 |
Join | Update Your Details | Contact | Feedback | Site Map |  |
|
|
|||
|
|
 |
 |
|
|||||
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 Home
Tory bill to kill minimum wage goes ahead11 June 2009Tory MPs are continuing to promote a Bill to abolish the minimum wage, which is due to be debated tomorrow. Usdaw is calling on its members to lobby the MPs who are supporting the Employment Opportunities Bill to withdraw their support and for David Cameron to condemn it. It follows a concerted campaign by the pressure group Wage Concern, led by John Prescott MP and supported by Usdaw and Unison. This grassroots campaign saw more than 12,000 people sign a petition or join the Facebook group; the online lobbying of more than 300 MPs and 139 MPs back an Early Day Motion calling on David Cameron to renounce the bill. All this pressure led to the bill being pulled from its original slot on May 15th after Gordon Brown told MPs during Prime Ministers’ Question Time to vote against it. Usdaw General Secretary and Low Pay Commission member John Hannett said: “I can’t believe that Christopher Chope is still promoting this legislation when he didn’t have the bottle to debate its consequences with me on the radio. We will continue to defend the national minimum wage from all those who seek to destroy it. “This Bill will leave Britain’s most vulnerable workers at the mercy of rogue employers who will pressurise them into opting out of the minimum wage. It offers no choice to low paid workers. Tory MPs are insulting our intelligence by suggesting that there is a human right to pay lower than the legal minimum. “This Bill will remove the floor of minimum wage protection and that means everyone’s wages will spiral downwards.” John Prescott added: “I am delighted that Tory Nigel Evans has seen sense in the face of union pressure and backed down on the bill. It is a shame that his leader has refused our call to publicly renounce this bill too. “The national minimum wage was one of this Labour Government’s greatest achievements. If this Tory bill were passed it would take us back to the bad old days of poverty pay and a race to the bottom of the pay scale by employers.” Please see below for further details on how you can help the campaign. Message from Rt Hon John Prescott MPFirstly, I want to thank you for all your help in our campaign to save the minimum wage. Thanks to you, our Wage Concern campaign shamed the Tories into pulling the Employment Opportunities Bill last month. But it’s still not dead - it's down on the order paper for this Friday, June 12th in the House of Commons. That means the proposed legislation to effectively abolish the minimum wage is still very much alive. We still need your help to raise awareness of this unfair bill. So can you spare me five minutes to send an e-mail to the 11 Tory MPs sponsoring this bill?
Step 1: Draft an e-mailHere’s a draft e-mail you can use to send to the Tories: I am very concerned to hear about the Employment Opportunities Bill, due for its second reading on Friday 10th June, which seeks to abolish the mandatory national minimum wage. You are listed as one of the Bill’s sponsors. The national minimum wage has benefited more than a million people since it was introduced and your Bill would effectively undermine it by allowing unscrupulous bosses to pay what they like. Please could you let me know as a matter of urgency why you still support this Bill. I am respectfully asking you to withdraw your backing. Could you also let me know whether you believe it is right for paid MPs to call for the minimum wage to be effectively abolished whilst holding second jobs themselves, as many of the Bill’s sponsors do.
Step 2 - Send the e-mailYou can send it to the 11 Tory MPs who sponsor the Bill. They are:
Or you can cut and paste the e-mail addresses and send it to them all:
chopec@parliament.uk; bonep@parliament.uk; daviesp@parliament.uk; evansn@parliament.uk; knightg@parliament.uk; leighe@parliament.uk; liddelli@parliament.uk; binleyb@parliament.uk; cashw@parliament.uk; symsr@parliament.uk; wilshired@parliament.uk
Step 3 Get your friends to do it tooForward this e-mail to your friends, asking them to do the same. Let’s see if we can get the MPs to withdraw their support and send a message that though times are difficult, scrapping the minimum wage is not an option.Thanks for your support and I'll keep you updated. You can also find out more at www.wageconcern.com Regards, John Prescott Notes to Editors:
Contact Details Politics Section Ph: 0161 249 2452 Fax: 0161 257 2566 Email: usdaw4labour@usdaw.org.uk  Printer Friendly Page  Email to a Friend
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Join | Update Your Details | Contact | Feedback | Site Map | Privacy | Site Survey |
|
© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers |
 |
