Victorian workers will reappear on the streets of Derby next week as UNISON highlights “a step back into a Victorian era of economic insecurity”.
Union activists and members will be outside the Royal Derby and Chesterfield Royal hospitals next week dressed in Victorian costume to draw a comparison between employment today and in the 19th century.
“The coalition government’s continual driving down of employment rights and pay is a step back into a Victorian era of economic insecurity, having to queue for food and waiting to be called to work,” UNISON regional organiser Pam Shepherd told the local press.
“This new million-plus, zero-hour ‘flexible’ workforce is the 21st century equivalent of Victorian workers standing outside the dock gates in the morning hoping for a day’s work,” she said in the Derby Telegraph.
“It comes to something when even Boris Johnson has said: ‘We’re returning to Victorian levels of disparity between the rich and the poor’.”
As the union makes sure members’ voices are heard “in the face of the biggest fall in living standards since the Victorian era,” said Ms Shepherd, UNISON will “channel the spirit of the people of Derbyshire village Pentrich who, nearly 200 years ago, in 1817, marched towards Nottingham in protest against a lack of work, lack of food and the indifference of the government.”
UNISON members will be outside the Royal Derby Hospital from 10am to 2pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday next week (21-25 July), and outside Chesterfield Royal Hospital from 10am to 2pm on Tuesday and Wednesday and from 9am to noon on Friday (22- 25 July).
