Right to Work South Wales open letter against ‘Prisonfare’

13/8/2012

We are shocked and outraged by revelations that a green energy
 firm, Becoming Green, has been using prisoners to staff its call 
centres. The company, based in Cardiff, has been bussing in 
prisoners from nearby and paying them as little as 40p an hour 
(£3 a day).After this was revealed, HMP announced it had plans
 to move entire call centres into prisons. This is a form of 21st 
century slavery, where rehabilitation is scrapped in favour of
 hyper-exploitation. It is, in the words of the Unite union, dickensian.

If Becoming Green is a test case for this, we should be very 
concerned. As well as using inmates as almost free labour it has 
sacked 17 fully paid workers since December, with prisoners now
 accounting for 15% of the workforce. At the moment in Britain
1 in 12 people are unemployed while more than 20% of young 
people aged 16-24 are without work.  The scheme proposed by 
HMP will only accelerate this trend as firms outsource operations 
into prisons in a bid to boost profits.

It will also, no doubt, create a competitive downward pressure on
 wages. In the midst of a recession, with GDP and living standards
 tumbling, these measures will not aid recovery but lead the economy 
further into the quagmire it’s in. As with the governments workfare 
scheme, ‘prisonfare’ is a policy aimed at massively increasing the 
profits of a handful of people while entrenching poverty for the majority.

It is vital that the trade union movement acts to stop this attack on
 jobs and incomes – and to defend those who are suffering at the 
sharp end of this exploitation. We offer our full support for action 
which calls for Becoming Green to withdraw and for the government 
scheme to be scrapped.

Bob Crow – RMT General Secretary

Andy Richards – Unite Wales General Secretary

Belinda Robinson –
 Unite Wales Regional Women’s and Equalities Officer

Ian Hodson -
 National President, Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union

Seb Cooke – Right To Work South Wales

Marianne Owens – Vice Chair PCS Wales

Steve West – PCS DWP Group Executive

Anne Greagsby – Green Party Wales Campaign Co-ordinator

Daniel De’Ath – Cardiff councillor

Celia Love – Cardiff councillor

Glenn Page – Plaid Cymru Ifanc (Plaid Cymru Youth)

Richard Morse, Secretary Torfaen Trades Council

Dr Liza van Zyl, UCU Wales vice chair

Andrew Wilkes 
Wales Rep, Unite National Construction Rank and File Committee

Cerith Griffiths Wales FBU Chair

Ramon Corria, Secretary Cardiff Trades Council

Clive Taylor, Branch Organiser, PCS South East Wales Branch

Andrew Jinks, Plaid Cymru and Unite community member

Jon Gamble – Secretary, Watford Trades Council

Sean Wallis – Branch secretary, UCL UCU

Adam Johannes, Cardiff Unemployed Daytime Disco

Mark Dunk – Right to Work and Unite community member

Andy Parsons PCS

Jaime Davies USDAW

Charlotte Bence Unison

Amelia Barker

Sophie Roberts

Following last weeks protest   Right to Work has initiated an open
 letter challenging the use of prison labour to replace call centre 
workers in Cardiff. Activists are also building for another
 demonstration outside the offices of Becoming Green this week.

  

To add your name to the letter contact 

rtwsouthwales@gmail.com

No to ‘Prisonfare’ – Real jobs Now!

JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION:

Assemble 4.30pm on Wednesday 15^th August.
Becoming Green
Eastgate House
Newport Road
Cardiff