(21/11/11) Fourteen public services have got together as vocal group The Workers to rerecord the Canned Heat classic Let’s Work Together to raise awareness of public services ahead of next week’s day of action on pensions – and raise money for charity.
Margaret Greer
The Workers are a 14-strong group brought together by the the TUC and include a firefighter, probation officers, a teacher, civil servant, social worker, student support officer and health service staff including a nurse, midwives, a physiotherapist and a clinical engineer.
There are three UNISON singers in the band: social worker Margaret Greer, student support officer Polly Penter and NHS clinical engineer Malkit Tung.
Margaret Greer, a social workers from Enfield, north London, has sung at weddings, conferences, functions and auditioned for the X Factor.
The song is being released ahead of the 30 November TUC day of action on pensions, and Margaret believes that a fair pension is important is vital to everyone.
Personally, she has worked hard and been told that her pension would support her in old age.
Margaret’s message ahead of the Day of Action: “If we don’t take action we are walking blindly into poverty.
“Every worker should be striking as our future – and the future of young people – depend on it.”
Polly Penter
Polly Penter is an international welfare adviser at King’s College London who sang with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain as a teenager.
Although Polly will be on leave on 30 November, she will be supporting the Day of Action with union colleagues at King’s College.
A fair pension is important to Polly as she believes that average public sector pensions are already quite low.
“It’s important for people have enough to live on in their old age, otherwise we will all pay the price,” she says, adding that her message ahead of 30 November is a simple one: “Buy the record”.
Malkit Tung is a clinical engineer from Birmingham who has been singing at his local Sikh temple since childhood.
Malkit hasn’t sung in English before, but was delighted to challenge himself, saying: “It was great a great privilege to participate in the Let’s Work Together project and I am absolutely certain that this song will be a great success!”
Malkit Tung
On 30 November, Malkit will be on strike. He has never taken strike action before, but says a fair pension is important to him because “it is unfair to pay more, work longer and get less! Enough is enough!”
The aim of the song is to get people talking about the importance of the public sector and its staff in a week when the government wants to focus on union bashing.
The single will also raise money for charity.
The TUC will donate amajor part of the sale price – equivalent to about 40p out of the 99p cost in most outlets – to Age UK to show support for today’s pensioners.
Let’s Work Together is available to download on iTunes, Amazon and other major online retail outlets.
More information about the band and how to buy the single can be found online at www.theworkers.org.uk