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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Together again, our movement is united and winning for workers
STEVE PREDDY is glad to be back at Tolpuddle celebrating workers' victories past, present – and future
RESOLVE: Unite the Union rep Marie Spence on a strike picket at Glenveagh School, Belfast

WE WELCOME friends and colleagues back to Tolpuddle again for the first time since 2019. 

Solidarity to all those workers engaged in industrial disputes across a rejuvenated trade union movement! Your fight is our fight!  

Since we last met in Dorset at this historic festival event, Unite’s first female general secretary Sharon Graham was elected with a determination to refocus resources on jobs, pay and conditions. 

Growing out of historic events including Brexit and the continued impact of the global pandemic, employers and politicians have returned to type in looking to penalise working people to pay for the crisis — one not of their making. 

Unite is wholly committed to supporting members thereby ensuring they Do Not Pay. This includes ensuring wages are maintained or grow in “real terms” against double digit rates of inflation (RPI). Fighting every time opportunistic employers seek to distort fiscal realities, leading to proposed reductions in jobs, pay and conditions. 

Unite recently produced a report which inarguably reflects how businesses in the FTSE 350 have been doing extremely well — thank you very much. 

Profit margins for the FTSE 350 businesses are 73 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. UK-wide company profits jumped 11.74 per cent in the six months from October 2021 to March 2022.  During the the same period, labour income fell by 0.8 per cent after accounting for inflation. 

The report concludes that the recent profit jump is responsible for 58.7 per cent of inflation in the last half year — as opposed to just 8.3 per cent due to labour costs. 

Trade union members across the country have made it clear that attacks on pay and conditions will not be tolerated. Union members across sectors are rising up against the falsehoods and dogma of a failed political and economic system. 

There is growing confidence among workers as success follows success. Through the investment of hard work and resource, well organised workers across sectors are emerging. 

Unite additionally supports its workplace reps and officers through the provision of professional research, arming negotiators with evidence-based arguments highlighting employer’s ability to pay. 

Unite South West has witnessed a huge rise in activity among members from passenger, road transport, construction, finance, local government and other sectors, organising successful dispute campaigns leading to pay outcomes including these examples:  

Tesco XPO tanker drivers 27% uplift of £12k on average   
DHL Sainsburys contract 10.68 and 15.64%    
XPO Transport Solutions 15% 
Plymouth City Council waste drivers average 12% increases and upgrades;  
Plymouth City bus drivers 9.55% 
and Cornwall bus drivers 19.29% 

There is a real buzz around the movement currently. Through numerous successes, optimism, the movement and its influence will justly grow. Power enabled from the shop floor providing a counter to the bosses misleading rhetoric. 

Together again, we stand more united than for decades. Organised worker solidarity strikes fear into the hearts of business leaders and politicians. 

This weekend we gather to enjoy one another’s company. We rightly remember the sacrifice of workers past. But also look forward with a sense of renewed hope, to a better future for workers, families and community! 

Solidarity and friendship to all.

Steve Preddy is regional secretary, Unite South West.

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