Politics
ACORN members take action to highlight the cost of living crisis
On 20 August, hundreds of ACORN members across England and Wales took action to highlight the cost of living crisis. They were taking the fight directly to the companies which profit from unaffordability.
ACORN is a renters union which takes action to protect people from eviction and campaigns against the causes of unaffordable housing.
ACORN action
With protests, picket lines and occupations at nine HQs of water and energy giants, bailiff companies and corporate landlords, they sent a clear message:
We won’t stand for it any more.
In Yorkshire, dozens of ACORN members blocked the entrance to Yorkshire Water. Executives agreed to meet after hearing stories from customers who have suffered due to their policies. Meanwhile, in the North West, it was the turn of United Utilities.
Members took a kayak to Severn Trent Water’s HQ in the Midlands and secured an agreement to:
- Not implement price surges.
- Meet with ACORN within two weeks.
- Give the union input into Severn Trent’s cost of living policies.
In Wales, members occupied the offices of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, which also led to an agreement to further negotiations.
In Bristol, members held a noisy occupation of the lobby at the offices of OVO Energy. They refused to leave until heads had agreed to meet. Brighton members meanwhile went to Octopus Energy.
In the North East, members turned the tables on bailiffs by placing a wheel clamp on a CDER Group van. Meanwhile in Norfolk they secured a meeting to discuss the council’s use of bailiffs after a council-run bailiff firm, ARP, was the subject of a noisy protest.
Usman Akhtar, national spokesperson for ACORN, said:
Working class people across the UK are being battered by the cost of living crisis, working to exhaustion and waking up dreading the landlord raising the rent again, their energy bill rising, water bills spiralling and bailiffs leeching off whatever joy is left.
All while fat cat CEOs gorge themselves on massive bonuses at our expense, we’ve had members being chased for bills that aren’t theirs, members left with £300 water bills for one single month and others left with no running water at all. We’re battered and bruised but not beaten.
Our day of action is about rising up and fighting the cost of living crisis at the front doors of the those causing it and taking back what’s ours.
We’re demanding rent caps, an end to the use of bailiffs for debt collection, no executive bonuses, no price rises above inflation for 5 years, a write-off of household utility debts built up during the cost of living crisis.
Bills are rising but so are we!
Featured image via ACORN
By The Canary
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