The Living Wage Campaign

Here’s the article I’ve written for Unions Together this week. It was submitted in response to the question:

How would you practically implement a living wage?

I’ve put the living wage campaign at the centre of my campaign for the Labour leadership because it sums up both the Labour Party’s values and its activism.

It speaks to our values because it touches our deep sense of justice, of fairness and of a belief in the dignity of work. And it speaks to our activism because this has never been a party to rest on its accomplishments or believe change only comes from those with the most power. To equip ourselves for government once more, the Labour Party needs to become a vibrant movement for change – and taking on grassroots campaigns like this is crucial to that endeavour.

I’ve already thrown my support behind Labour Councils and Labour Groups who have led the way on the living wage – like Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Glasgow, Preston, Oxford, Lambeth and Hackney – and I’ll be working with others to do the same.

Businesses too have a chance to show they are responsible employers by adopting the living wage and Labour members can and should campaign to raise the wages of the lowest paid employees in shops and banks as well as councils.

When in government I pushed to make Whitehall a Living Wage employer -– a commitment that appeared in our manifesto. When in government again we need to throw its entire weight behind the campaign, by supporting councils who adopt it, by broadening the range of public sector workers who get it and by moving towards a procurement process that supports living wage employers bidding for external contracts.

The living wage campaign can become the hallmark of a Labour Party engaged in local communities, campaigning for change. It can show that even in Opposition we can help some of the poorest people in society to do better.

Labour brought in the minimum wage, we now have an opportunity to lead the fight for a living wage. I hope we will seize it.

You can sign the petition in support of the living wage here.