• Supermarkets - Pay Your Staff the Living Wage
    The 'big four' supermarkets: Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsburys do not pay the Living Wage. These companies employ around 900,000 people meaning that together they employ the second largest number of people in the UK after the NHS. The Living Wage is “the threshold at which people can live above the poverty level with a sufficient safety net to provide for quality of life”. We need to ask these supermarkets to pay their staff the living wage. Big companies don’t like bad publicity. 38 Degrees members put pressure on the Olympic sponsors who were dodging their tax in the summer, and they caved to public pressure. We need to shame them into paying their staff a wage which affords them dignity and shows that they’re worth more than the legal minimum. Sign this petition to show the CEOs that you think they should pay their staff a wage they can live on! Together we can work together to lift people out of poverty. These supermarkets can afford it! The salaries paid to their CEOs are evidence of this. Justin King, the CEO of Sainsburys, receives £3.2 million a year; Philip Clarke of Tesco, £6.9 million; Dalton Philips of Morrisons, £4 million; Andy Clarke of Asda's pay is not in the public domain. If they can afford to pay their bosses this much, they can afford to pay their staff a few pounds more an hour. Tesco announced sales of more than £1 billion a week and annual profits of more than £3 billion despite the impact of the global downturn. Sainsburys opened five supermarkets, 28 convenience stores and two extensions, adding 267,000 square feet to its estate over the last three months. If they can afford to expand to at this rate, they can afford to pay their staff more. The Living Wage is beneficial to employees, employers and taxpayers. It prevents working poverty and the exploitation of low-paid workers. Taxpayers top up the low wages of supermarket workers by £50 a week in tax credits. If all low paid workers earned the living wage, the government could save £823 million a year by decreasing welfare benefits. It’s not just those who are unemployed who are in poverty, it’s also those in work who just don’t earn enough money to pay for the basics. One-fifth of women and one-seventh of men earn less than £7 per hour. More than six million working adults in Britain are living in poverty. Since the beginning of the Living Wage campaign in 2001 led by Citizens UK, they have lifted 45,000 people out of poverty and put over £210 million into the pockets of some of the lowest paid workers in the UK. *UPDATE* I have made a short link if you'd like to share the petition on Twitter: It is http://bit.ly/Big4LW745
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    Created by Danya Harris
  • Re-nationalise Energy
    Year after year gas and electricity prices have risen, to the point that millions of us can't afford to TURN THE HEAT ON, and thousands freeze to death every winter. Yet, the Big Six energy companies are so profitable that they pay billions of pounds in dividends to shareholders and millions of pounds in pay and bonuses to their executives. And no wonder they make so much money - in just over 8 years, from October 2004 until February 2013, my gas charges increased by a whopping 279.36%* and electricity charges by 69.89%.** Poverty is destroying the lives of millions of people in the UK, and if the misery and deaths caused by fuel poverty are ever to be eliminated, energy must be affordable by all. This will never happen while our energy sector is in the hands of private profiteers. We must TURN THE HEAT ON Government to get rid of The Big Six and restore the UK energy sector to public ownership. * from 1.439p to 4.02p per kWh ** from 7.328p to 12.45p per kWh
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    Created by Phyllis North
  • Fair deal for John Lewis cleaners
    Cleaners are as integral to the team as shop assistants, managers, and directors. Outsourcing the cleaning services is demeaning, discriminatory and clearly counter to your founder's vision. We are grateful to Polly Toynbee for alerting us to the situation in a recent Guardian article. For some of us, it is so unjust and morally repugnant that we intend to boycott John Lewis, Waitrose and Greenbee until this injustice is put right - and encourage others to do likewise.
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    Created by Robert Twycross
  • North West TUC Charter for Young People
    Austerity and recession are destroying employment opportunities all over the region. More than 64,000 young people, aged 18-24, are now out of work in the North West. There are 149,000 young people who are not in Education, Employment and Training (NEETs). With one in five young people jobless, many are being forced to take unskilled, part-time, temporary work, unpaid internships or work experience. Others simply become detached from society. Meanwhile, the abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance and increases in tuition fees are preventing thousands from gaining qualifications and new skills for the job market. Urgent action must be taken to give the young people of the North West a future that works. Taking positive action to help our young people will demand commitment, determination and real resources from Government, employers and trade unions. The North West TUC pledges to play its part. We urge MPs, local councillors, employers and others to sign up here – and pledge to take practical and immediate action to give young people a future that works.
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    Created by Matthew Finnegan
  • Stop High Street Loan Sharks
    STOP HIGH STREET LOAN SHARKS Through floods of tears our friend outlined her debt problem. She had borrowed from friends to make ends meet until payday. When she found paying them back difficult from her small salary she took out loans from high street money shops. New money shops are opening all the time. We get 3% APR on our savings. She was being charged between 2000% and 4000% APR. To default at such interest rates is like chasing a train that has left the station. You never catch up. Worse still she had assembled a “portfolio” of companies hoping to pay off one by another. Could we help her? Having money was useless because none of these companies wanted to provide statements or invoices. A nightmare. Yes. Is it legal? Yes. Slavery? Well yes. Salvation? For her yes through a Debt Relief Order thanks to you the great British taxpayer and the Legal Aid Scheme. My friend is not alone. 45% of people say they struggle to make it to payday. Millions are vulnerable to these legal loan sharks. Legislation is urgently needed. France caps the maximum charge for a loan at 133% APR and Germany 200% APR. For more information try www.sharkstoppers.org Dear 38degrees members please back the campaign to encourage parliament to pass legislation as soon as possible to introduce loan capping in the UK.
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    Created by Arthur and Judy Breens
  • Re-nationalise Britain's Infrastructure
    Why should a select minority make a profit from services which we all need and which could, with proper strategic investment, make Britain a more competitive player in the world.
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    Created by phil milston
  • Reverse the National Insurance Hike – Protect Small Businesses and Jobs!
     Why is this important?   Small businesses cannot stand idly by and watch our businesses and watch our livelihoods go under.  The NI hike to Employers'  is closing businesses down and preventing those still struggling to continue from growing their businesses.  This is shameful and no government should be allowed to carry on with policies that are devastating to our economy. Our small business is suffering like thousands of others.
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    Created by Jayne Anne O'Flynn
  • Raise the personal tax allowance to help with the cost of living crisis
    They say, money makes the world go round, but if there's no money, the world could stop spinning. Not literally, but financially.
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    Created by Keith Farmer
  • Stop the Stamp Expiry
    People have better things to do with their time than round up all their existing old stamps, complete a form and submit them for new style stamps. Many people will have bulk bought in order to protect themselves from future price rises, on the understanding that they would be valid forever. Now Royal Mail is moving the goal posts by making them expire and has wasted a vast sum of money organising an exchange system and producing publicity; this at a time when the organisation is making a loss. People should not be forced to waste time exchanging their stamps, making sure they have submitted them all and then being in a situation where they find some after the expiry date and they are worthless.
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    Created by Toby Harling
  • Real Tax Cuts for Ordinary People for Growth
    Current government plans for tax cuts only benefit the rich and will do nothing to create real growth. The National Insurance rate rise is a tax on workers and employers. The government borrowing to fund the Energy Cap will leave ordinary tax payers to pick up the bill. None of this will create growth nor will it do anything to reduce the cost of living crisis. Instead we should tax the massive profits of the fuel suppliers like BP who said they are making more money than they know what to do with. Use this to fund the Energy Cap. To fund the NHS and Care remove the inequality in National Insurance that has always meant the CEO pays less NI, as a percentage of income, than the person that cleans his office. This means removing the Upper Earnings Limit. The extra money raised could allow the return of NI rates to original levels as promised by this Prime Minister and may still create a genuine surplus to fund the NHS. Finally, if Tax Cuts really do create growth then why not apply that to everyone, not just the highest earners, by doubling the current basic rate tax threshold that Mr Sunak froze so that everyone benefits. Nobody earning less than the Real Living Wage would pay any tax if this was done.
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    Created by Nicholas Kulkarni
  • Stop the clock going back 1 hour in October to save electricity
    Everyone will save 1 hour a day of electricity for 6 months by being brighter.
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    Created by Heten Tejura
  • End Pension Poverty
    Current pension levels are falling and not keeping pace with average earnings or even meeting subsistence levels.
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    Created by Roger Pryor