GMB Conference ’18 Union Launches Campaign to Bring Water Back Into Public Ownership
Morning Star, UK
GENERAL union GMB scolded nine “fat cat” bosses of privatised water firms yesterday who have pocketed £58 million pay packets over the past five years.
They were rinsed for taking home an average of £1,254,000 last year — £11.3m in total — while customers faced above-inflation water bill increases.
The figures were revealed in a joint GMB report with Corporate Watch published at the union’s annual conference in Brighton.
Consumer water bills in England and Wales have increased by 40 per cent above inflation since privatisation in 1989, according to the National Audit Office.
GMB general secretary Tim Roache attacked the “staggering sums” of the water bosses, whose salaries, bonuses, pensions and other perks mean they are on six times more than the prime minister.
Theresa May was paid £150,000 and received a £40,000 pension contribution in 2017.
Severn Trent chief executive Liv Garfield topped the union’s list of shame, having taken home £2,450,700 in 2017 — a 50 per cent real-terms increase since 2013.
United Utilities CEO Steve Mogford, whose wage rose by 50 per cent since 2013 to £2,310,000, came a close second.
Launching the pro-renationalisation Take Back The Tap campaign at GMB conference, Mr Roache said that privatisation of the country’s water has been a “costly mistake.”
He said the “eye-watering sums” in bosses’ pockets were enough evidence that Britain’s water must be “returned to public hands.”
The public must “Take Back the Tap and make our water services work for the many, not the few,” he declared.
Labour shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said that “the only people privatised water companies work for are the big bosses who are cleaning up at the expense of bill payers.
“It’s scandalous that the government is sitting idly by while households continue to face skyrocketing water costs.
“Labour will end their failed ideological experiment and bring water companies back into public ownership, saving households £100 per year on their bills.”
GENERAL union GMB scolded nine “fat cat” bosses of privatised water firms yesterday who have pocketed £58 million pay packets over the past five years.
They were rinsed for taking home an average of £1,254,000 last year — £11.3m in total — while customers faced above-inflation water bill increases.
The figures were revealed in a joint GMB report with Corporate Watch published at the union’s annual conference in Brighton.
Consumer water bills in England and Wales have increased by 40 per cent above inflation since privatisation in 1989, according to the National Audit Office.
GMB general secretary Tim Roache attacked the “staggering sums” of the water bosses, whose salaries, bonuses, pensions and other perks mean they are on six times more than the prime minister.
Theresa May was paid £150,000 and received a £40,000 pension contribution in 2017.
Severn Trent chief executive Liv Garfield topped the union’s list of shame, having taken home £2,450,700 in 2017 — a 50 per cent real-terms increase since 2013.
United Utilities CEO Steve Mogford, whose wage rose by 50 per cent since 2013 to £2,310,000, came a close second.
Launching the pro-renationalisation Take Back The Tap campaign at GMB conference, Mr Roache said that privatisation of the country’s water has been a “costly mistake.”
He said the “eye-watering sums” in bosses’ pockets were enough evidence that Britain’s water must be “returned to public hands.”
The public must “Take Back the Tap and make our water services work for the many, not the few,” he declared.
Labour shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said that “the only people privatised water companies work for are the big bosses who are cleaning up at the expense of bill payers.
“It’s scandalous that the government is sitting idly by while households continue to face skyrocketing water costs.
“Labour will end their failed ideological experiment and bring water companies back into public ownership, saving households £100 per year on their bills.”
No comments:
Post a Comment