Cumbria’s community branch of the Unite union held a protest in Carlisle this week against a proposed rise in energy bills and Labour’s scrapping of the winter fuel allowance.
With leaflets and placards calling for “public ownership now”, the union members’ main demand was for the immediate nationalisation of the energy and fuel companies under the “democratic control of workers and customers” in order to stop “profiteering” and to “bring bills down.”
Labour has come under fire from politicians on the left and right over their decision to scrap the winter fuel payments for pensioners.
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The party said that the move was necessary to help fill the ‘black hole’ at the heart of the country’s finances.
The Cumbria branch secretary, Robert Charlesworth, said: “This contempt for millions of union members and the wider public now leaves us asking ‘where is our political voice? Who represents our interests?’”
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