Dear comrades
This Christmas, all our wages are higher than they would be because of St Mungo’s Unite’s successes. That includes not only this year’s strike win, but also the one in 2014 which kept us on the NJC scales and earlier successes going back to before most of us worked at St Mungo’s. We are significantly better off because of what Unite has achieved at St Mungo’s – and beyond that, what the trade union movement has achieved through its history, going back to the early 19th century. To fully understand what we have gained, you need to look back to how things were in trade unionism’s early days – or far afield, to countries where unions are weak or suppressed. We run the risk of returning to that if we lose our vigilance, as the current attacks on the right to strike demonstrate.
As trade unionists, we struggle to increase the share of society’s resources that go to those who need them and to those who work, and to diminish the share going to those whose only merit is that they already have more than they need. This is not an easy struggle; inevitably the latter have the resources to pursue their interests. But it is a necessary one – and we are more in harmony with the values of every Christmas story you’ve read, including the first one, than wealthy tax-dodgers who want to accumulate more for themselves. And the labour movement has made it possible for working people, including those who carry out the essential task of protecting society’s most vulnerable people, to enjoy the Christmas festivities.
From St Mungo’s Unite, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Cheers!
Jacob
Jacob Sanders
Unite Convenor, St Mungo’s
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