The current pay offer for Higher Education staff for this year is 0.3%, this is an insulting offer and will be seriously damaging to many low paid workers in this time of economic recession.
Below I have noted some price increases that have hit me since the last instalment of the previous Higher Education pay deal.
Salad for lunch from Marriot Cafe : was £2.00, now £2.20 = +10%
Can of pop from newsagent : was 55p, now 60p = +9%
Bottle of Erdinger Dunkel in Sandbar (drunk after work) : was £3.00, now £3.50 = +17%
FirstDay bus ticket : was £3.70, now £4.00 = +8%
Evening Cornerhouse cinema ticket : was £5.50, now £7.00 = +27%
This isn't intended as anything other than an anecdotal measure, but going off these items my daily costs incurred around MMU have risen by over 14% on average.
Of course, a lot of these costs seem superfluous compared to the increases in our fuel bills and everyday baskets of shopping but what I hope this highlights is that in our everyday lives we are experiencing increases in the costs of living that I believe need to be addressed in our pay agreement. The employers' offer of 0.3% this year is very disappointing and damaging. UNISON and the joint trade unions were right to reject the offer of 0.3%, in real terms this amounts to a significant pay cut for some of the lowest paid workers in the public sector.
The private sector screwed up, low paid workers in the public sector should not be paying for it.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
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2 speak-easys:
did you send this to MMU using the words "can of pop"? I hope you did - it's one of the most lovely phrases.
The word pop was first termed by Robert Southey, who was Poet Laureate from 1813 to 1843.
"A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn."
He also came up with the word autobiography.
Pop itself was invented by my grandfather Alfred Glassbottle & the common pop recepticle was named in his honour.
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