We need to turn up the heat - against the bosses!

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
12 October 2021

So “crisis-what-crisis?” Johnson went to Spain on holiday - just as a new hit threatens to drive workers’ living standards down to the lowest level in 25 years!

    Yes, now, after food and fuel price hikes, the price of gas and electricity has shot up! The boss of Ovo energy told Andrew Marr on Sunday that prices were up 1000% already in 12 months - yes, as much as that!

    And this means costs “passed onto the consumer”: every single energy boss and manufacturing boss says exactly the same thing... the “public” will have to pay...

    Oh and by the way, if the bosses are paying more for their energy supply, they’ll be trying to cut costs elsewhere too, of course! So workers’ wages - far from being increased - as that joker Johnson claimed - are to be pushed down!

    Indeed, which section of the working class has actually been offered an “above inflation” pay rise? Not one! Ford just offered its British workforce a 3% de facto wage cut with its offer of 1.5%. NHS workers are still fighting against that 3% offer - which also amounts to a 1-2% cut compared to the already-underestimated Retail Price Index! And its ever-increasing...

    What’s more, the lack of HGV drivers has extended to abattoir workers and is causing utter carnage: pigs are being shot and then burnt in their thousands... Yes, thanks to a government which said Brexit was a great idea because it would create worker shortages! Ironic that Johnson hightailed to Marbella, inside the EU...

    But now it seems, after the Treasury and the Trade minister have kissed and made up, company bosses are likely to get help with their energy bills. While the working class and the poorest will be left to switch off their heating, because they cannot afford it. Already the cost for those with pre-payment meters (the poorest) is £30 higher. From 1 October everyone else paid £139 more.

    And when energy companies go bust, as 12 just did, the big 6, which take on their customers, can bill the rest of us for the costs, adding at least another £90 to each household’s bill!

    Last winter 10,000 people died as a result of inadequate heating. The only way to stop this lethal and escalating cost is for workers to turn up the heat against the bosses and their government - collectively - in the workplaces and in the streets - ASAP!