Some good news Dear Chazz, After taking strike action for the very first time, the catering workers at Drax Power Station have won their hard fought pay rise! These 19 low paid workers, mainly women, were simply asking for 50p more per hour to get off the breadline. After coming together as a union through Unite, the workers secured an additional £1 per hour, on top of winning the real living wage as set by the Living Wage Foundation. This is equivalent to a pay rise of 19.2% back dated to the start of the year! In February, I wrote out to you about their dispute. Over 5000 of you signed their petition to demand fair pay for the workers. And last month we marched down to London to deliver the petition in person to Drax CEO Will Gardiner. A big thank you to everyone who signed and shared the petition. Your simple act of solidarity reminded the workers that they were not alone in their fight. And being able to hand in a 5000 strong petition to their CEO was a huge milestone in the campaign. Here's a message from Dianne, one of our Unite reps at the Drax canteen: "Most of us at the canteen had never really considered getting organised in a union before. But the last couple of years have been difficult for all of us because of the cost-of-living crisis. Everyone is really pleased with the pay deal and it’s such a great feeling knowing we stood up together and supported each other to achieve it.”
Not sure how you earn a subsidy but there you go. In 2021 Drax earned £893m (2020: £832 million) in direct government subsidies for burning forest biomass – more than £2 million a day. These subsidies added £11.60 to the average household energy bill. The company has announced an operating profit of £197 million, alongside a rising dividend to shareholders.25 Mar 2022
attempted assassination of slovak prime minister. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-69016687
