Make the billionaires pay for climate crisis

I AM becoming concerned about the small number of letters being published in the Leicester Mercury that are in favour of the city council’s Workplace Parking Levy and that seem to equate driving a car with being financially better off.

I am a low waged worker and trade union steward. The vast majority of my members drive to work despite being on low pay.

Driving a car is an economic necessity for many low paid workers, and it is not an expense that is undertaken lightly.

Members could do without the daily grind of sitting in traffic or enduring the lottery of ‘will I or won’t I get a parking space.’

But without a properly funded and publicly owned bus service – and it’s worth noting that, if the levy goes ahead, we will not even get this – they have no choice.

I also want to raise concerns about the idea that the levy is not a tax on workers, but on employers.

In the public sector, this argument makes no sense.

If my employer paid the levy, it would mean passing the cost onto service users (many of whom are themselves low waged), as already scarce financial resources are reallocated to pay the levy.

Staff could also be in the line of fire due to cuts to pay and terms and conditions.

Things may be different in the private sector, where the profit motive reigns. But do advocates of the levy really expect bosses to magnanimously stump up for their workers?

They didn’t in Nottingham when the parking levy was rolled out there.

Or do advocates of the levy ask that workers in the private sector fight to make their employer pay it, knowing full well that union membership in the private sector stands at just 12.9 per cent?

Let’s stop this divisive tinkering and take action to make the real polluters, the billionaires, pay for the climate crisis.

Tom Barker, Leicester