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Collective bargaining pays

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The average trade union member in the private sector earns £53 a week more than workers who are not members of unions. As there are some really big earners at the top of the private sector in industries such as finance, the union pay premium is even starker when measured at the median. Here private sector union members earn £116 more than non-union members – a difference of a hefty 33.5%.

These figures clearly illustrate how the work of unions has made a huge difference to workers’ pay and living standards in a wide range of industries, ranging from supermarkets to the arts.

For example, UNITE won the London Living Wage for cleaners at the Royal Opera House - increasing the hourly rate of pay by almost 30% for some employees. And the GMB recently won the living wage for workers previously paid the minimum wage at Amey, Veolia, Norse and Enterprise (all cleaning companies), which has improved pay by 21%.

In retail, USDAW has secured above inflation pay deals at several employers; in engineering and manufacturing GMB and Unite report 3% plus settlements; while Unison secured a 3.3% rise to basic pay at National Grid with links to RPI for future settlements. In the entertainment sector Equity has achieved a minimum 6.5% increase in rates of pay at Disney and a 6% increase for workers at the Globe Theatre.

Private sector pay growth (1.7%) has now just about caught up with CPI inflation (1.7%) according to the latest ONS statistics. The real value of private sector earnings is now holding steady against this measure for the first time in several years, rather than continuing to fall.

We certainly need to return to real pay and productivity growth if the recovery is to be sustained. Trade unions have traditionally been able to negotiate deals that raise their members up, but they have had a difficult task during the recession, quite rightly agreeing to pay freezes or short-time working to preserve employment. The negotiations mentioned above are signs that they are beginning to reassert their traditional pay leadership in the sectors where they are well-represented, now that the economy is beginning to recover.

There is, however, still a fair way to go before we return to real annual pay growth of 1-2% above inflation. Looking more broadly at the private sector pay deals that have been concluded since the start of 2014, it appears that most are coming in between 2% and 3%, averaging about 2.5 (0.8% above CPI inflation). This is a welcome, if modest, improvement for hard-pressed working people, but outcomes need to continue to improve as the recovery takes hold.

Clearly, collective bargaining must be a key part of the solution. One way to speed up progress would be to create some new tripartite collective bargaining institutions. Sectors like contract cleaning would certainly benefit from having a higher wage floor and help with improving productivity, so that the good can learn from the best - without being undercut by the bad.

Collective bargaining equals collective good.

Beth Farhat

Regional Secretary Northern TUC

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