Why Gordon Brown wants to hold down wages

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.ukwatch.net/article/why_gord ... down_wages


From:
Socialist Worker

Gordon Brown has ratcheted up his attacks on workers’ pay by demanding three-year below inflation pay deals in the public sector.

These deals – which Brown insists must be held below 2 percent even though inflation is more than double that – would lock millions into effective pay cuts for the next three years.

It is a further assault on the hundreds of thousands of working people in Britain who are already wondering how their wage can be made to stretch until their next payday.

According to a poll for the Norwich Union insurance firm, almost three quarters of monthly paid workers ran out of money last week and are now paying for food and other everyday necessities with a mixture of loans, credit cards and overdrafts.

But this situation does not seem to concern the New Labour government.

Brown says he is attempting to hold pay below inflation until 2012 – just as many economists are predicting inflation rates could rise to between 6 and 8 percent in the coming years.

Inflation has been on an upward trajectory for more than a year, with the cost of transport, housing, food and fuel rising fast. Food prices are rising at an average of about 5 percent and some suppliers have just announced household gas and electricity bills will rise by 27 percent this year.

That is why so many workers are finding themselves worse off compared to a year ago.

Difficult

Brown said he had taken the “difficult decisionâ€