Charity workers in Bristol who help the homeless have spoken of their own struggle to keep up with the cost of living, including paying their rent. Shelter workers in the city joined their UK colleagues in a strike due to last two weeks after their below inflation pay rise.
The action was set to continue until tomorrow (Friday, December 16) but was suspended two days before due to Unite the Union and Shelter reaching an agreement on pay. Those working for the national charity were given a three per cent pay rise earlier this year while inflation has been above 10 per cent for some time with the Bank of England predicting that it will not go down again until July 2023.
Unite’s campaign during the strike highlighted the charity’s £14.5 million reserves and the six-figure salary of Shelter chief executive Polly Neate. Workers in Bristol who held a picket line outside the Shelter office in St Pauls said that they had “been left with no choice but to strike for fair pay” because their wages were not enough to survive the rising cost of living.
