Something else for Gordon Brown to choke on posted by Richard Seymour

Oh dear. Barely his second full day on the job, and already he's got the first national postal strike in more than a decade, and it's solid, and it's aimed at his policies. Socialist Worker has a tonne of reports and pictures coming in from across the country, and it looks like the posties have hit hard. Bear in mind what's happening here: at a time when inflation on necessary goods is hitting the poorest hardest, and when house prices and rents are increasingly unaffordable, Brown is applying brakes on wages. One of the means by which New Labour has always run a tacit incomes policy has been to restrain public sector wage growth, thus setting the trend for the rest of the economy. The attempt to enforce a 2.5% cap on wage rises means that there is a de facto cut. House price inflation stands at 11%. Hidden inflation on essential goods was as high as 9% this Spring. Therefore it's extremely important that the posties break this policy now, while Gordon is still fresh.

Labels: capitalism, gordon brown, postal workers, prices, profits, wages