23/06/2008
Reacting to the news that members of the the largest council workers' union, Unison, have voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to strike over pay, Respect MP George Galloway said:

"We in Respect fully support Unison in its battle for fair pay. It has come to something when low-paid classroom assistants, refuse workers and admin staff are having to strike, probably for two days.

"The reasons why are familiar to anyone who is finding it difficult to pay a gas bill, put petrol in the car, do the weekly shop or otherwise make ends meet.

"Inflation is bearing down on everyone from council workers to tanker drivers to cleaners on London Underground in the RMT, who are due to strike this week, to the women who are turning up to my consituency surgery and reporting that their family's rice bill has doubled to £50.

"This is not simply a question for public sector trade unions - though coordinated strikes by those unions is vital and long overdue - it is a fundamental social issue affecting all working people here and, even more so, in countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt where food riots have returned.

"The true rate of inflation is at least double the government's preferred, massaged figure. Even the Bank of England has accepted that it is not the pay of teachers, council workers, and others that is causing price rises. People are putting in for pay increases, and some are fighting to win them like the Shell tanker drivers, as a result of inflation. "With the threat of recession this government should be investing enormously in housing, to ease the gathering respossessions crisis and cut housing waiting lists; it should be ensuring decent pay, controlling the prices of essential goods, and levying a windfall tax on the energy companies and supermarkets which are raking in billions.

"New Labour is in love with big business and the failed policies of neo-liberalism, so it won't do that voluntarily.

"Respect, however, will be advocating these measures and working with others to try to bring them about. We will do all in our power to support this action, as we did the recent strikes by teachers, lecturers and civil service workers.

"There will be insults and lies about the council workers from the billionaire-owned press, from the Tories and from government ministers. But I believe that if their case is properly made and explained, if it is made part of a popular revolt against profiteering by the likes of Shell and Tesco, if it is at the centre of a movement to change this government's wretched policies, then not only will it get the support of working people in all walks of life, but it can play a powerful role in winning some change for the better, rather than leaving it to the Tories to gain from the disillusionment sown by Gordon Brown's failed administration."