WHEN DENIS HEALEY rose to speak in the House of Commons last Friday there was a general expectation of a relaxation of the policies which have sent living standards plummeting. As he spoke, Enoch Powell nodded his head furiously in agreement. The package is a wolf in sheep's clothing. An offensive on three fronts.
1. 10 PER CENT LIMIT THE TEN per cent norm is for average carmings, this means that the proposed increase on basic rutes is only five per cent. Subtract from that the effects of an expected rate of inflation of fifteen per cent and the end product is a wage cut of between five to ten per cent. 2. 12 MONTH RULE THE EFFECTS of this wage cut bid will be heavier if the TUC and Government enforce a gap of twelve months between wage claims. Many workers will not receive rises until well into 1978 when inflation will have slashed living standards further. The second intention behind the rule is to divide up the working class struggle.
They are trying to separate carworker from carworker, docker from docker and white collar local government worker from manual workers. For example manual municipal workers have their claim in November, but white collar workers not until July 3. CASH LIMITS THE CORNERSTONE of the whole policy is the 'cash-limits system" in the public sector.
These limits are the amount of cash any council, nationalised industry or government department are allocated by the government, irrespective of any increased need in services, increased costs and so on. This is how Labour have already imposed 13,500m cuts in this year alone.
This is how they are going to try and use it in the future. The CBf demands that there are no increases over ten per cent for public sector workers. The Liberals will annonce they will vote to bring down the Government if there are any settlements over that figure, The new Tory concils and the nationalised industry bosses are backed up by the cash limits system.
Any public sector workers who starl to fight will be told that there is no money. They will claim that if anything more than the ten per cent norm is paid then thousands will have to be sacked and services further cut, The system is planned to defeat and isolate the seven millson workers in the public sector. Covernment expenditure will also be used to police the private sector through the vast buying power that the state possesses in industry. The plan is to place orders with firms that hold the line on wage increases and withold them from those who meet