were stagnating for the majority and the resulting unsustainable growth of credit-fuelled consumption was one key cause of the crash. There has been a long-term decline in quality, skilled, well-paid jobs that should make up the back-bone of the labour force, as the short-term interests of banking and finance dominated the economy over the last few decades.

This is why I, with the TUC, will be campaigning for three priorities in the year ahead.

First we need the government to change course and abandon the austerity that is doing more harm than good. That means stopping self-defeating spending cuts, and instead putting investment in jobs and growth first.

Second we need a long-term vision of how we can make an economy that works for the many. That means leadership from the very top of government to drive a new industrial policy, including investment in the country’s infrastructure, affordable homes and transport.

We also need a laser-like focus on the need to create decent jobs and apprenticeships, in the parts of the country that need them the most. Lord Heseltine’s recent report offers a good start, and it won widespread support across political parties, business and unions. It may not go as far as we would like, but even a few steps along its route would be a distinctive break with the dominant approach since the 1980s.

Rebuilding Britain will take time but we need to start now. Simply trying to go back to business as usual is a limp ambition that fails to address the causes of the crash and offers little to all those excluded from the proceeds of growth. We need rapid progress on reform of banking and the creation of a modern industrial bank to invest for the long term. It also means facing up to the immediate challenge of climate change and the investment that requires.

And third, we need to build a fair society – one where we really are all in it together. It’s no coincidence that the economic model that we have followed since the 1980s led to a huge increase in the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. Recession has only made this worse.

Some say that we can’t make social progress at a time of economic difficulty. But we set up the welfare state and the NHS amid the economic ruins of war. We need to tackle the root causes of growing inequality. This is why I want to see a major push for many more people to be paid the living wage in the year ahead, and why I want to see the benefits up-rating cap defeated. But fairness is also about those who can afford to paying their fair share, which is why the battle to stop tax avoidance and evasion will be another priority in the year ahead.

A fair society is also one where people have a real say in the decisions that affect their working lives and their families’ security. Short-termism driven by runaway greed proved to be unsustainable and we can no longer entrust the best long-term interests of a company to shareholders alone. So I want to help begin a public debate about what might be called economic democracy or ‘worker voice’.

Giving workers a say over top pay through employee representation on company remuneration committees is one example. But it is also about making all workplaces more like the best performing ones and genuinely giving staff a strong voice in the strategic decisions on which the future success of a company, and our economy, depend. Stronger trades unions must be a vital part of creating a better Britain, helping to re-balance power back towards ordinary people.

This all adds up a very different approach to the economy and a challenge to all the political parties, employers and indeed unions. My strong belief is that when we look back at the period from the 1980s to the 2008 crash, historians will see these as exceptional times – as damaging in their way as the 1930s.

What will dismay them most is how slowly we are building a new economic model to replace the one that fell with Lehman Brothers. There is surprisingly broad consensus that we need real change. What we need now is the determination to deliver it. I – and Britain’s unions – stand ready to play our part.

The House of Lords are to start discussing proposed changes to the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill on 8 February. The seriousness of this Bill cannot be understated. It threatens the very principles on which the National Health Service was founded by turning it into a business where our taxes will pay for private companies to provide our healthcare. Profit will come before patient care. These reforms are being pushed through at a time when the government is asking the NHS to make unprecedented cuts. Despite Government assertions to the contrary, deep concerns about the Bill are held by practitioners and patients from across the health service.  They are also shared by many of the coalitions own supporters, including a number of MPs and Peers, who have criticised what Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary is trying to push through.

Now we are asking anyone who cares about our NHS to join us in a Save our NHS rally in Westminster Central Hall, opposite the Houses of Parliament at 18:00 on 7 March. The rally has been organised by the All Together for the NHS Campaign and brings together a range of unions, professional bodies, patients and members of the public who are opposed to the Bill.

Some changes have been made to the Bill but not nearly enough. Among the proposals still in the Bill will be the extension of competition and markets within the NHS. The private sector will also be able to take over the organising and delivery of NHS services. Only this week we have seen a private company taking over an NHS hospital for the first time, as Circle moves in to the Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire. This will be the future the NHS has to look forward to if the Bill stays in its current form.

NHS hospitals will now be able to get as much as 49% of their income from private patients. As I covered in an earlier blog for Touchstone, this will mean that NHS patients are pushed to the back of the queue in favour of private patients who can pay. There is no doubt that patient care will suffer  while health inequalities and care postcode lotteries are likely to rise.

The cost of the re-organisation is estimated at £3 billion a year and is rising by £1 million a day. This is at a time when the NHS is already being asked to make huge cuts.

The Bill is back in the House of Lords on 8 February for a number of weeks before it returns to the House of Commons for MPs to debate again. The pressure on Andrew Lansley, has been growing in recent weeks with more professional bodies joining the calls to significantly amend or withdraw the bill altogether. The rally is intended to add to that pressure by demonstrating the broad coalition of opposition to bill.

Peers must listen to the concerns of the people that know the NHS best – the staff who work in it. Health workers fear the increased competition and the extension of markets will have a devastating impact on patient care, especially poorer people who will find themselves pushed to the back of ever-growing waiting lists.

We hope the rally on7 March will provide the opportunity for NHS workers and patients to send a loud message across Parliament Square to convince the House of Lords that this Bill would be a disaster for the NHS.