23.03.2022 / News /

UVW comment on the Chancellor’s Spring statement

United Voices of the World members condemn the lack of empathy and understanding of the realities faced by hardworking people demonstrated by chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement. This so-called “mini budget” confirms what we already knew about this government: that its policies that put profit over people. Workers are facing exorbitant increases in food, energy and a rise in their National Insurance contributions. They are worrying about how they are going to make ends meet while their salaries remain the same, when RPI inflation rate hit 8.2% in February and it’s expected to increase further by the end of 2022. How are workers on the minimum wage supposed to afford the average increase of £700 in their gas and electricity bill that is about to kick in? Are people expected to be hungry, cold or both? With the announcement in February of the biggest London Tube and bus fare hike in a decade, how are workers in the capital even expected to go to work!

We are facing the worst decline in our living standards in the UK that any of us has known. As a union for migrant, precarious and low-paid workers we call on all workers to get together and get organised in their workplaces and their communities to fight for their rights. We in UVW fight through direct, collective action on the streets and in the courts. Together we win. Divided, we lose.

Bile Jean Ahouzan, care worker, UVW member and strike leader said:

“Rishi Sunak’s spring statement is bad news for workers across the UK. With the prices of food, gas and electricity going up and with the planned National Insurance contributions hike, bad times are coming for all of us. Carers like me, for example, will struggle to cope. The best that employers and the government can do is pay workers a decent wage, and the wisest thing workers can do is unite and fight for decent work, health, education and pensions. We, the care and domestic and maintenance workers at Sage Nursing home in North London, did it. With our union, United Voices of the World, we won a raise in pay. We fought and we won, because together we can achieve anything. On our own, they win.”