Green Party conference votes to support £15 minimum wage
The Greens have backed the BFAWU's 'Fight for 15' campaign
Chris Jarvis Today
LEFT FOOT FORWARD
The Green Party has backed the campaign for a £15 an hour minimum wage at their autumn conference in Birmingham. This comes after members overwhelmingly voted for an emergency motion which expressed support for the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’s (BFAWU) ‘Fight for 15’ campaign, and for “an end to age-based pay discrimination and for better working conditions for all workers”.
Speaking on the passing of the motion, proposer Alexander Sallons said, “Working as a hospitality worker in one of the most expensive cities to live in outside of London, you’re lucky if you can take 50% of your pay after rent and bills.
“We desperately need a £15 minimum wage and we need strong trade unions that are fighting for that like BFAWU, especially in some of the jobs most at risk of climate change like mine – coffee – and I’m glad that the Green Party has supported my motion.
The motion backed by party members also expressed solidarity with the BFAWU following their recent disaffiliation from the Labour Party, and requested that the Greens’ leadership inform the union of this.
Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group Matthew Hull said he was “delighted” that the motion passed. He said, “I’m delighted that Green Party Conference has extended solidarity to the BFAWU following their disaffiliation from the Labour Party, and backed their campaign for a £15 minimum wage workers can truly live on.”
“With the Liberal Democrats nowhere to be seen, and the Labour Party failing workers at every turn, the Green Party must step up and truly represent working people in the face of this Tory government’s brutal attacks on our living standards. This motion is a statement of intent that workers and their unions have home in the Green Party.”
Earlier at the party’s conference, members voted to support publicly funded care for disabled adults, free at the point of use.
This article was jointly published with Bright Green.
Image credit: War on Want – Creative Commons
The Greens have backed the BFAWU's 'Fight for 15' campaign
Chris Jarvis Today
LEFT FOOT FORWARD
The Green Party has backed the campaign for a £15 an hour minimum wage at their autumn conference in Birmingham. This comes after members overwhelmingly voted for an emergency motion which expressed support for the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’s (BFAWU) ‘Fight for 15’ campaign, and for “an end to age-based pay discrimination and for better working conditions for all workers”.
Speaking on the passing of the motion, proposer Alexander Sallons said, “Working as a hospitality worker in one of the most expensive cities to live in outside of London, you’re lucky if you can take 50% of your pay after rent and bills.
“We desperately need a £15 minimum wage and we need strong trade unions that are fighting for that like BFAWU, especially in some of the jobs most at risk of climate change like mine – coffee – and I’m glad that the Green Party has supported my motion.
The motion backed by party members also expressed solidarity with the BFAWU following their recent disaffiliation from the Labour Party, and requested that the Greens’ leadership inform the union of this.
Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group Matthew Hull said he was “delighted” that the motion passed. He said, “I’m delighted that Green Party Conference has extended solidarity to the BFAWU following their disaffiliation from the Labour Party, and backed their campaign for a £15 minimum wage workers can truly live on.”
“With the Liberal Democrats nowhere to be seen, and the Labour Party failing workers at every turn, the Green Party must step up and truly represent working people in the face of this Tory government’s brutal attacks on our living standards. This motion is a statement of intent that workers and their unions have home in the Green Party.”
Earlier at the party’s conference, members voted to support publicly funded care for disabled adults, free at the point of use.
This article was jointly published with Bright Green.
Image credit: War on Want – Creative Commons
Green Party members vote to support free social care
The Green Party now supports publicly funded care, free at the point of use
The Green Party has been meeting in Birmingham for their autumn conference. After a flurry of speeches from the party’s leadership, members have now begun debating and voting on policy motions.
On Saturday 23 October, members voted to back a policy of free social care for disabled adults. The motion stated that, “personal care and support for disabled adults should be provided free, so that they can operate from a financial foundation equal to their peers. This includes any expenses incurred from having a disability, such as communication aids, interpretation and accommodation adaptations, mental health support, personal mobility aids, learning support, counselling, psychotherapy, art and music therapy or other therapies as appropriate.”
The policy passed by members commits the party to supporting a system of care which is fully publicly funded, free at the point of use and “underpinned by a workforce with good pay, conditions, training and career structure”. According to the Green Party, this would end of a system in which many people have to pay for private social care, which has been estimated to cost £11 billion per year, and even those who receive publicly-funded social care end up paying a total of more than £3 billion towards their support.
Speaking on the motion, Larry Sanders – the party’s former health and care spokesperson, and the brother of the once US Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders – said, “The NHS is based on the principle that need, not wealth, should determine the health care we get. Today, the Green Party backed the same principle for Social Care.
“The hundreds of thousands of people who need help to eat and wash, get residential care when they need it and to lead a full life under their own control, can do so with their support paid for in the same way as the NHS. The Tory government said that charges should be capped at £86,000. We say they should be capped at zero.
“We also committed ourselves to good pay and conditions for care workers and to giving family carers the support they need.”
This article was jointly published with Bright Green.
The Green Party now supports publicly funded care, free at the point of use
The Green Party has been meeting in Birmingham for their autumn conference. After a flurry of speeches from the party’s leadership, members have now begun debating and voting on policy motions.
On Saturday 23 October, members voted to back a policy of free social care for disabled adults. The motion stated that, “personal care and support for disabled adults should be provided free, so that they can operate from a financial foundation equal to their peers. This includes any expenses incurred from having a disability, such as communication aids, interpretation and accommodation adaptations, mental health support, personal mobility aids, learning support, counselling, psychotherapy, art and music therapy or other therapies as appropriate.”
The policy passed by members commits the party to supporting a system of care which is fully publicly funded, free at the point of use and “underpinned by a workforce with good pay, conditions, training and career structure”. According to the Green Party, this would end of a system in which many people have to pay for private social care, which has been estimated to cost £11 billion per year, and even those who receive publicly-funded social care end up paying a total of more than £3 billion towards their support.
Speaking on the motion, Larry Sanders – the party’s former health and care spokesperson, and the brother of the once US Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders – said, “The NHS is based on the principle that need, not wealth, should determine the health care we get. Today, the Green Party backed the same principle for Social Care.
“The hundreds of thousands of people who need help to eat and wash, get residential care when they need it and to lead a full life under their own control, can do so with their support paid for in the same way as the NHS. The Tory government said that charges should be capped at £86,000. We say they should be capped at zero.
“We also committed ourselves to good pay and conditions for care workers and to giving family carers the support they need.”
This article was jointly published with Bright Green.
No comments:
Post a Comment