Gasoline Poverty, NHS Staffing, Zero Hours – Three protests in London on Tuesday twenty sixth November 2013 about points which are nonetheless very a lot with us – and which have gotten worse since ten years in the past at this time.
Justice Not Jumpers at NPower HQ – Metropolis
Ten years in the past gas poverty activists had been protesting that profiteering by the foremost power suppliers was resulting in many individuals having to selected between consuming and holding heat, inflicting many pointless deaths. They protested to attract consideration to the scandal of power firms making big income and avoiding taxes whereas many died due to their greed.
The protest got here on the day that figures had been introduced for ‘extra winter deaths’, of which a minimum of 30% are attributable to chilly properties. The earlier yr the determine had been round 24,000 however that introduced on the day of the protest got here as a shock, having elevated by round a 3rd to 31,000.
The protest in London was one in every of a number of across the nation together with at British Gasoline’s new Oxford HQ, in addition to in Lewes and Bristol. NPower had been chosen for the London protest for its poor file of buyer complaints and for having made bigger value rises in that yr than the opposite Massive Six firms – 9.3% electrical energy and 11.1% fuel.
The businesses defend the worth rises, spreading the lie that ‘inexperienced taxes’ had been responsible, although these are a comparatively minor consider prices. The actual downside is that privatisation signifies that giant quantities are taken from our payments to pay to shareholders on high of the growing prices of soiled fossil fuels.
NPower takes 5p in each pound we pay as revenue and welcomes growing prices as this provides to their income which rose by over a 3rd to £413 million within the earlier winter when its value hikes pushed an estimate 300,000 extra folks into gas poverty. Regardless of its big income the corporate had managed to keep away from paying any company tax for the previous three years.
Protesters met at Financial institution for a funeral procession across the Metropolis streets to the NPower places of work in Throgmorton St with a coffin being carried by pallbears with masks together with these of Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborn and sporting jumpers with the logos of the foremost power firms.
On the NPower places of work they lowered the coffin in entrance of the row of police defending the constructing and a rally came about on the road. One of many first audio system was Andy Greene of Disabled Individuals In opposition to Cuts, who spoke of the results the power value rises had been having, inflicting nice hardship to many disabled folks. Testimonies had been then learn from many people how that they had to decide on between heating and consuming; many had been already chilly and dreading the approaching winter.
Extra photos at Justice Not Jumpers at NPower HQ.
4:1 authorized minimal NHS staffing – Dept of Well being, Whitehall
Nurses started the 4:1 marketing campaign to attract consideration to the disaster of staffing within the NHS the place there have been then over 20,000 nursing vacancies and to the Division of Well being’s resolution to downgrade 100 A&E departments, successfully closing them. They known as for a compulsory staffing degree of 1 nurse for each 4 sufferers within the NHS.
The marketing campaign acknowledged “The general public have had sufficient of overworked employees, unprecedented avoidable loss of life charges and destructive press concerning the NHS. The general public and nurses alike know the worth of the NHS, and wish to see it carry out to its finest, offering the dignified care sufferers deserve.“
They had been joined within the protest exterior the Ministry of Well being, then in Richmond Home in Whitehall, by different teams involved about the way forward for the NHS, together with these stating the menace to the NHS of the EU-US Commerce Treaty, which might open up the entire of the NHS to privatisation.
They had been joined by campaigners in opposition to the deliberate closure of many A&E items throughout the nation and by these preventing to avoid wasting hospitals together with at Lewisham and King George V in Redbridge, in addition to these with extra common considerations about the way forward for the NHS.
4:1 authorized minimal NHS staffing
Cultural Employees in opposition to Zero Hours – Millennium Bridge
PCS members from nationwide cultural establishments in London staged a protest at Tate Fashionable and on the Millennium Bridge in opposition to zero hour contracts which gave them no assured weekly hours or revenue, whereas stopping them taking up different work.
The variety of staff on zero hours contracts greater than doubled from round 250,000 in 2012 to round 600,000 in 2013, and since then has continued to extend to round 1.18 million in 2023, over 3% of the whole workforce. Though authorized within the UK, zero hours contracts are inherently unfair on staff and an exploitation of labour. Labour had pledged to outlaw them, but when they get into authorities with Starmer as chief we’re unlikely to get fairer labour legal guidelines.
Employers use zero-hour contracts to chop wages, keep away from vacation pay, pensions, and make sure the most flexibility and revenue for themselves. Many on zero hours contracts in 2013 had been additionally prevented from taking up different part-time work, as they had been typically obliged to be accessible for work on the whim of the employer.
The regulation was modified in 2015 to make contracts which stopped staff from having different part-time jobs. However though in concept staff aren’t obliged to simply accept any work provided, in apply ought to they refuse hours provided for any cause they know that they are going to be handled much less favourably by the employer sooner or later, typically severely discriminated in opposition to.
Zero hours contracts had been initially designed to be used in very restricted and particular circumstances the place there use is perhaps justified however are actually a widespread type of exploitation. The PCS (and different commerce unions) “consider that assured hours, a dwelling wage, vacation and sick pay, respect for employment rights, and dignity and respect at work needs to be basic entitlements for all staff.”
Cultural Employees in opposition to Zero Hours
Tags: 4:1 marketing campaign, A&E, A&E closures, bursing vacancies, cultural staff, disabled, consuming or heating, exces winter deaths, extra deaths, exploitation of labour, fossil gas, gas firm income, Gasoline poverty, Gasoline Poverty Motion, gas poverty deaths, funeral procession, big income, inherently unfair, justice not jumpers, London, obligatory staffing, march, Millennium bridge, NHS, NHS Staffing, NPower, nurse shortge, PCS, pensioners, peter Marshall, privatisation, protest, winter deaths, zero hour contracts, zero hours, zero hours contracts
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