Whose fault is it that nearly 30,000 workers have lost their jobs
with the closure of all the Woolworths stores? Not the workers, that’s for
sure. We are due to see an avalanche of job losses after Christmas. Unemployment
is nearly 2 million already, and due to hit 3 million in 12 months’ time. None
of these workers deserve to lose their jobs. They are the victims of a
capitalist system that is just not working. How can we make things better? If
we fight for work or full pay, the bosses would soon find them something to do.
But workers threatened
with loss of their jobs need help from the rest of us. It is ridiculous and
wrong that overwork exists side by side with unemployment. Life is not easy
under twenty-first century capitalism. Families work all the hours and are
often bogged down with juggling child care as well. Working class people are
usually up to their necks in debt and rushing around under all the financial
and other pressures. We believe there should be more to life than this. We
believe everyone has a right to wind down and enjoy themselves. We know why
people work such long hours. It’s because they can’t make ends meet any other
way. Even when we get a decent living wage, there will still be pressure on
workers to put in those extra hours. We intend, by raising the general level of
workers’ wages, to make sure that workers will not feel the need to work
overtime in order to get by.
We need a shorter working week not just to improve our own quality
of life, but as a way of sharing out the work. We propose that, instead of
laying workers off while others keep working long hours, the working week
should be reduced across the board and nobody lose their livelihood altogether.
Then the question will inevitably be posed – who will pay? We say the bosses
should pay. It’s their system and the fluctuations in the level of trade they
can handle is nothing to do with us. If
the system can’t provide the steady work we need to live, then the bosses’
system will have to go:
·
Work or full pay.
·
Share out the work with no loss of pay.
·
Make the bosses pay for their crisis.
