A rail union boss has warned trade unions will ‘never be content’ just weeks after striking a bumper pay deal with the new Labour Government.
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, hinted that low state pensions and a cut to winter fuel payments for older people mean workers are far from satisfied.
It could mean that rather than ending strikes, the Government’s willingness to negotiate huge pay deals could lead to more demands from public-sector workers.
Mr Whelan’s comments come just days after TUC head Paul Nowak said big increases to ‘restore’ wages that had been eroded by inflation were a ‘legitimate aspiration’.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has approved a 14.25 per cent pay deal for train drivers over three years without any concessions on reforming the system.
It will mean the average driver’s salary will rise from £60,000 to just under £70,000.
Speaking at the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rally, a fringe event of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton on Sunday, Mr Whelan said nothing that Labour could do will wholly satisfy the movement.
He said they were better off than they had been in the last 40 years, but that was still not where they wanted to be, The Telegraph reports.
Mr Whelan said: ‘So I am quite… not content, ‘cos I’ll never be content, I’m an argumentative b*****. And the movement will never be content.
‘While we have the lowest pensions in Europe and people then talking about not giving people their heating payments, I’m not content.’
He added that he has ambitions to create a movement that reverts the country to the 1970s and 1980s when people felt there was ‘value’ to being a member of a trade union.
Aside from rail workers, junior doctors have been offered a rise of 22 per cent on average over two years to settle industrial action.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also agreed an above-inflation salary increase of 5.5 per cent for millions of public-sector staff at a cost of nearly £10 billion.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been complaining of a £22billion ‘black hole’ in the government’s books, with eye-watering tax rises looming in the Budget next month.
But Tories point out that funding gap is partly due to generous settlements with unions.
Critics are concerned particularly over just how much the Chancellor will lean back on tax rises to pay for the multiple wage increases that have been agreed.