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What did union do?
• IN the Tribune last year we criticised the middle-class trade union Unison for doing nothing to prevent Care UK, in collusion with Islington Council, slashing its care worker members’ pay from £23,000 to £12,000 a year.
Terence Patrick Luke responded by asking: “Are road sweepers, school kitchen assistants, care workers and caretakers middle class?”
As the demarcation line between middle class and working class is at key worker level, Mr Luke had a point.
On March 17 this year we wrote to Mr Luke personally asking whether care workers’ pay was, in fact, cut from £23,000 to £12,000 and what did Unison do about it? Mr Luke did not reply.
We now learn from the Tribune (Care staff paid to take lower wages, October 5) that care workers’ pay was so cut. Unison did nothing about the pay cut. All it did was query the miserly amount of “compensation” paid by Care UK with Islington Council money.
Unison does have working-class members. However, the middle class members are the ones who make the decisions. In the Islington Council situation, middle-class members are the employers doing the cutting and sacking. Working-class members are the employees being cut and sacked. Deputy chief executive Andy Jennings is entitled to be a member of Unison.
In Poland, even doctors are lucky to get £3,000 a year. Polish workers are glad to come over here and work for the minimum wage. Conventional wisdom has it that Polish workers and British workers should get together in Unison and stop the employers using their improved bargaining power to cut pay. In practice, though, Unison agrees to pay cuts for its working-class members.
Finsbury Forum believes it is about time working-class people stuck up for themselves, whether it is about jobs, pay, somewhere to live at a reasonable rent or anything else. They will be particularly welcome at Finsbury Forum’s next meeting at Visbast Hall (corner of Ironmonger Row and Old Street) at 7pm on Thursday, October 25.
FLORENCE AND IVOR KENNA
Compton Street, EC1
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