Sharon Graham: "Employers forcing workers to pay the price of the pandemic."
- Tuesday 12 April 2022
ONS latest wage statistics show that in the three months to February 2022 adjusted real wages fell by one per cent. This is the greatest fall in real wages since June 2014.
Unite says this shows employers are forcing workers to pay the price of the pandemic.
Workers paying the price for the pandemic
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Employers are actively forcing workers to pay the price of the pandemic. The facts are there in the latest stats for all to see. This includes mega corporations, like Exxon and Caterpillar, whose shareholder dividends are soaring while their workers are offered poverty wages. The only way this big business profiteering can be stopped is by building the strength of trade unions to fight for a better deal. In the last six months Unite’s wage deal wins have proved that.”
Sharon Graham is now going to set up a union commission to expose corporate profiteering. Unite’s Profiteering Commission will make regular reports on companies who are making excessive profits and paying poverty wages.
Profiteering Commission
Sharon Graham said: “When Unite’s Profiteering Commission is up and running there will be no place to hide for companies making millions but paying their workers in pennies. It’s time these corporate giants were held to account. Their relentless profiteering - very often based on looting the public purse - has got to stop”.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
ONS wages report
See column 6 for real wages fall
For media enquiries ONLY please contact Unite senior communications officer Barckley Sumner on 07802 329235 or 0203 371 2067.
Email: [email protected]
Unite is the UK and Ireland’s leading union fighting to protect and advance jobs, pay and conditions for members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Sharon Graham.
