To mark International Women’s day, Cici Washburn spoke to three women working in the public sector about the conditions at their jobs and for the people they work with and how things are changing

The impact of austerity

Ally, who works as a community officer at her local council, says she sees a lot of older women who are facing very significant challenges; ‘women that have always worked and they’ve paid into the pension but they’re getting a state pension. It’s just not enough. The support isn’t there because many own their own houses, so there’s no housing support, and there’s no fuel support because they get that extra £1 a week or whatever, so they don’t qualify, and they’re having to attend food banks and warm spaces. I’ve seen this increase a lot of the last few years.’

Laura Billington, Doncaster district president of the NEU, said, ‘It’s us as women, who seem to be the ones who have to bear the brunt of austerity. Those women who have children still have to go to work, cook, clean, look after the children, sort the children’s social calendars, all whilst trying to maintain some sort of social life themselves. But they are then blamed when the children misbehave in school, on the streets, etc. There was a very bad accident in Doncaster recently, and there was a post made on Facebook about one of the boys dying in the accident. A lot of comments were along the lines of ‘where was the mum?’, ‘did the mum know?’, ‘The mum must be so proud’. Why blame the mother? Blame a Tory government which made it impossible for parents to parent properly as they are having to work often multiple jobs, all hours of the day to ensure that they can only barely feed and clothe their children.’

Ally says things are not getting better, they are getting worse. ‘When I go to food banks, it’s new people there and a lot of the time it’s older people who have just retired, and they just so happen to earn a pound over the limit to get pension credit or something like that. They’re finding they can’t afford basics. And it’s the first time they’ve ever found themselves at a food bank. It really is quite worrying to see because, obviously, there are a lot of parents with children that attend as well. But I’m seeing an influx of older people, mainly older women that have outlived their husbands, and nothing is being done about it.’

‘Our wages as council workers are stagnant as well, and everything is going up. And we’re there supposed to be the ones helping the struggling communities, rent, food, everything, fuel, everything is going up and our wages have stayed the same for years.’

Linda Walker, a semi-retired nurse, says about working in a hospital, ‘Now there’s more officers than anything and people in suits, it’s very top heavy now. Whereas before, we’d have one matron, and now we’ve got lots of matrons, and we’ve got lots of managers and deputies and everything, and it just seems to be worse than ever. Where’s all the money going? And the NHS is not attracting as many people [nurses] because obviously you go to university and you incur that debt. You know, it’s a lot, especially as we’re moving back towards apprenticeships. People are so frustrated, so nurses on wards do get a lot of flak, and they are trying their best, people are on their knees sometimes and it’s crazy.’

Linda also explained how workers in the NHS are increasingly being exploited with terms and conditions that are not dissimilar to those of gig-economy workers. ‘Now a lot of places are giving everybody part-time contracts, but then expecting them to pick extra hours up on overtime. And they’re using that to say, well, we can offer you your old jobs if you take part time, but if you want full time, there’ll be people who don’t get jobs. Then they take people on part time. They end up paying part-time holiday and sick pay, but they expect people to work extra hours and work effectively full-time, so they don’t get the full-time benefits. And also they destroy pensions. So I’m lucky, because of my age, I was protected, so I still got the old pension, the final salary. But now people are forced onto the worst pension scheme, you know, and NHS staff need to fight more, there’s a lot of apathy.’

Laura said, ‘I work in a school in an ex-mining town, and I see how damaging austerity has been for most of my pupils. Some students are coming to school without basic equipment such as pens, pencils and a ruler. Some are unable to complete homework or revision as they have to look after their younger siblings whilst their adult is working two or three jobs. Some are coming into school in worn-looking uniforms that have obviously been passed down from sibling to sibling. Some have coats that have a slight smell to them as their parents have to choose between washing the clothes, putting the heating on or feeding their children. Feeding and clothing children has now become the job of the school rather than the parents, because parents can’t always afford it and come to us for help.

‘We have become doctors, nurses, counsellors, restaurants and clothing stores. Where does that leave our actual job? At the bottom of the priority list. How can you teach a child Pythagoras, Macbeth or the perfect tense in French if they’re worried about where their next meal is coming from? How can we teach children who have been up all night looking after their baby brother because their parents are working to provide food?’

What should the trade unions do?

For work, Ally was in a discussion group with older people and a Labour MP who is a minister and part of the establishment of the Labour Party. Ally described how he had no answers for any of the issues that had been raised: ‘The group was older people and they laid into him straight away about fuel poverty and he couldn’t answer them, it was quite enjoyable to see him squirm a bit. But they all had valid points, why are they being persecuted? Just because they’re old or they earn that pound over the limit or they’ve always worked and don’t deserve this.’

All the women we spoke to expressed the need for unions to unite, coordinate action and be bolder. Ally said, ‘To be fairly honest, unions are not like they used to be. However, there is a joint local strike ballot going ahead, with Unison and GMB uniting for council and school workers, so teachers, TA’s, etc. We all should be on a specific wage across the board. All grades need pay to go up, and my colleagues are all in a union because I told them they need to be, and as soon as the ballot comes out, they need to get involved and vote.’

Like Ally, Laura also expressed the need for coordinated action from trade unions and more militancy. ‘All unions should be coming together to fight against the unfunded pay offer. It should be a joint venture, and when it’s not, it causes division as only some workers are taking a pay hit when striking; we need to unite.’

Linda says the strength of the unions has significantly declined, ‘I used to be a union rep. I’ve been in it since before it amalgamated into Unison, and our rep and I just didn’t like the way it was going. Unions to me were all about helping people, looking after workers. Our union, when it came to Labour Party leadership and then they back Starmer, no. A lot of management are in the unions now as well. So I have literally just stayed in. I mean, I’m flexibly retired, but I have literally stayed in the union just because I’ve always been in a union, really. And you never know what’s around corner, but I don’t think they really support workers in the way they used to.’

Welfare not warfare

It was announced this week that Labour are increasing defence spending by at least thirteen billion. Ally said, ‘My thoughts are Free Palestine! I don’t agree with defence spending. We need to reinforce our infrastructure. All these houses, new builds that have been put in place, there’s no schools, dentists or GP surgeries to go with them. There are no things that are your basic needs, they aren’t in place. But we will spend millions on war. If the government supported Palestine, they’d be going against the entire world, but they’d be standing up for the right thing. They just refuse to do it. Won’t even say it. And that’s where Labour completely lost me. Completely.’

Linda said, ‘The union are telling you to accept this pay deal and that pay deal. And really, in essence, we’ve had a 20% pay cut if you looked at everything we’ve missed out on. And I know there’s not a massive purse, but stop arming other people. Stop fighting other people’s wars. It’s just criminal, it’s horrible, I don’t believe in war at all.’

The NEU have just launched a consultative pay ballot. Laura said, ‘Labour can find money to spend on weapons, but they can’t find the money to fully fund the 2.8% pay rise that has been offered? What’s the point in trying to build a better economy for the future if the future generation can’t even read and write properly?’

Ally: ‘At the very least, we need a left party. Labour is not left. We need workers to be recognised, your average everyday people need to be recognised, and that, I believe, is why the Reform Party is getting so much support. It’s not necessarily racism, though I do usually label the majority of them racist. In this area, people were very annoyed at the last election because there wasn’t a Reform candidate. And they were telling me this (even knowing my surname) and the reasons why they hate immigrants. And it’s the ignorance that is beyond frustrating. It’s people in my office as well; having to explain to the supposedly educated adults why that’s wrong is beyond frustrating. But I do think Labour lost a lot of their vote to Reform in these deprived areas because Reform make it seem like people are being listened to. And they are not, we all know they are billionaires.’

Concluding with what gives her hope in these bleak times, Ally said, ‘In particular, the continuation of the Palestine Marches give me hope and also the fuel-poverty meetings and things like that. There are still people listening, and if those people can listen and they can tell another person, we need that message to spread. We all deserve more. We’re all just living our lives. None of us should be penalised for just existing, and that needs to spread.’ Laura added that the fact people voted out the Tories and they are no longer in power gives her hope.