Demonstration next week

Minimum wage - it's not enough

THE MINIMUM wage comes into effect this week. Every worker over the age of 21 is entitled to at least £3.60 an hour. The introduction of the minimum wage was greeted with howls of protest by the Tories and bosses' organisations like the CBI. They have opposed the implementation of a minimum wage, complaining it will make their businesses less competitive. Yet they are happy to award themselves huge salaries. SmithKlineBeecham is handing chief executive Jan Leschly £93 million a year—or £496 every minute. Leschly gets more in one minute and 15 seconds than someone on the minimum wage will earn in a month!

Despite the minimum wage Britain will still have the largest number of low paid workers of any country in Western Europe. Sadly New Labour's minimum wage of £3.60 does not close the huge gap between rich and poor—£3.60 an hour means millions of workers getting just £144, before any stoppages, for a 40 hour week. Those hardest hit are young workers. Under the new law workers aged 18 to 21 are entitled to just £3 an hour and workers under 18 are excluded altogether.

There are over half a million young workers aged between 16 and 18 working part time or full time. Mandy Neilson is one of them. She is 17 and works in a bakery in Harlow. She earns just £2.90 an hour. "I'm disgusted with Labour," says Mandy. "I really hoped I would benefit from a minimum wage. But because I'm under 18, I won't. "My outgoings are the same as anybody else's. Next week I will still be earning £2.90 an hour. But I will be standing next to a workmate who will be earning £3.60 an hour. We will be doing exactly the same job."

But it is not just young workers who are losing out. Dave Wheeler is 34 and married with one child. He has worked as a porter for the NHS for 15 years. He is also bitterly disappointed with Labour's minimum wage. Dave says, "I earn £3.82 an hour before stoppages. But the new law will not affect me—I earn above the minimum wage threshold. Does anyone think that you can support a family on £150 a week?" If the TUC's recommended minimum wage of £4.79 had been introduced, Ray would have been earning nearly £200 a week.

Blair caved in to the bosses' blackmail when he set the minimum wage at £3.60. Now many bosses are going to try and avoid paying that minimum wage. They will try and bully workers into agreeing to lower wages by claiming that they will lay them off if they have to pay "high wages". The only way many workers are going to get the minimum wage implemented is if they fight for it.

UNISON, supported by the TUC and almost every union in the country, will be marching in Newcastle on 10 April to demand a decent minimum wage. Tens of thousands of trade unionists, pensioners, students and the unemployed are going to be on the march demanding that every worker gets the minimum wage and that it is raised to a decent level. There is just one week to go until the demonstration. Make sure you're there.


Get to Newcastle on Saturday 10 April

Assemble 11.30am, Gateshead Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne

Called by UNISON and backed by the TUC and most major unions


TRANSPORT IS BOOKED FROM YOUR AREA

SCOTLAND: Scottish UNISON train 0141 552 7069; Clydebank College NUS 0141 552 7069; Royal Alexandra Hospital UNISON 0141 580 4558; Caledonian University NUS 0141 332 0681; For Glasgow coaches 0141 552 1640: For transport from the rest of Scotland 0141 552 5405.

WALES: Cardiff 01222 222 029; PCS North Wales 01978 291 300 ext 4070.

BIRMINGHAM: City Centre 0121 449 2026; UNISON train 0121 631 1136; Coventry UNISON 01203 834 290.

BLACK COUNTRY: Wolverhampton NATFHE 01902 821 051; Sandwell UNISON 0121 569 5996; Dudley UNISON 01384 244 350; Telford UNISON 01952 202 588.

BRISTOL: UNISON train 0117 940 5002; MSF coach 0117 975 3754; Bristol coach 0117 951 8960; Gloucester 0117 975 3754.

EAST ANGLIA: Norwich coach 01602 222 384.

LONDON

CENTRAL LONDON: 0181 806 6229; Westminster 0181 926 6288; UNISON train (UNISON members only) 0171 535 2100.

EAST LONDON: Tower Hamlets 0181 985 2515; Newham 0958 704 260; Hackney 0797 982 3597.

NORTH LONDON: Islington 0961 165 416.

SOUTH LONDON: Lambeth 0171 737 2134; Southwark 0956 645 530.

SOUTH EAST LONDON AND KENT: 0956 681 328 for all coaches.

WEST LONDON: 0181 937 6500 for all transport.

MANCHESTER: Central Manchester Health UNISON 0161 276 6400; Manchester City Council 0161 234 7321; Manchester Community Health 0161 205 1483; Trafford UNISON 0161 848 7760; Manchester Metropolitan University UNISON 0161 247 3993; MSF ICL 0161 231 5827; Bolton 01204 387 919; North West PCS 0161 838 8335; Salford and Eccles 0161 707 5648; Stockport NATFHE 0161 958 3186; Tameside NATFHE 01457 852 347; Salford and Bury UNISON 0161 773 9121.

MERSEYSIDE: North West Region UNISON 0161 832 5625; Sefton 0151 934 4765; Sefton UNISON Health 0151 548 0148; Liverpool UNISON 0151 236 1944; Liverpool Community College UNISON 0151 252 4523; Knowsley UNISON 0151 548 0148; PCS Liverpool and Wirral Employment Service 0151 801 5737; PCS North West Region 0151 709 7469; Liverpool University 0151 794 3757; St Helens 0151 426 1600.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Belfast 01232 799 204; Derry 01504 308 662.

NOTTINGHAM: Mansfield UNISON 01623 470 117; Derby 01332 331 730; Nottingham City UNISON 0115 941 2556; Notts County UNISON 0115 977 3647.

NORTH WEST ENGLAND: Burnley NATFHE 01282 711 392; Blackburn UNISON 07970 816 539; Lancaster 0961 337 640; Preston 0961 337 640.

SOUTH COAST: Brighton 01273 291 611.

YORKSHIRE: Bradford 01274 779 002; Chesterfield 01629 582 266; Halifax and Hebden 01422 377 721; NUS Huddersfield 01484 538 156; Keighley 01535 691 264; Kirklees/Huddersfield NUS 01484 223 577; United Leeds Teaching Hospital UNISON 0113 206 4369; Rotherham UNISON local government 01709 376 933; Rotherham Trades Council 0114 267 0706; Scarborough 01723 870 030; Sheffield Hillsborough 0114 220 5597; Sheffield UNISON Metropolitan 0114 273 6307; Sheffield UNISON Health 0114 271 0744; Sheffield Trades Council 0114 275 0744; Wakefield UNISON 01924 305 360; York City UNISON 01904 554 300.