We Are the 91%

We are the 91%

Back in July, the ECA/SELECT made their 'Final Offer' to Unite for the JIB wage increase for 2015 & 2016. The increase on offer was 2% for 2015 and 3% for 2016 but with a catch. The 'Entrant Grade'

Fully explained in these two previous posts:

Employers continue their de-skilling agenda!

Calling ALL JIB Electricians

This led to consultative ballot and was rejected by a convincing 91%.

NRL Continue the Blacklist?

NRL Continue the Blacklist?

A number of weeks ago Alan Wainright, the whistleblower who exposed the Consulting Association construction blacklist, published an article on his blog relating to employment agencies involvement in blacklisting. We are all suspicious about the underhanded tactics of agencies with blacklisting and the Umbrella Scam, but this article does appear to have evidence that NRL were complicit in blacklisting workers, including respected rank & file leader electrician Steve Acheson.

  It is time to expose these parasite agencies and all that they are up to, by undermining our ability to make a decent living through the "Umbrella Scam" and preventing us from making a living at all through blacklisting! If you have ever worked through NRL then this is a must read.

Please read and share this far and wide!

Alan Wainwright Blog 

CONTEMPORARY BLACKLISTING? - NRL

How much is a pay rise worth?

How much is a pay rise worth?

This article started life as a bit of a joke with a good rank and file activist. We were talking about the appalling pay offer from the ECA to the JIB, and how much wages have gone down in the industry over the last couple of years. When he said, half jokingly, that the general rule of thumb was that you used to be paid about 5 pints an hour, then he asked me how much a pint was in London. Now obviously the cost of a pint varies from about £3.50 in Wetherspoons, to £5 if you want to drink somewhere nice that doesn’t smell like sick (if the companies do ever want to measure our wages by pints, they will probably pick the 25p a can Tesco value lager). But even at Wetherspoons rates we’re not getting our 5 pints an hour. What it did get me wondering though is how much exactly our wages have lagged behind the cost of living, so I decided to do a little research.

The first thing I had to decide was when to start the comparison from, I decided to start it from the 2010 pay rise, because that is when wages really started to stagnate as we subsequently never received a pay rise for 3 years.