{"id":1664,"date":"2014-10-01T13:33:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1664"},"modified":"2014-10-01T13:33:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T12:33:30","slug":"winter-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1664","title":{"rendered":"Winter of poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Thousands of local government works will be forced to choose between heating their homes and eating after the coalition government has allowed their pay to fall to the national minimum wage of just \u00c2\u01416.50 an hour.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nCare workers, cleaners, librarians and teaching assistants, the people who ensure the smooth running of our local authorities and provide vital services, will face a winter of poverty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a disgrace and a searing indictment that the Tories have allowed the wages of vital public servants who underpin council services 365 days a year to fall to such levels,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Fiona Farmer, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national officer for local government.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong><em>Fair pay not poverty pay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nSince 2010 local government workers have seen their pay eroded by 20 per cent. They have suffered three straight years of wage freezes while working harder to deliver vital local services.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe majority of the workforce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 77 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is made up of women, many working part-time, who are bearing the brunt of the austerity measures, while George Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chums, the wealthy elite, live it up thanks to generous tax breaks,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Fiona Farmer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<em><strong>Enough is enough<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 80,000 members in local authorities say enough is enough and will be taking strike action on Tuesday October 14 alongside members from the GMB and Unison. They are fighting for a \u00c2\u01411-an-hour increase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK is the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seventh richest country \u00e2\u20ac\u201c surely we can do so much better as a nation to help the low paid?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 asked Fiona.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe unions have petitioned employers to end their assault on local government workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wages, offering to settle the dispute through ACAS, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arbitration and conciliation service. But employers have refused to budge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<em><strong>Britain needs a pay rise<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nLocal government workers will join thousands of protesters on Saturday October 18. There will be nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to austerity and a pay rise for the many UK workers who are struggling to pay for essentials like food and heating, while the rich elite cash in on massive tax breaks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of local government works will be forced to choose between heating their homes and eating after the coalition government has allowed their pay to fall to the national minimum wage of just \u00c2\u01416.50 an hour. &nbsp; Care workers, cleaners, librarians and teaching assistants, the people who ensure the smooth running of our local authorities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[104],"wps_subtitle":"Local government workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay falls to minimum ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1668,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions\/1668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}