“Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey”
Welcome to the pilot of a brand new column, celebrating an ongoing theme within ‘The Times They are A-Changin’, that Big Fucks Small. Always.
Here, it is tastefully presented as ‘BFS’, whilst hopefully maintaining all of its vitriol, and hereunder we offer the opportunity for you to share your experiences of the little guy being hog-tied and disrespected in the most vile way imaginable!
It even has its own lyric – “The Message” by Grand Master Flash – and if your reaction to Arconic’s treatment of the victims and survivors of the Grenfell Tower inferno is ‘that just can’t be right’, we’re on the right track.
We start with a report by “Common Wealth” and financial investigations group “FIND”, shows that the company behind Grenfell Tower’s flammable cladding gave more compensation to its shareholders than to victims of the disaster.
Arconic, which made and sold the cladding panels found to be the “primary cause” of the rapid spread of the Grenfell fire, paid $74m (£54.7m) to its shareholders for economic loss they incurred after the blaze.
In contrast, the company paid $43m (£31.8m) to the estates of the fire’s victims and survivors after a lengthy legal battle. Across both payouts, all but $2m was covered by Arconic’s insurers.
“a near-total failure of legal mechanisms to hold corporations accountable”
The report said: “Arconic successfully avoided consequential accountability for its role in the fire through a series of ordinary business practices.”
Common Wealth researcher and the report’s author, Leela Jadhav, said the findings “outline a near-total failure of legal mechanisms to hold corporations accountable.”
We turn to a report by Unite found that most of Arriva North London’s buses have old-fashioned air cooling systems rather than air conditioning, which means that onboard temperatures have come down by only two or three degrees during this year’s five heatwaves. On other such vehicles, it insists, the air-con is broken.
As a result, drivers cabs resemble greenhouses where temperatures have been reaching 40C or higher.
Adding to drivers misery, union members complain of a shortage of toilets on many routes, meaning they refrain from drinking water.
As a result, Unite says its members have experienced “heat exhaustion, heatstroke and dehydration.”
Arriva’s last financial figures showed a pre-tax profit of £133m.
‘drivers cabs resemble greenhouses where temperatures have been reaching 40C or higher’
It isn’t only bus drivers that are suffering , the RCN says some of its members have either collapsed, or reported dizziness, nausea and dripping with sweat “from head to toe”, along with profound concerns about NHS patients’ most basic welfare.
Elsewhere, research into the building trade from the University of Reading showed that 44% of the construction workers it contacted had experienced a heat-related illness, such as heatstroke, heat exhaustion or dehydration. Moreover, 57% said they had received no compulsory training on how to deal with heat.
‘44% of the construction workers it contacted had experienced a heat-related illness, such as heatstroke, heat exhaustion or dehydration’
Still you have to spare a thought for workers in Texas, which has barred its cities and counties from passing local heat protections – while, to quote the New York Times, “The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Biden-era rules that would mandate breaks and access to water and shade for workers.”
Hydration, it seems, is too woke.
Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.
Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s
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