{"id":1889,"date":"2014-10-16T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1889"},"modified":"2014-10-16T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T10:06:00","slug":"im-living-im-existing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1889","title":{"rendered":"“I’m not living, I’m existing”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In part 4 of our series, Britain Deserves a Pay Rise, UNITElive talks to a young man working for a local council who \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite being enthusiastic about his job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c laments the way both young people and local authority workers get the shaft\u00c2\u00a0in austerity Britain.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mikey Dick, 25, has worked as a bin man for Greenwich council for seven years. Even though he has a very stressful and low-paying job, he loves it.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn so many ways, it really is a great job,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Dick effuses. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI get to meet new people ever day, I provide a vitally important service and I get to be outside for the most part instead of being stuck in an office.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Still, driving a lorry and collecting refuse \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a service we often take for granted \u00e2\u20ac\u201c comes with lots of pressure. Dick notes how aggressive some people can be on the roads as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re coming home from work.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome residents are very particular about certain things and sometimes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happy with our service. So that can get you down,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fact that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been really understaffed recently, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re overloaded and have to work much longer hours. It can be really tough.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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As with many young people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come of age in the era of austerity, Dick lived with his parents as an adult, unable to afford extortionate rents. But when he was 21, he decided he wanted to set out on his own. He moved in with a partner and shared a flat.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEven though we were sharing a flat, between our wages, we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anything left at the end of the month. It all went to bills,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe never had food in the fridge so we were often going to friends\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s houses for meals because we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to eat.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Eventually, Dick and his partner split, which forced him under the circumstances to move back in with his parents. After a few years, his stepfather helped him get a flat of his own.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe lent me the money, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money I need to pay back,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the way things are going, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever be able to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even furnish my home,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not talking wallpaper and flowerpots. I mean essential things \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some rooms have no flooring, the windows don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have curtains.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not living,” Dick explains. “I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m existing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Dick believes young people in particular face economic woes that previous generations haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily had to deal with.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGoing to university now, you have to take on loads of debt,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThen they tell you to go get a job and you spend the rest of your life just paying off that debt. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t save, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy a home, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t raise a family.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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But Dick fears that the situation is even more dire for young people who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the opportunity to go to university. They face an uncertain world in which the lack of quality apprenticeships means it is almost impossible to gain a foothold in the job market.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople who go to university, they often learn about trade unions and learn about the world that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re up against,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut for people who leave school at 16 or 18 like me, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise how those at the top are exploiting you, until you experience it personally. And it hits you really hard.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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As local government workers fight for a fair pay rise<\/a>, Dick says gaining a decent wage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even just a 2 or 3 per cent rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would enhance his life tremendously.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy father is getting old, and he lives 75 miles away,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to visit him. The price of petrol is just too high. And the other day, it was my mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday. I bought her a card, but I just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough to buy her a gift. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine what the feels like, not just as a person but as a son.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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“Just a small pay rise would enable me to do little things like that for my family, the things most people take for granted.”<\/p>\n

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Dick believes public sector workers in particular deserve a pay rise for the vital services they provide.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen I was younger, I dreamed of being a footballer,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut then you get older and you see all the scandals and how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all rolling in money. The people who do the really important jobs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the teachers, the nurses, the ambulance drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the people who put their lives on the line, they get nothing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe worker hundreds of times harder than MPs who gave themselves an 11 per cent pay rise this year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt really infuriates me. We deserve so much more.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Stay tuned on UNITElive for the latest on the upcoming TUC march<\/a>, where workers across the nation will gather to demand fairer wages on October 18.<\/p>\n

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In part 4 of our series, Britain Deserves a Pay Rise, UNITElive talks to a young man working for a local council who \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite being enthusiastic about his job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c laments the way both young people and local authority workers get the shaft\u00c2\u00a0in austerity Britain.       Mikey Dick, 25, has worked as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[97,136,23,65],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889"}],"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=1889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}