I’m getting a little tired of the current trend amongst bloggers to go union bashing and in particular to attack the supposedly huge salaries their leaders earn. They do a superb job and, unlike those who write in the blogosphere, they were elected to the post and only stay there if they receive sufficient approval from their members.
It is true many of them do receive substantial incomes for their services. Bob Crow is reputed to earn over £133,000 per annum, but this is not exceptional for a union leader. Dave Prentis of Unison earns over £127,000, whilst the leader of USDAW earns about £105,000.
Compare this with the average earnings of a chief executive of a large company and it rather contextualises it. At a political level, a Minister of State earns substantially more and the director general of the BBC earns 4 times as much as the average union leader.
Even many executives working for local councils earn as much, if not more than the average union leader. The difference is that union leaders must face re-election and if the members are unhappy with their leader they can call for their resignation. Far from giving themselves “huge” salaries, these figures are agreed and ratified by the membership.
Noticeably, most of these criticisms are coming from the political right, who seem to be far les vocal about the salary earned by Boris Johnson last year - £143, 911. Nor did they starting screaming “fat cat” when Andrew Pierce, the Tory party chairman was awarded £120,000 a year.
The same bloggers who attack Bob Crow were far less angry about the £475,000 awarded to Andy Coulson whilst he was Director of Communications at Number 10.
Given this, one has to ask why bloggers like Guido Fawkes are so enthusiastic in their condemnation of union leaders. The answer is simple – they are scared. Until recently, the government were largely having things all their own way. Then last Saturday things changed. Suddenly, Cameron was being held to account and found to be failing.
In an interview with the BBC, Vince Cable arrogantly stated the government would not be thrown off course because of the demonstration. Fair enough – now we know where we stand with the Lib Dems – as if we didn’t know before. If Clegg and Cable want to tie themselves to the Tory banner, the left are quite happy to take them on too.
What we saw last Saturday was only the beginning and those union leaders that the right enjoy condemning will be at the heart of a campaign to oppose every aspect of Tory cuts. Over the coming months Cameron can look forward to opposition at a level that hasn’t been seen since the days of Maggie – in fact, he has helped achieve something that his predecessor helped to destroy – he has reunified the left.
Now Labour party members are standing shoulder to shoulder with trade unionists, Socialist party, SWP, Communist and Respect party members in unified opposition to what Cameron is trying to achieve.
Bloggers grumbling about union salaries will not be enough to stop us. Indeed, I was once told when I was much younger that sarcasm is the lowest kind of wit and their attempts to ridicule our union leaders are a perfect example of how true the statement remains.
My message to those bloggers is simple – carry on with your griping if you will, but you will not stop us. We will strike, we will march and we will occupy premises. Soon the government will see they cannot subjugate an entire country. Those who oppose Cameron will be watching to see those who are our friends and those who are not.
When I was a young man, we used to march against Maggie and in those days we would shout a very simple slogan. Twenty years on and it remains as relevant today as it was then:
The Workers united will never be defeated.
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