Unite the Union: Sheffield members call for energy sector public ownership adding privatisation has 'failed'

The Star, Sheffield

Local members of Unite the Union in Sheffield gathered on The Moor on October 1, 2024, calling for the re-nationalisation of the energy sector, and the regulator Ofgem, after energy prices were hiked 10 per cent.

Transcript

00:00Well today, the price cap, the energy price cap is going up and it's going up by 10%.

00:05Now this is when people are struggling, in conjunction with some people losing their

00:10winter fuel allowance, or actually the majority of pensioners losing their winter fuel allowance.

00:14This is completely unmanageable for people and people will die this winter because they're

00:20cold. We really need the, I think Ofgem itself has failed. It needs to be put into public

00:26ownership. That's one thing. We want the stopping of the imposition, the force of the

00:33imposition of prepaid meters. Some people want a prepaid meter but the majority of people

00:38don't and people are forced to have prepaid meters. Prepaid meters always cost more. You

00:44can actually get cut off if you've got a prepaid meter because if you don't put anything in

00:48it, you get cut off. That actually happened to a friend of mine recently. And we just

00:55want, we want a reasonable, we want a reasonable cost for our energy. It is so expensive to

01:01people. What with everything else going up and now the energy going up by this much,

01:06it's completely unreasonable.

01:08And I guess final question for you obviously, just to touch on the winter fuel payment,

01:11which as you've mentioned, the majority of pensioners will be losing.

01:14Yes.

01:15What are the union's thoughts and feelings on that?

01:21Terrible. Awful. It's disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. You know, the retired members

01:30of our union unite and also the community members. I'm a community member but many of

01:36us are retired as well. A lot of people live from home to mouth and I don't think the people

01:43in government with their £90,000 a year income, they don't know what's going on in the world.

01:50And I think it's a mean, I think it's a really mean thing that they've done, really miserly.

01:56And actually I think it's very badly thought out anyway.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended