The Question Is the Scope of ‘Good’
Emile Petraviciute abstains from the motion, ‘This House Believes Trade Unions Are Still an Effective Force For Good’, arguing that reaching a ‘good’ in the current economic turmoil requires much more than strikes in a few sectors.
By Emile Petraviciute
With the growing support and disruptive strikes, including half of our Lent term being lost to the UCU (University and College Union) industrial action, trade unions are the loudest voice today in representing the general discontent with the cost-of-living crisis. The country-wide strikes causing public inconvenience certainly do turn the attention of the nation to unjust salaries and working conditions. There is little ground to believe this largest industrial action in 30 years will not result in some better change for key sector workers, considering the recent successful RMT negotiations in Wales for a 9% wage increase.
However, in the present economic environment, with a fourth of all children in the UK facing food insecurity, as their parents are struggling to adjust to 16.8% food inflation and rocketing energy bills, is the marginal increase in rail workers’ and nurses’ salary the ‘good’ defined by this motion? The current crisis has exacerbated the trend of increasing inequality and wealth hoarding in the hands of a few that has been set by the global neoliberal regime in the 80s, letting oil and gas companies increase their profits up to 5 times, while the majority saw their real monthly wages decline by £80.
Unfortunately, the industrial strikes in a few sectors will not solve the systemic economic injustice driving the cost-of-living crisis. While the unions might still be an effective force to negotiate for marginal developments of better working conditions, today’s industrial action hardly resembles the massive radical labour movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. The ongoing strikes will not be enough to reach anything remotely near a ‘good’ in the current economic turmoil. If anything, Thursday’s debate is only a teaser to the upcoming 16th of March motion for radical systemic change.
Emile Petraviciute is an MPhil in Development Studies student at Darwin College, University of Cambridge | Instagram: @emile.petr
The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Cambridge Union Society.
On February 2, Cambridge Union Society debated the motion, “This House Believes Trade Unions Are Still an Effective Force For Good”. The motion passed with a vote of 176 in favour, 56 abstentions, and 36 in opposition.
