“
The weight of evidence shows that the UK is in the grip of a profiteering crisis. Workers’ wages and what they can buy, are being squeezed by corporate wreckers pursuing runaway profits, quite literally at our expense
n By Hajera Blagg
Sharon Graham Unite general secretary
”
Yet another truth exposed by Unite’s report is that as companies’ profit margins catapult to ever new highs, so too does executive pay.
Between 2020 and 2021 average pay for the highest paid directors of the UK’s biggest listed companies leapt a colossal 29 per cent from £2.01m in 2020 to £2.59m in 2021.
“It’s not just energy companies,” Graham said. “There are businesses right across our economy and their directors who have made vast sums of money from Covid-19 and the inflationary pressures that have followed.
“Those who have profited from the crisis should pay for it. Unite makes absolutely no apologies for demanding better pay for our members. Wage restraint? It’s time to demand profit restraint.”
Unite’s profiteering report, which was published in June 17 has received widespread acclaim, with
accounting professor and member of the House of Lords Prem Sikka commenting, “This report focuses upon corporate profiteering, the resulting hardship and the government’s failure to tackle it. Profits for the few are the source of crisis for many. This investigation could not be more timely.”
Meanwhile, Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty, who
interviewed Unite general secretary Sharon Graham about the profiteering report, noted in his column, “For my money, [Graham] is asking the right questions about capitalism and correctly focusing her energies outside an increasingly tepid Westminster.”
Chakrabortty’s column received thousands of positive comments from readers, with one reader commenting, “Sharon Graham is doing the job that politicians of whatever stripe, have declined to do for years, and that is ‘speaking truth to capitalists’.”
11 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2022
Another reader commented, “Well done to Sharon Graham at Unite for her union’s focus on researching forensically the activities of employers and putting the spotlight on them.”
“So refreshing and optimistic to see this practical approach to getting better pay and conditions for workers,” said another.
Find out more
See Unite website – ‘Unite Investigates’
atunitetheunion.org
“
For my money, [Graham] is asking the right ques- tions about capitalism and correctly focusing her energies outside an increasingly tepid Westminster
Aditya Chakrabortty Guardian columnist
”
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