Young workers need £10 an hour and fighting trade unions

Wayne Scott, Dundee 

As a 26-year-old supermarket worker told me recently, he’s taken to walking four miles to and from work as he struggles to afford buses as well as food and rent. This is the reality of low pay in food bank Britain. 

For those under-18 pay is as low as £4.35. For apprentices it can be even lower. When we take into account cost of travel to work, food, work clothes and other essentials, it becomes clear that such rates are a form of modern day slavery.

It would be almost impossible for a young person to live independently on such an income, meaning parents are often subsidising the low pay of the bosses. 

Some bosses are saying that the cost of training young people should be taken into account in order to justify the poverty wages they pay. Some of these same bosses seem to conveniently forget that the costs of training are often heavily subsidised by government grants paid out of the public purse.  

prices

Many bosses are saying a rise in wages will mean a rise in prices. This is untrue. What it would mean is a drop in profits.

For example a worker may be paid £50 a day in a fast food shop, but his work may generate £150, meaning £100 for the boss. If his wage were to double and he were paid £100 a day, the price of what he is producing does not change, but the boss now only receives £50 profit.

If bosses were able to simply raise prices whenever they liked, they would. However the cut throat nature of capitalist competition prevents them from doing so.

That then poses the question; what is more important, the profits of those at the top or the ability of workers on the bottom who produce the wealth to have a decent standard of living?

Many workers will be thrilled at the commitment by Jeremy Corbyn that a Labour government would implement a minimum wage of £10 an hour and would abolish youth rates of pay. The minimum wage for those over 25 is barely enough to survive on – £8.21 an hour.

Supporters of the Young Socialists have campaigned for these demands for many years. We completely welcome this announcement from Corbyn.

However workers cannot suffer super-exploitative rates of pay until a Corbyn government comes to power, if it does come to power – the rent won’t wait! 

The trade unions must immediately take up and fight for these demands. A trade union led campaign to abolish youth rates of pay and for a £10 an hour minimum wage – as a step towards a real living wage – would draw in thousands of workers, particularly young workers who are rightfully enraged at the super-exploitation they face at the hands of the bosses. 

Unions like Unite who organise in sectors such as hospitality, where many younger workers are employed, should launch a fight in the workplaces to demand £10 as a minimum for all workers.

For such a movement to be successful it would have to link up with workers in local government and the NHS elsewhere who are currently fighting on pay with the aim of coordinated strike action.

If the big business bosses say they can’t afford to pay us a living wage, then open the books and prove it! And if capitalism can’t afford to provide us with decent living standards, then we have to ask ourselves if we can afford to live under capitalism.

young socialists

The Young Socialists – Young Workers’ Rights campaign will be campaigning at workplaces, colleges and schools in the coming weeks to build support for a trade union-led campaign to abolish youth rates, for a £10 an hour minimum wage for all and for the abolition of zero hour contracts.

We know big business will fight against any infringement on their profits, so a Labour government and the trade unions would have to go on the offensive too.

That is why we call for a Corbyn government to bring into public ownership the big companies and banks that dominate the economy, taking them out of the hands of the fat-cats who only survive by wringing every penny of profit out of us that they can. 

Join us and fight for a socialist society, where the wealth is placed into our hands – the workers who produce the wealth in the first place!