End the pay pinch!
- Tim Roache
- Oct 19, 2017
- 2 min read
Yesterday I was incredibly proud to address a rally in Parliament Square calling for an end to the Public sector Pay Pinch. Activists will know that GMB has been campaigning hard for an end to the cap with hundreds of you taking action in workplaces and being absolutely everywhere on social media holding up our posters and placards.
The government can continue to stick their fingers in their ears, but public sector workers are angry - and they should be. Year on year they're facing pay cuts when each and every day they look after us when we're sick, they teach and help our kids and tend to us in our old age. They run into danger when the rest of us run away.
Our team on the night were on the ball. Activists from across the country took part in photos ops, a march and rally. we had a giant pay pinch hand and some Maybots on hand too to ram the message home. It was a great event and, I have to say, the GMB delegation there rocked it as usual - we were the loudest and I'm pretty sure we had the most fun while campaigning for something that is so crucial to so many of our members.
Here are a few words from my speech:
“For years, the Tories have told you that you don’t deserve a pay rise.
“They’ve paid lip service to the vital work you do - looking after us when we’re sick or in our older years, teaching our kids, putting your lives on the line in burning buildings and in the face of terrorist attacks - but that’s all it is.
“Year on year some of the hardest working people on our front lines are seeing their pay cut - prices go up, wages don’t.
“Public sector workers are being forced to go to food banks to eat. That is an absolute disgrace and it must stop.
“It’s up to us to force this spiteful, wrongheaded and weak government to get their act together. “
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