The union body says UK families are at breaking point as pay fails to keep up with rising prices.
Image source, PA MediaThe “longest wage squeeze since Napoleonic times” has left UK families at breaking point, the head of the Trades Union Congress has said.
Workers are facing two decades with no real wage growth, Frances O’Grady told the TUC conference in Brighton.
Prices have risen faster than wages since the financial crisis in 2008.
In response, the government said it was “determined to make work pay” and said it had already increased the minimum wage.
Ms O’Grady said there was a “moral and economic argument for making sure people’s pay packets at least keep up with inflation”.
“The economy has become skewed,” she told the BBC’s Today programme, ahead of the conference.
“Shareholder dividends have been rising much, much faster while real pay has been falling.
“We need people to have money in their pockets to spend in pubs local shops to keep our High Streets open.”
The union umbrella body is warning that the anger felt by workers over falling real wages is likely to lead to hundreds of thousands joining the picket line this winter. Nurses, doctors and teachers are already being balloted on action.
This week at the TUC conference unions are expected to vote in favour of co-ordinating any strikes.
The TUC estimates that real wages – which take rising prices into account – will not return to their 2008 level until 2028.
That would mean a further loss in real terms of £4,000, on average, over the next three years as a result of price rises outstripping wage growth.
The union body calculates that the average worker will have lost a total of £24,000 in real earnings since the 2008 financial crash as a result of pay not keeping pace with inflation.
The TUC used Bank of England and Office for National Statistics data to make the calculations.
Ms O’Grady, who is stepping down after almost a decade as TUC general secretary, said the government’s policies had caused “mess and damage” affecting livelihoods, mortgages and household bills.
Public sector staff were leaving “in droves” because of poor pay rates, she added.
A government spokesperson said it was supporting people with bills due to the impact of rising costs.
“In the long-term, we are committed to building a high skilled, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work,” they added.
In her speech later, Ms O’Grady warned the government not to go ahead with plans that would make it harder for unions to organise strike action.
“If ministers cross the road to pick a fight with us then we will meet them halfway… we will see you in court,” she said.
There has already been a wave of strike action affecting postal, communication and rail services. Barristers and dockworkers have also been on strike.
The government has said it will do what it can to minimise disruption. It has proposed requiring unions to put pay offers to a member vote before calling a strike. It also aims to introduce legislation to ensure transport companies maintain a minimum level of service during industrial action.
The government said strike action should be the result of a positive decision by union members and that those who do not support strike actions should be able to continue working through any industrial dispute.
Frances O’Grady told the TUC that government plans to make it harder to strike were a “cynical effort to distract from the mess” ministers have caused.
New rules on allowing employers to hire agency workers during strikes have already been passed.