Last week staff at Morrisons were voting over whether to accept a pay deal negotiated by the union. That is if they knew about the ballot at all. Okay so we had a poster in store saying there was a pay ballot, but if you have only started at the company within the last year (like majority of the staff, at least 5% of the staff are replenished each month) and you don’t know that much about unions you probably won’t realise you are of the people who has a vote. Even for someone who is slightly more clued up like myself, I had to wait until the day after to vote as the personnel office where the ballot box is was closed.
A Morrisons worker
The terms of the deal are even harder to find out. A conversation with our union rep led to me finding out that the deal would probably mean an increase of £5 a week in our pay with our wage going up to £6 an hour in February next year. Considering that most workers at Morrisons earn 4p above minimum wage, there perhaps is a sense of at least this is going in the right direction a bit. Later I found out more about the offer, but not from the union website which I looked at first and found absolutely nothing about the offer. Rather it was from an unofficial staff forum that I finally found out that with the deal pay will go up to £5.86 in October (when the minimum wage goes up to £5.73) and then £6 in February.
Whilst this increase means that we will be an extra 20p an hour above the minimum wage in February next year it still means our pay will be very low, far below the European Decency threshold which stands at £8 an hour. Furthermore, with inflation soaring this increase is likely to be swept away very quickly. Given the £612 million pre-tax profits Morrisons made last year, the surely much more could have been fought for?
The lacklustre approach of the union leadership in relation to this is indicative of a great number of other problems Morrisons workers face and the union fails to take action over. One of the biggest problems is understaffing which means that workers effectively have to do the jobs of two or more people, unsurprisingly this leads to accidents and taking short-cuts with health and safety. My department alone has at least one accident a day if not more!
John Hannett (USDAW General Secretary) gets £100,000 a year salary plus a free Jaguar – I wonder how closely he feels the pains that the members he is supposed to represent have to endure. What we need is a leadership prepared to fight, if they took the pitifully low wage we have to accept then their might be a fight for a minimum wage of £8 for all retail workers. Such a demand is in Robbie Segal’s programme as she stands against Hannett in the General Secreatry elections, which is why I shall be building her campaign in my store.
Showing posts with label low pay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label low pay. Show all posts
Monday, 28 July 2008
Thursday, 12 June 2008
The Struggle For A living Wage
By Robbie Segal
(Usdaw General Secretary candidate)
The minimum wage for many of our members is an important issue. Shop workers are low paid and are paid the minimum wage or just above. As a Tesco worker I know what it is like to live on little more than the minimum wage year after year.
As part of my election programme I have called for an hourly rate of £8 per hour. At present, the minimum wage is £5.52 per hour if you are 22 and over - a 36.5 hour week gives you a weekly pay of £201.48. For younger workers the rate is even more pitiful. A worker aged 18-21 is on £4.60 per hour and £3.40 per hour for all workers under the age of 18.
Is this enough to live on!?With prices of all the main stable foods rocketing, and fuel for our car and to heat our homes becoming luxury items, the trade unions must intervene to end poverty wages.
For those living on the meagre wages of the National Minimum Wage, it is a disgrace to the fourth richest country in the world. If all those who set the National Minimum Wage had to live on such a wage then they would be the first to shout loudest for a massive increase.
Twenty years ago in Usdaw when the minimum wage debate started, the union agreed to fight for a weekly wage of £120 for a 35 hour week. When the New Labour government came to power, the trade unions compromised on a much lower minimum hourly rate. The National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 and was set at £3.60 per hour. For 35 hours pay this worked out at £144 per week. A few quid more than the original demand some 10 years earlier. This compromise meant the National Minimum Wage was a poverty wage.
The government’s increases have been the bench mark for our negotiations. For the companies who only pay pennies above the minimum wage, they have to offer us the same as the minimum wage increase. This year the minimum wage was increased by 3.8%. So let’s see what Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison offer us!
The Tesco starter rate is £5.94 and that is a mere 42p above the minimum wage and that is one of the best agreements.
The government is squeezing the public sector pay and it won’t be long before the same will be demanded in the private sector. What will our leaders do then? With their partnership strategy and acceptance of such a low minimum wage rate, it will be impossible to mobilise Usdaw members to fight for a few pennies.
One of the criticisms made against me when I demand a decent wage is that the members are apathetic and this is shown by the lack of turn-out in wage ballots. I believe the reason the members don’t vote is because they feel outside the whole wage bargaining process, feel their point of view does not matter anyhow and if they did fight would our leaders be serious about the struggle.
It won’t be an easy campaign to win a decent wage but it is a battle that must be started. Otherwise the millions of retail workers outside the ranks of the trade unions will remain there and the bosses will be laughing for the rest of their lives with the luxuries they receive from the labour of poor retail workers.
I will argue on the EC and at ADM that we start a campaign of mass mobilisation around the £8 per hour demand. I will ask the other unions with members in retail sector to join the struggle. But the one thing I am sure of, it won’t be a campaign giving instructions from the leaders of Usdaw to the our members.
Three of the four largest unions Usdaw, GMB and Unite (TGWU) all have agreements with the big four retailers. The unions should organise a joint national campaign to increase the wages for all retail workers. The unions should launch an extensive campaign of agitation to win retail workers to possible strike action thus ensuring the employers know the unions are really serious this time about fighting for members.. This is why I believe that all the trade unions must unite in a campaign to secure for the low paid a decent, living wage.
(Usdaw General Secretary candidate)
The minimum wage for many of our members is an important issue. Shop workers are low paid and are paid the minimum wage or just above. As a Tesco worker I know what it is like to live on little more than the minimum wage year after year.
As part of my election programme I have called for an hourly rate of £8 per hour. At present, the minimum wage is £5.52 per hour if you are 22 and over - a 36.5 hour week gives you a weekly pay of £201.48. For younger workers the rate is even more pitiful. A worker aged 18-21 is on £4.60 per hour and £3.40 per hour for all workers under the age of 18.
Is this enough to live on!?With prices of all the main stable foods rocketing, and fuel for our car and to heat our homes becoming luxury items, the trade unions must intervene to end poverty wages.
For those living on the meagre wages of the National Minimum Wage, it is a disgrace to the fourth richest country in the world. If all those who set the National Minimum Wage had to live on such a wage then they would be the first to shout loudest for a massive increase.
Twenty years ago in Usdaw when the minimum wage debate started, the union agreed to fight for a weekly wage of £120 for a 35 hour week. When the New Labour government came to power, the trade unions compromised on a much lower minimum hourly rate. The National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 and was set at £3.60 per hour. For 35 hours pay this worked out at £144 per week. A few quid more than the original demand some 10 years earlier. This compromise meant the National Minimum Wage was a poverty wage.
The government’s increases have been the bench mark for our negotiations. For the companies who only pay pennies above the minimum wage, they have to offer us the same as the minimum wage increase. This year the minimum wage was increased by 3.8%. So let’s see what Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison offer us!
The Tesco starter rate is £5.94 and that is a mere 42p above the minimum wage and that is one of the best agreements.
The government is squeezing the public sector pay and it won’t be long before the same will be demanded in the private sector. What will our leaders do then? With their partnership strategy and acceptance of such a low minimum wage rate, it will be impossible to mobilise Usdaw members to fight for a few pennies.
One of the criticisms made against me when I demand a decent wage is that the members are apathetic and this is shown by the lack of turn-out in wage ballots. I believe the reason the members don’t vote is because they feel outside the whole wage bargaining process, feel their point of view does not matter anyhow and if they did fight would our leaders be serious about the struggle.
It won’t be an easy campaign to win a decent wage but it is a battle that must be started. Otherwise the millions of retail workers outside the ranks of the trade unions will remain there and the bosses will be laughing for the rest of their lives with the luxuries they receive from the labour of poor retail workers.
I will argue on the EC and at ADM that we start a campaign of mass mobilisation around the £8 per hour demand. I will ask the other unions with members in retail sector to join the struggle. But the one thing I am sure of, it won’t be a campaign giving instructions from the leaders of Usdaw to the our members.
Three of the four largest unions Usdaw, GMB and Unite (TGWU) all have agreements with the big four retailers. The unions should organise a joint national campaign to increase the wages for all retail workers. The unions should launch an extensive campaign of agitation to win retail workers to possible strike action thus ensuring the employers know the unions are really serious this time about fighting for members.. This is why I believe that all the trade unions must unite in a campaign to secure for the low paid a decent, living wage.
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