Standing up for workers in Derby South

Elections 2015: Why I’m standing

A record of standing up for workers

Chris Fernandez, TUSC parliamentary candidate in Derby South

I’m angry. As a support worker in the health sector for people with complex needs I’m angry with what is happening to people due to cuts, when there is no need for cuts.

All the main parties want to reduce the government deficit with cuts. However, over £120 billion is lost to tax evasion and avoidance each year. You can cut the deficit without cutting people. I’m also angry about those MPs who talk a lot but will do nothing for ordinary people.

I’m a Unison workplace rep. In 2013 I led a strike against wage cuts and restructuring and I’m now campaigning for union recognition in my workplace.

In south Derby I was involved in the campaign to keep the Moorways swimming pool open which the Labour council wanted to close. We managed to save the pool for another year.

I have campaigned against the building of the incinerator waste plant in Sinfin ward. When Rolls Royce – whose factories in Sinfin employ thousands of workers – announced job cuts, I called for the renationalisation of the company.

On all of these issues, the sitting Labour MP, Dame Margaret Beckett, has not said a word. She was one of many Labour MPs who voted on 13 January with the Tories and Liberals for another £30 billion worth of cuts for the next parliament!

The people of Derby South deserve better. They need an MP who not only speaks out against these cuts and votes against them, but will campaign against them.

In contrast to an MP’s bloated salary of £67,000 a year, I am pledging that I will only take the average wage of a worker in Derby South – £24,000 – so I don’t become divorced from the lives of ordinary people. I will put the surplus into a solidarity fund to support workers in struggle.