Our Hours campaign tour begins with a bang
Openreach October 15 2019The unequivocal message that Openreach’s ‘great hours robbery’ must stop is being broadcast loud and clear in Wales and The Marches thanks to high profile CWU campaigning against the unfair treatment of an ever-growing percentage of Openreach engineers who are forced to work for up to two hours a day for free.
Yesterday (Monday) the union’s ongoing Our Hours campaign commenced a week-long road tour during which an intrepid band of CWU ‘time bandits’ from the region’s three T&FS branches will drive home the message that discrepancies in contracts that see some employees compensated for their travelling time, but others forced to work for up to 10 hours a week for nothing, are fundamentally unfair and must be addressed.
Kicking off with an early morning ‘raid’ on Carmarthen Telephone Exchange, the heroes of the hour transformed themselves into a motley crew of cartoon-style burglars to amplify the ‘time theft’ message’ – and they will be remaining resolutely in costume as they wend their way from the valleys of South Wales right the way to Snowdon in the north – taking in mid Wales and key locations in English borderlands of the Welsh Marches in between.
Amongst the many members engaging with the CWU ‘time bandits’ yesterday were a number of young fathers who explained how the Personal Travel Time (PTT) they are forced to give at either end of the day means they barely get to see their new-born children awake. See video here.
Throughout the tour the key message to members is they have to stand solidly together on the issue – whether or not PTT applies to them. Above everything, they are being urged to sign the CWU’s Our Hours campaign petition.
After a busy day meeting members in Carmarthen, Swansea and Bridgend yesterday, today’s activity began at Cardiff’s Forest Farm depot, followed by a photoshoot at the nearby Principality Stadium and BT’s adjacent Stadium House. At the time of writing (11am) the CWU ‘time bandits’ are at Newport ATE, and will shortly be making their way to Hereford, before ending the day with CWU members at a Mid Wales, the Marches & North Staffs branch meeting in Shrewsbury. Other stop-offs planned for today include BT’s earth satellite tracking station at Madley, Hereford’s historic ‘Mappa Mundi’ cathedral…and, inexplicably, a tattoo parlour in Newport! See tomorrow’s video update to find out more…
Watch out for regular updates at @CWUnews and @CWU_AndyKerr – and blow-by-blow reportage at South Wales Branch’s twitter feed @cwu_southwales or its Facebook account @cwusouthwales