Speaking to BBC Newsnight Scotland last night, Dave Moxham, STUC Deputy General Secretary, rubbished the claim that people's reasonable wage demands are the cause of current rising inflation.
He said:
"..the CPI (Consumer Price Index) index is sitting at about 3 per cent, and the more realistic one, the RPI (Retail Price Index) is sitting over 4 per cent. For a public sector worker tied into a three year or two year deal at 4.5 per cent, at the end of that process, they could well find themselves 7 to 7.5 per cent lower in wages than the 3 years earlier.
"That means for a worker earning around £200 per week, £50 per month less in their pay, and that is simply not supportable.
"the important point is that the 4 per cent level our members are looking for is simply a reflection of the costs that they're facing in their day-to-day lives.
Serious commentators on the current state of the British economy note that the major inflationary pressures we are experiencing come most directly from rising prices and current restricted supply of basic commodities, like staple food and fuel.
Dave Moxham said:
"You don't need to be an economist to realize that oil prices, commodity prices and the falling level of the pound are actually driving inflation.
"no economist that I've heard says that public sector pay deals are in fact a driver of inflation.
One of the major concerns of today for those on low and average wages, is that in the absence of any willing control over the macro-economic inflationary pressure points, politicians may resort to squeezing easy sacrifices out of the most vulnerable in order to maintain a perfunctory stability in the economy.
The Deputy General Secretary said:
"…some of the workers we're defending just now paying the highest marginal rates of taxation in the pound are also the people who spend the money in the economy which is lacking demand right now."
- For more information contact Dave Moxham at the STUC on tel. 0141 337 8100. E-mail: dmoxham@stuc.org.uk