Fair Pay in the South West

We are getting paid less and less!

Chart from False Economy

...while the rich are getting richer...

And in the South West, were way down in the pay league table...
UK Region London South East England East Anglia Scotland North West England West Midlands South West England Gross Income 27,868 21,109 21,109 19,282 19,236 18,801 18,629

Yorkshire & the Humber East Midlands

Wales North East England

18,614 18,321
17,651 17,594
Office of National Statistics, 2011

Plus the rise in inflation...

It all adds up to one problem:

Our wages have been kept down in order to maintain the position of the wealthiest 1%. But thats not all...

South West NHS Pay Cartel

Over 20 NHS trusts across the South West have come together to jointly attack the negotiated Agenda for Change NHS Pay, Terms and Conditions by: Cutting annual leave entitlement Increasing the working week (with no corresponding increase in pay) Cutting sick pay entitlement Cutting unsocial hours allowances Introducing performance related pay

Beecroft Review of Workplace Rights

Payday loan mogul Adrian Beecroft calls for:

staff in small firms to lose unfair dismissal, pension, flexible working, parental leave, gangmaster and equal pay rights Huge costs in filing Employment Tribunal claims Curbing (yawn) union power in public sector

But were still encouraged to gawp in awe at the super rich, despite their wealth hoarding and tax dodging causing the crisis...

(definition of irony)

We need a wage lead recovery.

In the immediate post-war years British society resembled a pyramid with a small and privileged group at the top, a larger but still small and comfortable middle and a large majority at the bottom. By the end of the 1970s, Britain had moved closer to a diamond shape with a small group of the rich and the poor and a much fatter middle. Today the social map has changed again. In just three decades, Britain has moved away from a diamond to an onionshaped society with a small super-elite of the very rich, a minority group of the affluent and a large bulge below the middle.

Unfair to Middling: How Middle Income Britains shrinking wages fuelled the crash and threaten recovery; TUC ToUChstone Pahmphet

Thats why we need a...

But what is the living wage?

In 1894, Mark Oldroyd, Liberal MP for Dewsbury wrote:

A living wage must be sufficient to maintain the worker in the highest state of industrial efficiency, with decent surroundings and sufficient leisure.

How much is the living wage?

Calculated using living costs rent, food, clothing, utilities, and leisure costs...

7.20 an hour outside of Greater London, calculated by

Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University

8.30 an hour inside Greater London, calculated by the

Greater London Authority

Who pays the living wage?

Full list: http://s.coop/whopaysthelivingwage

How is it won?
Broad based community coalitions bringing together trade unions, faith groups, residents associations, student unions and activist groups, local political parties and many more Applying political pressure to leaders petitions, stunts, public meetings/rallies Union organising in the workplace either using established collective bargaining or campaigning for union recognition and collective bargaining

Campaigns are launching soon in Bristol and Bournemouth

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www.fairpaysouthwest.wordpress.com
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