Trade Unions representing thousands of workers across Wales have thrown their weight behind protests over the soaring cost of energy bills and food prices.
The cost of living crisis has fast become a major political issue and one that millions of people simply cannot ignore. Writing last week, Heledd Fychan, a Plaid Cymru Member of the Welsh Parliament, said that she had seen a surge in people, mostly those in work, turning to her office for help ase payments. they faced a choice on whether to pay for food, clothing, heating, fuel and rent or mortgage payments.
Cover image by Tom Davies
Protests in Wales will take place in Cardiff and Llandudno on Saturday 2nd April (details below), and are part of almost thirty events on the day organised by the People’s Assembly anti-austerity network.
All in all, thousands are expected to hit the streets demanding immediate relief and government legislation to combat the soaring cost of living crisis as well as justice for the 800 illegally sacked P&O Ferry workers.
The protests will take place the day after average household energy bills in the UK jump by 54%, with yet another rise expected in October, when bills could hit £2,000 a year.
PCS, Unite and UNISON are among the unions in Wales backing the call for action whilst Beth Winter, the Labour MP for Cynon Valley, is also urging people to protest.
Trade unionists have hit out at workers being asked to pay for yet another crisis, just 14 years after they were made to pay for the collapse of the financial system in 2008.
Dominic MacAskill, head of bargaining and campaigns for UNISON Cymru/Wales, which represents thousands of public sector workers, said that these workers are “being forced to deal with a toxic mix of a decade of cuts combined with low wages and sky high fuel and energy bills.”
“Earlier this year UNISON balloted for strike action after local government workers were offered a meagre 1.75% pay rise which in real terms is a pay cut and does nothing to help those staff who are struggling to feed their families whilst also carrying out vital public services,” he said.
UNISON Cymru Wales said they are also calling for an immediate mileage rate rise from all local authorities and care providers in Wales. “Some are paying as little as 20p a mile meaning vulnerable people are being put at serious risk as carers can’t afford to travel,” Mr MacAskill said.
Marianne Owens, a member of the national executive of the PCS trade union labelled last week’s Spring Statement by Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak “a disgraceful response by the government to rising poverty and the biggest fall in living standards since records began.”
“Inflation is at a 30 year high, household bills and the price of food is skyrocketing, wage growth over the last 10 years has been at its lowest since the Napoleonic period,” she said. “This is a national crisis that requires a national crisis response, the Tories either don’t understand or don’t care and the only way we can make them listen is by joining the demonstrations up and down the country on Saturday”
Unite Wales, who represent both private and public sector workers, advertised the protest on their social media accounts by saying: “It’s time to make a stand. Join us on the day if you can.”
The union recently won key victories in Wales with bus drivers working for Arriva and Stagecoach , both winning pay rises following determined strike action. Cardiff People’s Assembly say their aim is to bring together community action over the rising cost of living with industrial action of this kind.
Sue Leader, branch secretary of Unite Community Cardiff and Vale, who organise among the unwaged and who are backing the day of action, said that the Tory cabinet had no conception of what life was like for those who will struggle to eat or heat their homes as a result of the Spring Statement.
“They continue to treat us without respect or dignity,” she said. “We must find the courage to say enough, and make a stand. Fill the streets every week with protests they can’t arrest us all…Can they? Better to break the law than to break the poor”
Meanwhile Beth Winter, Labour MP for Cynon Valley, called for people to join her at the protest, saying that:
“The cost-of-living crisis is biting hard, with everything going up except incomes. This crisis is a political choice, designed and overseen by a ruling elite who won’t suffer it themselves. The Tories understand very well that living standards are falling and people are being driven into poverty and destitution, they are choosing to do it anyway.”
“We can’t afford to stand by and let them wage war on the working class any longer. We must fight back. We must organise.Join me in Cardiff on Saturday to protest the cost of living crisis.”-
A spokesperson for The People’s Assembly Against Austerity, the group organising the protests, said:
“Saturday 2nd April will mark the third People’s Assembly protest date of the year highlighting The Cost of Living Crisis. The slogan “We Can’t Pay” speaks to the reality facing millions of people who will see their energy prices increase roughly £700 pounds a year starting in April.
“1 in 5 adults in the UK don’t have £100 of savings in the bank and increases in energy costs disproportionately affect the poor who pay a larger share of their income to energy costs. Rishi Sunak’s miserly spring budget statement last week confirms that the government will drive 1.3 million people into absolute poverty without offering adequate legislative assistance.”
They added that it wasn’t just those on the lowest incomes who would suffer but those on middle incomes as well who face “stagnant wages, inflation soaring over 7 percent and food prices rising at even a higher rate.”
“Despite all this, we’re seeing gas and oil companies making record breaking profits and passing on rising costs to customers.”
They added the protests would also be standing in solidarity with sacked P&O Ferry workers.
“The recent sacking of 800 seafarers has galvanised public sentiment against P&O, a company that received millions of pounds of taxpayer money during the furlough scheme only to dump their “essential workers” in order to maximise shareholder profit. This is a watershed moment for the labour movement and if P&O can get away with firing 800 workers and replacing them with non unionised, agency staff who can be exploited because of loopholes in the National Minimum Wage law, there is no telling how many jobs and livelihoods will be destroyed by starvation wages and a race to the bottom.”
The protests will be held on Saturday 2nd April in CARDIFF at 12.30 by the Nye Bevan statue, Queen St.
And
In LLANDUDNO at 1 pm outside the old M&S store on Mostyn Street
