Coffey to use the unemployed as scabs and strikebreakers!

 

DWP MINISTER - THERESA COFFEY

Under new rules sneaked in by Therese Coffey, the DWP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Universal Credit claimants will now be required to attend weekly compulsory intensive work regime sessions, beginning next month. This will also apply to people who have health problems. 

There are concerns that the government is intending to force the unemployed into filling  27,000 agency worker vacancies, which could form part of government plans to build an army of strike breakers and blacklegs to undermine industrial disputes. The Tory Government recently repealed Regulation 7 of the 'Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003', which prohibited employers from using agency workers to cover an employee who is taking part in a strike or industrial action. Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, recently informed British employers that the government had now introduced state-sanctioned strike breaking. He tweeted: 'This was a criminal offence. Now it's an option for business." 

Since the introduction of the Tory Industrial Relations Act of 1971, which saw British worker's imprisoned, successive Tory governments have pursued a 50-year-long crusade to neuter British trades unions, to make strikes more difficult, and to outlaw solidarity action and secondary picketing. The major objective was to give employers the greatest possible scope to prevent and break strikes, and to make it easier for Britain's bosses to sack workers and to unilaterally change their conditions of employment. 

As inflation spirals upwards into double digit figures and the cost of living goes through the roof, we are starting to see more industrial disputes as workers try to improve their pay and conditions or to resist pay cuts. The value of average wages in Britain, has fallen steadily for 12years. Many people are working for or near the National Minimum Wage of £9.50 an hour. Energy prices will increase by 80% from October and many people will unable to pay their fuel bills. This is also going to have a domino effect which will see businesses closing and workers laid off. Prices are likely to increase further as costs increase. 

At the same time, energy companies are making vast profits as consumer prices go stratospheric and C.E.O. salaries have risen by 39%, since last year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), estimates that out-of-work working-age benefit claimants, are likely to see their real income fall by £12 p w. The IFS, estimate that in October, the poorest fifth of the population will face an inflation rate of 18% compared with a rate of 11% for the tip fifth of households.