Unions’ poor show on pay

IN Words of the Week (Yorkshire Post, September 14), TUC head Frances O’Grady must have forgotten that the unions helped to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

The unions that negotiate pay rises think they have done well when agreements are reached but they seem to forget that when increases are agreed on a percentage basis a five per cent increase on low pay is a lot less than five per cent of workers on high salaries.

The fairest way would be to agree on a percentage of the Government’s figure of the average of £26,000 that would give the lower paid a better increase in salary.

The TUC probably does not realise that it has helped to make the gap between rich and poor larger.

From: Mrs V Lloyd, Kirkhamgate, Wakefield.

THE report on the comments by the head of the TUC Frances O’Grady (Yorkshire Post, September 10) attacking everyone and everything in connection with the Government, took me back to the late 1920s and early ‘30s when the “Bolshies”, as they were called, were in favour of everything that came out of Russia. Ms O’Grady is certainly a product of left wing indoctrination, lacking knowledge of years during and after the war when everyone worked together for the good of the country.

I suggest she learns more about real life and real people, before she gets to my age, and tries working for the private sector. They are a much kinder and sociable bunch of people. I can vouch for that.