TUC leader calls for ‘year of delivery’ for workers

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC. Photo Peter Byrne/PA Wire

A union leader has called for 2025 to be a “year of delivery” for workers after 14 years of “Tory chaos”.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said in his new year message that working people desperately needed “tangible change”.

He said: “Repairing and rebuilding Britain after 14 years of Tory chaos and decline is a massive challenge for the Government, but 2025 has to be a year of delivery.

“Continuing with the same broken status quo is not an option.

“As recent elections in the US and across the globe have shown, securing economic growth is not enough on its own. Families want to feel better off and to see material improvements in their day-to-day lives.”

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'Historic opportunity'

Improving job quality and putting more money into people’s pockets was an “urgent national mission”, said Mr Nowak, adding: “Working households up down this country are hurting and we cannot afford to ignore it.

“The Government has a historic opportunity – and an electoral mandate – to make work pay.

“Delivering the Employment Rights Bill in full will boost living standards for millions and create a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.

“We must not get distracted or diverted from this task. Creating better-quality jobs also requires an industrial strategy worthy of its name – something we never got under the Tories.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Our Plan to Make Work Pay is a core part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all. It will tackle the low pay, poor working conditions and poor job security that has been holding our economy back.

“The plan will help more people to stay in work, improve job security and boost living standards. Once implemented, the plan will represent the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation.”

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Neil Anderson 3 July 2026

I firmly support the TUC's objectives for their members, but urge them to widen their quest for social justice to include the non-workers - the many people (ex-trade unionists often, pensioners, beneficiaries, the homeless...) - whom the shy socialists of this renegade Labour Party (the RLP) have steadfastly ignored. And, shockingly, in the case of cold and elderly people, the RLP has actively dismissed their needs. We - and I am one - have no voice, or at least not one loud enough to be heard. But, although apparently being consigned to wastelands of Reform, we do have a bite! We all need to join in a popular front (sic) to defeat the real enemy, neo-liberal capitalism (NLC), before it defeats us and destroys our home and our planet. Neo-liberalism can be defeated: it is tottering as it runs out of time, out of space and out of resources. Soon, if we let it rampage on, there will only be barren money left, trickling up and held in the hands of the few. Paul Nowak, please help! For us in Cymru, the unionist parties (Labour, Tory, LibDems, Reform) are all part of a NLC cabal with nothing to offer the vast majority of the people. More in England are beginning to recognise this too. A plague on all their houses! Our struggle does have nationalist champions (Plaid Cymru, Propel) that offer us a way forward. But independence alone won't be enough. If we want social and economic justice, we must defeat neo-liberalism and its craven handmaidens at the ballot box in 2026 (Senedd) and 2029 (parliament). Then Cymru can arise, and bring us the freedom, the equity and the peace we are all entitled to. Venceremos!

Neil Anderson 3 July 2026

Anticipating criticisms and queries, I should outline where the money would come from - a tedious and shallow question all too frequently asked. Despite the quaint behaviour of the incompetent Reeves et al, not to mention her funny money fantasy of a £22b black hole, a government with a fiat currency (eg. UK) can always create money - at will, and to the limits provided by an efficient taxation system (eg. not UK). Completely unlike a business or a household, please note. This was exemplified most recently by the repurchase of military housing - £6b was suddenly magicked out of nowhere to pay for it. Easy. Think also Covid, Second World War etc. This was a wholly political choice to rectify a very bad economic decision made in the past - to privatise that housing. It was a similarly wholly political choice not to create money to pay for a winter fuel allowance, a dereliction of duty for which the Rogue Labour Party (RLP) will be forever damned, and denying warmth to millions. And why does an 'efficient taxation system' matter? The primary function of tax is to recover and destroy the extra money created and hence avoid inflation (beyond a low level essential for a functioning economy). Instead, successive governments (Tory, Labour - what's the diff?), under the thrall of a misguided Bank of England (which ignores their very own 2014 report on money creation), that purport to believe that the manipulation of interest rates (and never mind the collateral damage on households and businesses) can control inflation. Recent history suggests otherwise. Other wholly political choices could make life easier for us all. But our enduring austerity is favoured by the powerful because it accelerates the trickle-up processes to the benefit of the powerful. Quelle surprise! An independent Cymru with our own fiat currency will exercise that power to ensure the food, shelter, income, health and care and education that meets real needs in the real world. We will also have a fair and equitable taxation system and firm control of inflation, unhindered by vested interests and the over-active lobbyists which infest Westminster.

Rhun Arfon 3 July 2026

With someone as knowledgeable as you in charge Wales could only become a World powerhouse. Go for it you have a masterplan that cannot fail.

In reply to Rhun Arfon

Neil Anderson 3 July 2026

Diolch Rhun, but modesty forbids! I wouldn't want our country to become a world powerhouse - merely to be sustainable and at ease, with ourselves, with other countries and our environments. Advocating and facilitating sanctuary, harmony and peace. But I do have a part of a plan to contribute to our future. A real change to the continuing failure of our systems, our false gods, the pain far too many suffer. The confected non-change of Starmer inflicted on us by our English overlords with the assistance of the local branch of the Rogue Labour Party is taking us nowhere except where we don't want to go. More poverty, more homelessness, more alienation, more wealth extraction, more pylons, more pollution...we must move from the Age of More to the Age of Better. What really matters? Will we feed our children rather than our cars? For now, it should be the priorities that matter most - food, shelter, income, health and care and education. We should turn 2025 into a Year of Hope and a Year of Action. Working together, we can all create visions and plans to achieve our dreams.

In reply to Neil Anderson

Rhun Arfon 3 July 2026

Can you come up with an immediate way that Welsh people do not have to flock to English hospitals to secure medical treatment. Miracles seem to be your forte.

In reply to Rhun Arfon

Neil Anderson 3 July 2026

Hitting me with easy ones, huh Rhun? You might concede that thinking can be quick but action usually takes longer...? So shooting from the hip, I'd say... ...the only short-term option may be to reintroduce and maintain shift allowances and other penal rates, increase pay rates, and provide 24h access to good food for patients and staff. This might delay a few potholes...but priorities, priorities... Medium-term, we need to staff hospitals and care homes more than adequately, and especially ancillary staff who are also often the lowest paid. Specific improvements might include recruitment focused on our young people, rewards for re-engaging staff, more flexible hours, staff development, study inducements, reduction of student debt if employed in Cymru, provision of exercise facilities for patients and staff within hospitals and care homes, a creche...ask the nurses... A flexible career pathway should be available to all, and retirement available after 30y service, with seniority given recognition. Preventive strategies need to become central to the lifestyles of all ages. The aim is to prolong healthy lives at all ages. Long-term, the wider take-up of healthier lifestyles will reduce the demand for some services - but possibly not sports injuries! Colleges, universities and institutes should expand their academic, research capacities, and provide for more medical and care service staff, chemistry, biochemistry and other students. There is a newly literate and computerate age ahead... For efficient planning and to reduce waste, all departments should be guaranteed long-term funding. Investment in education has a sometimes variable though always positive multiplier, but is probably overtaken by the return gained from nurturing families and communities. Simples. Thanks for your interest in my health instant manifesto! But caution - one should not believe in miracles, nor their purveyors.

In reply to Neil Anderson

Llinos dafydd 3 July 2026

The Thatererite answer.

In reply to Llinos dafydd

Neil Anderson 3 July 2026

Are you sure, Llinos? More staff, higher wages...not a murmur about 'productivity'... Perhaps you missed my earlier attack (in this thread) on neo-liberal capitalism? I've been fiercely opposed to monetarism, thatcherism and fascism for at least 50y. How do you figure the contrary? Or are you teasing me, like Rhun?

TUC leader calls for ‘year of delivery’ for workers

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