PROFITEERING bosses will face a summer of strikes unless they stop attacking workers’ living standards “to pay the price of inflation,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warned today.

She said tens of thousands of workers will withdraw their labour in hundreds of disputes unless employers drop their “abhorrent” attempts to limit pay rises and instead offer “a proper, fair wage.”

Ms Graham said in a BBC television interview that since she was elected general secretary of Unite 10 months ago, 67,000 of the union’s members have gone on strike, winning pay rises totalling £50 million.

She said: “Calls for wage restraint by employers who slashed pay during the pandemic are abhorrent.

“Ordinary workers have already had a spring, summer, autumn and winter of discontent for years.

“It’s time to stop telling workers to pay the price for inflation and to start demanding an end to excessive profiteering.”

A report commissioned by the union dispelled the myth that wage increases are causing the cost-of-living crisis and identified inflation and corporate profits as being to blame.

The report reveals that the profit margins of the FTSE top 350 companies rose by a staggering 73 per cent during the pandemic.

It also says that the spiral of company profits in the last six months is responsible for almost 60 per cent of the current inflation rise, while wage rises accounted for only 8 per cent.