I Couldn't Care Less: What Do We Want?
Created | Updated Jun 15, 2014
What Do We Want?
As I write it's Carers' Week. By the time this goes out it won't be, but fear not, for next week eases us towards the marvellous (to me) initiative that is the Carers Virtual Strike on Saturday July 21st. About a year and a half ago I wrote my own suggestion for how volunteers could strike, but this one is more practical. So I thought here and now would be a good time to fill you in on why I will be doing it and how it is going to work for me. Read on.
The first problem with carers protesting, as I noted the last time I trod this thorny path, is the problem of not doing that which we are striking from doing. We are like nurses and fireman in the sense that people would really struggle if we didn't do what we did. This is probably why people like nurses and firemen, teachers and social workers, are generally underpaid and undervalued when they are in fact doing the most important jobs in the country. The greater tension for us is that we are doing important work not just for people generally (although people generally do benefit) but specifically for those nearest and dearest to us. Specifically our work (and it is work) impacts on those nearest and dearest to us who are the most vulnerable. There you go carers – abandon them. Great.
But it gets worse. If the firemen all down tools tomorrow we'll all be aware of it pretty soon because nobody will be putting out any fires, cutting people out of any cars or generally doing the 1001 other valuable jobs the fire service do. If I stop caring it will impact you, but not for ages. Essentially what I am doing is cutting off my wife's nose in an attempt to spite your face. The practical upshot is that the person who will immediately suffer from a carer not caring is the person they care for. The impact on you (assuming you are a callous person who takes no intrinsic interest in the suffering of others) is that in due course the state will have to meet its obligations and look after all these people who are not being cared for by anyone else. This will, of course, cost you money. This is, therefore, how the strike will work.
The plan is brilliantly simple. Carers sign up to join the strike. On the day in question, we will log and report the number of hours spent caring. These hours will be totalled up and costed. The costs will be for both minimum wage and agency rates and thus we will be able to work out how much money we have saved you all. Obviously it's going to have no practical impact but it will hopefully be a striking way of making our point. What this needs now is for more and more people to join in. Ideally, every carer in Britain. For more details on how this will work and what the strike's demands are, click on ‘Virtual Carers Strike' in the 1st paragraph to visit the website. If you are a carer, join up and join in. If you are not, please pass the news on to anyone you know who is, or might be. Thanks.
