I keep spouting about this "crisis" is being used by all the corporate world as an excuse to slash at wages and conditions. Obviously as the government attacks the wages and conditions of the public sector, they are not going to complain as the private sector does likewise. Balfour Beatty the big construction company is leading the attack by tearing up electricians contracts and forcing them to sign new contracts or get off the site. The new contracts of course have not been negotiated and in some cases mean a cut of up to 45% in wages and deskilling of the trade. No doubt all the other big boys in the corporate world will be waiting and watching to see how far they can go and how quickly. A sample of what the electricians in the construction industry are up against can be seen in this extract from an article in The Commune.
Under BESNA, the current across the board hourly rate of £16.25 would be scrapped, and electricians would be graded for a rate of between £14 and £10.50. This follows a pay freeze last year, so some electricians would be 45% worse off than they were two years ago, assuming they are able to find work at all in a declining construction industry. Inevitably, deskilling would follow, along with an increase in workplace ‘accidents’.
These type of greedy tactics are part and parcel of the corporate world, world wide, the only real answer is to get rid of the corporatism that devastates our lives and our planet, capitalism cannot be reformed, repaired or made ethical, it is a beast built on, and dependent on, exploitation. Its removal from the face of the Earth will require the some world wide solidarity and organisation by the people, as is shown by the cancer that is the corporate world.
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