Low- and middle-income families are bearing the brunt of "Rip-off Republic", the Mandate trade union claimed yesterday.
The "ever-widening divide" between those on higher pay and those on low and middle incomes posed a serious challenge to the pay strategy of the trade union movement, Mandate's general secretary John Douglas warned.
After a meeting of the union's executive, Mr Douglas said recent price increases were causing concern to his members. "The latest consumer price index shows that items which bear disproportionately on people on lower incomes are increasing at very significant rates and eroding our members' living standards."
The costs of housing and fuel rose by 10.5 per cent over the last year, he pointed out, even before the recently sanctioned 3.1 per cent increase for domestic electricity customers and the 25 per cent increase in gas prices.
