TMP Online

Originally posted on Facebook

Hello, let me introduce myself, I am a forty-two year old mother who has been employed by British Airways for fifteen years. I have read a lot in the media over the last year about how spoilt and overpaid BA cabin crew are, similar comments even come from my own family who have read these reports and got sucked in and believed all the simple rhetoric. I had kept quiet, silenced by fear of my bulling management but now I want to exercise my right to reply – this is my voice.

Let us start with my salary – £28,000, not bad I hear you say. I agree. A little more than the national average and that’s what I think I am worth. About average, no better and no worse. I am at the top of my pay scale and will receive no more increments. When I joined BA my starting salary was £9,000. During my time at BA I have received increments for my loyalty and experience. No different from other employees who work for BT, Police Force Personal Secretaries and Journalists to name just a few. However our argument with BA has never been about money. It is about protecting our working patterns, the product we deliver onboard and the brand that means British Airways to our passengers. We would all agree to a pay cut if it protected the things that are important to us and important to you.

Like anyone else our working conditions are governed by law and in some instances we receive better terms than required by law. An example of this would be if we worked away for six days – the law would entitle us to two days off but we get three. Do you think this is deserved? Why not? Do you work to law? Did you know that you are only entitled to 20 minutes break during your eight-hour day at work? Is this all you get? No, you wouldn’t think much of an employer if they didn’t give you a one-hour lunch break. I don’t suppose many would want to work for a company like that. Good for you. I am glad that your employer respects your needs and gives you more than the law requires. No employer should work to the law. That is just there to protect you.

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From the Otesha Blog, we are publishing this as part of Fossil Fools Day 2010

Did you know Canada supplies more oil to the U.S than the Middle East? I didn’t before the other night, when I went to the premiere screening of new film Dirty Oil. As well as thoroughly enjoying myself celeb-spotting (Neve Campbell! that CBBC presenter Josie D’Arby! Some guys so good-looking they must have been famous!) I learnt about the CRAZY world of Canada’s tar sands.

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As part of our special on International Women’s Month, TMP commissioned a feminist writer and campaigner to produce their perspectives on the progress that Feminism has made in the last decade. This article ranges from asylum seekers to the demonisation of female MPs, and hopefully will kick start a debate about the way forward.

When Labour entered parliament 13 years now, they coasted in on a wave of optimism, sound-tracked by D:Ream’s ‘Things can only get better’. But when it comes to women, have things got better over the past decade or worse?

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So on Wednesday night, your friendly neighbourhood community activist and blogger attended the excellent play “A Day at the Racists” and was in a post-show discussion with Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Culture and also Member of Parliament for the Barking constituency. The play to review it briefly, was excellent. It was not describing the exact situation in Barking for this election but a scary glimpse of a possible future where the British National Party moderate themselves to accept a British mixed race Asian candidate. It was well-researched, very funny in the first half and then becomes a visceral emotionally and political rollercoaster in the second half, also it upset Margaret. For a more fuller review look here. Below is a short Al-Jazeera (English) news item on the play:

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This is your one and only chance to use me as a proxy to put your thoughts and feelings across to Margaret Hodge MP for Barking, and Minister of State,  Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Tonight I am speaking at a post-show discussion of “A Day at the Racists” at the Finborough Theatre, SW10. I’m going to ask her to apologise for claiming in the Observer in May 2007 that immigrants were the reason that white working class people couldn’t get council housing in Barking & Dagenham.

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Ben Kinsella murdered in London - June 2008

“Fallen soldiers”, “Baghdad” and “recruits” are often terms one would associate with the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

Those terms however now seem to have become part of the rocky lives of a section of young people growing up in Britain’s capital city and this is evidenced by the tragic murders of 69 young Londoners aged between 10-19 over during 2007 – 2009.

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The 8th March is International Women’s Day. To celebrate this TMP (The Multicultural Progressive) is putting a spotlight on Womens’ rights and liberation, throughout this week. As part of this, TMP has commissioned a special report into the state of women in the UK and internationally.

The London based Black Women’s Rape Action Project has produced this report exclusively for TMPOnline.

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As South African President Jacob Zuma visits London today, members of the Abahlali Solidarity UK campaign will hold a protest at 10 Downing Street to demonstrate against the repression of South African shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM).

AbM activists were attacked on September 26 and 27, 2009, at the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban , South Africa. Two nights of violence by masked armed men that caused Anglican Bishop Rubin Phillip to say democracy itself was ‘under attack’ in South Africa. (continue reading…)