Thousands to gather to ‘Unite for Jobs’

16.05.09

As unemployment this week across the UK rose to more than 2.2 million, Unite, the UK’s biggest union, is to bring thousands of people from across the country to march in defence of their jobs this Saturday.

The national March for Jobs through central Birmingham will see workers from every sector of the economy stand together to send a message to the government that protecting jobs during the recession must be the number one priority.

Workers from companies including Corus, Jaguar, Vauxhall, United Biscuits, LDV and Visteon, from the public and private sector, will converge on the UK’s second largest city - and manufacturing heartland - to call for urgent steps to keep people in work.

Speaking atthe rally, Unite joint general secretary, Derek Simpson will say: “Some action has been taken to stimulate demand in the economy and to protect working people from the ravages of the recession but it’s all been too timid.

“Billions have been spent to save the banks, but those same banks are still throwing people out of their houses when they can’t meet their mortgage payments because of a recession those very banks caused.

“These banks, the banks our members own, won’t lend to manufacturing companies. They even sack our members working for the banks. The bosses think that’s the answer to the problems they caused.

“They’ve taken food from the mouths of our families, threatened our jobs and homes. Are we are supposed to accept this? The answer is a simple one, the answer is no.”

Unite’s joint general secretary Tony Woodley will say: “Our mission is to get ministers to wake up and act to halt the jobs crisis. And our message is clear: Workers are not going to pay the price for the crisis created by bankers.

“There are now more than two million people unemployed, with 250,000 joining the dole queue in the last couple of months alone, many of them young people, but we cannot risk seeing another forgotten generation who cannot find work and have their lives ruined as a result. We must not replay the nightmare 1980s where there was misery for millions of our people and with whole communities wrecked.

“We are serving notice on all politicians - securing jobs is now our priority. And we are not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Unite is pressing for the government to: