2016 Mary Macarthur Lecture, Polly Toynbee, March 4

On Friday 4 March Polly Toynbee delivered the second Mary Macarthur lecture at the Coronation Club in Blackheath.

Prior to the lecture a tour of workplaces in the local area was arranged. Firstly a group of union organisers and members met with Polly to discuss local issues and campaigns. This was followed by a social care round table, where care workers gave powerful testimonies about the issues facing workers in the care sector. The constant sale of homes in the private sector, erosion of terms of conditions and how care workers go above and beyond to deliver for clients despite the funding and management challenges was hugely moving.

The tour then went to SWEDA where the challenges facing the voluntary sector were made abundantly. The skills, work and enterprise agency, based in West Bromwich, began as a women’s organisation but now supports men as well. They work with over a thousand local people and have noticed a significant increase in the demand for services at the same time as funding reducing over recent years.

The next visit was to Sandwell Young Carers, a local charity working with children that care for a sibling or parent with a life limiting condition, mental health problem or disability. Young carers and staff highlighted the tremendous work they do and outlined the financial challenge facing them and the wider sector.

Polly then met with PCS members from the HMRC office Walsall. The site has 60, mostly female, workers who are at risk of losing their jobs, due to the Government decision to close the Walsall HMRC office. The tour finished at the Rowley Sure Start Centre where a group of staff, parents and children met to discuss the vital services that the Sure Start provides.

Sylvia Heal opened the Mary Macarthur lecture by pointing to the statistic that 79,000 women are on ZHCs in the Midlands and how ‘women need unions and unions need women.’ During the lecture Polly drew attention to the 14% gender pay gap, and whilst the gap had been closing it has now stalled. However, this average masks wider difference across sectors and age ranges. She referred to the fact that women in their 50s face a much higher pay gap due to caring duties. Just 29% of MPs and 3% of council leaders are women whilst the finance sector has the biggest pay gap. She suggested that all jobs should be advertised, by law, as potential job shares to help tackle inequality and that total pay transparency would stir demands for more pay equality. Poll also alluded to the fact that unionised workforces are fairer and we therefore need to get unions into more workplaces.

On the broader topic of inequality in general she pointed out that the economy would be 20% larger if inequality had not taken off in the 1980s. The richest 1%, earning over £150,000 pay 47% in tax, yet the poorest in society pay 76% in tax. And whilst 76% of Conservative voters think inequality is too wide, the majority of people underestimate how unequal society has become. Those at the bottom think they are nearer the middle than they are, whilst the top 1% grossly underestimate how well paid and privileged they are and have no idea at all about average pay levels. And growing inequality makes us a more wary society with those more equal societies demonstrably displaying greater levels of trust between citizens.