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Category: Trade Unions

  • Corbyn-era MPs have rallied to support the CWU

    Royal Mail has said it’s forcing up to 10,000 postal workers out of their jobs. It’s claiming that this is because of the Communication Workers’ Union’s (CWU’s) strike action, as well as financial losses. However, the union has hit back, saying the redundancies will be because of “gross mismanagement“. And now, nearly 50 MPs have rallied in support of workers – many of them being prominent members of the Jeremy Corbyn-era Labour Party.

    CWU: fighting Royal Mail redundancies

    BBC News reported that Royal Mail will be axing 6,000 jobs. It also won’t replace 4,000 positions when current staff leave. According to BBC News, Royal Mail said this was because:

    it expects its full-year losses to hit £350m. It said this included “the direct impact of eight days of industrial action” as well as lower volumes of parcels being posted. But the firm warned that losses could reach as much as £450m “if customers move volume away for longer periods” following strike action.

    CWU workers have been engaged in strike action. This is over Royal Mail’s paltry pay offer of nearly half the rate of inflation, as well as worsening working conditions. The last CWU strike day – on 13 September, which was the sixth in this action – saw 110,000 workers walk out. They will be downing tools again on Thursday 20 October. Predictably, Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson blamed the workers for the redundancies. He said that:

    Each strike day weakens our financial situation. The CWU’s decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution regrettably increases the risk of further headcount reductions.

    Thompson’s divisive and anti-worker rhetoric comes against a backdrop of Royal Mail making £758m last financial year and paying £400m of that in dividends to shareholders. As the Canary previously reported, this is the usual case of corporate capitalist bosses keeping shareholders happy while screwing over workers. So now, MPs have stepped in.

    Corbynite MPs out in force

    As the CWU tweeted, 45 MPs have written to Royal Mail’s boss:

    The letter was headed up by Ian Lavery MP, who is chair of the CWU parliamentary group. It called Royal Mail’s redundancies:

    a disgraceful attack on these key workers, who are taking strike action to protect their livelihoods.

    What was noteworthy in the letter was who signed it. Many of the MPs were prominent during Corbyn’s time as Labour leader – including Apsana Begum, Zarah Sultana, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Nadia Whittome and Richard Burgon. Current members of Labour’s shadow cabinet cannot sign these kind of letters. However, some have tweeted their support:

    So far, Keir Starmer has barely supported the CWU, or any other strikes for that matter. As the Guardian reported, CWU general secretary Dave Ward tabled a motion at the Labour conference on renationalising Royal Mail. The conference passed the motion, along with one about MPs attending picket lines.

    Royal Mail: asset-stripping while trashing workers’ livelihoods

    On Royal Mail’s redundancies, the Morning Star reported that Ward said they were because of:

    gross mismanagement and a failed business agenda.

    He told Royal Mail bosses that:

    What the company should be doing is abandoning its asset-stripping strategy and building the future based on utilising the competitive edge it already has in its deliveries to 32m addresses across the country.

    Not that they will listen, at the moment. So tens of thousands of workers will again walk out on 20 October. And everyone in Labour, not just some MPs, should be supporting them.

    Featured image via Chatham House – Wikimedia, resized to 770×403 under licence CC BY 2.0, and Alex Borland – Public Domain Pictures

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary Workers’ Co-op.

  • Shareholders have raked in £440bn more than workers

    New analysis has found that companies have increased shareholder dividends by over three times the rate they’ve increased wages. The problem has exploded since the 2008 financial crash. It shows the extent to which the corporate capitalist system has been hammering workers while lining the pockets of the rich.

    Dividends: money for nothing

    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has released its research into shareholder dividends. As Investopedia noted:

    A dividend is a reward paid to the shareholders for their investment in a company’s equity, and it usually originates from the company’s net profits.

    In other words, a company gives shareholders dividends as a ‘thank you’ for giving it money – not for actually doing any work. However, the world of dividends is often murky at best. For example, many of the top dividend-paying companies are from some of capitalism’s most notorious industries, like tobacco, weapons manufacturing, and banks previously bailed out by the public. People often use dividends to avoid paying tax. Also, the UK government lets people pay less tax on their dividend payments. So, when company directors pay themselves in dividends for their work, it means they’re dodging the usual income tax rate.

    Ripping-off workers

    However, the TUC says the biggest problem is the difference between dividends and workers’ pay.

    The trade union body found that between 1987 and 2008, dividend payments increased by 10.4% a year, while wages went up by only 5.2%. This meant that shareholders’ earnings grew at double the rate of workers’ pay – for effectively doing no work. However, instead of the financial crisis of 2008 changing this, the TUC says it actually made the situation worse.

    It found that between 2008 and 2019, both dividends and wages didn’t grow by as much, but the difference in the growth was even worse. The TUC said that while dividend payments grew by 6.3%, wages only grew by 1.9%. This meant that, as the TUC said in a press release:

    Shareholder pay-outs have soared £440bn above inflation since 2008, while wages have been squeezed, growing £510bn less than inflation.

    The difference in growth between the two is stark: dividends grew by over three times the increase in wages. What makes this worse is that companies don’t have to pay dividends. They could invest the money in higher workers’ wages.

    But instead, companies pay out dividends as a way of tempting more people to invest money in the company. Meanwhile, greedy bosses and shareholders let workers suffer. For example, Unilever was one of the top dividend-paying companies this year while it has repeatedly been accused of violating workers’ rights.

    ‘Shareholders cash machine’

    TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady summed up the situation. She said in a press release:

    British companies are being used as cash machines for shareholders – because boardrooms have been given the wrong incentives. When you see working people fighting for better pay, they just want a fair share of the wealth they create. But boardrooms are raiding company coffers for shareholders, instead of funding fair pay rises and investment.

    The TUC thinks the government needs to do the following:

    • Modernise company law.
    • Make seats for workers on company boards a requirement.
    • Introduce stronger pay bargaining rights.
    • Introduce stronger employment rights for supply chain staff.
    • Increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour.

    Don’t just smash dividends, smash capitalism

    However, all of the TUC’s suggestions are trying to make corporate capitalism a bit fairer – which will not solve the problem. As LibCom wrote:

    without challenging capitalism, without abolishing the class system and the society based on that division, we will be plunged into the abyss, an ever worsening scenario edging towards utter destruction as the cycle of crisis and imperialist confrontation plays out… the working class cannot resolve its issues within capitalism, the fight for socialism is the only solution and that means class struggle and a political organisation built on the perspective of a break with the mirage of reforming this system which has nothing but worse in store.

    The TUC tinkering around the edges of the system will not solve the problem. Only a complete paradigm shift will do that – and currently, that’s not on the horizon.

    Featured image via Netflix – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

  • Unions and ‘left’ politicians backing a national unity project is a bad idea, actually

    Not long ago Britain’s large trade unions seemed to be waking up, finally. There was even talk of a general strike. The RMT’s Mick Lynch was making fools of sneering, posh journalists. And strikers were enjoying huge public support.

    Yesterday the Queen died in Balmoral. And the impact upon the left’s own ruling class was almost immediate. Union after union cancelled planned strikes. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) cancelled its (literal) congress.

    Even left-wing MPs in the Labour Party took to grief-posting about a woman of astonishing inherited wealth:

    But one Twitter user captured the tone exceptionally well:

    Embarrassing

    Embarrassing to say the least. At worst, this sudden urge to back what is self-evidently a national unity project could derail or diminish the entire movement. But it also speaks to the deep conservatism of both the Labour Party and the mainstream unions. In truth this is them doing what they do.

    And there is more to come. The mourning period will bleed into the Remembrance period and then into December’s World Cup. Three courses of nationalist bread and circus.

    It is one thing to adapt comms and strategy to the death of a figure like the Queen. Doubtless there are many people in trade unions whose politics extend to monarchism. And these decisions might well keep the press off your back. But to simply pause the struggle in a period of resurgence seems like capitulation.

    And let’s be clear, capitalists certainly won’t be taking a break for the coronation. And it’s not a truce if only one side holds fire.

    Cancelled

    Some people have correctly pointed out that the activities which have been cancelled are those which benefit workers. Football, for example, as well as strikes. Work, of course, will continue.

    Strikes, one Twitter user pointed out, are not meant to be exercises in deference to unelected power. They are by nature subversive:

    Some found a degree of humour in the decision:

    Class war

    The weird outpourings and the decisions to stop industrial action – even as the October energy price hike draws near – are instructive. The mainstream unions and Labour politicians are part of the system. They have good spells, but they startle easily. Workers should never lose sight of these limitations.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Dan Marsh, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CC BY-SA 2.0.

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The FBU just gave Liz Truss the perfect welcome as PM

    Another trade union has said that it is balloting its members over strike action – this time, it’s the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). It’s over their bosses’ shocking pay offer of just a 2% rise. The move means that new Tory PM Liz Truss will immediately face the power of working-class organising. So, is it time for a general strike?

    Strikes everywhere for Truss

    The so-called ‘cost of living crisis’ has descended further into catastrophe. Inflation is currently at 10.1%, with some forecasts saying it could hit 18% in 2023. People are already spending less. In response, workers are striking all over the UK – including the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) and Unite. Now, the FBU is set to vote on walking out – just as Truss becomes PM.

    The Fire Brigades Union said in a press release that:

    Firefighters and firefighter control staff are preparing for a ballot for strike action, following consultation in… [FBU] branches and a meeting of the union’s executive council on 2 September.

    Any strike will be the first by the FBU in around ten years. As iNews reported:

    Firefighters went on strike over pensions almost a decade ago and there was a lengthy strike over pay almost 20 years ago.

    The union’s ballot comes after bosses offered workers a 2% pay rise in June. The website Planit says that as of February 2022, firefighters were paid:

    £23,833, rising to £24,826 a year after training. This increases to £31,767 a year with experience.

    So, the bosses proposed 2% pay rise will effectively be a pay cut – due to our staggering inflation rate.

    General strike for Truss

    FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said in a press release that:

    Taking strike action is always a last resort. But our employers are increasingly leaving us with no choice. And there is huge anger among firefighters at falling pay.

    Firefighters must be paid fairly: there is absolutely no question when it comes to this. It is the responsibility of fire service employers to provide decent pay offers and that has not happened.

    The ball is now in the fire service employers’ court. It is not too late for them to make a much better pay offer for consideration by our members.

    The FBU will hold the ballot in five weeks’ time. It will come after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ballots its members on strike action. So, this all begs the question: with so many workers striking, should unions declare a general strike? The answer surely is a resounding ‘yes’ – which will really give Truss something to think about.

    Featured image via LBC – YouTube and the FBU – screengrab

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Another group of bin workers just won a pay rise

    Bin workers in Somerset just declared victory in an ongoing dispute with a council. They won a pay rise without needing to strike. It follows on from Coventry bin workers’ victory – and shows that when people are united, gains can be made. But, the situation also displays the anti-worker attitude of some councils.

    Victory for bin workers (again)

    Bath and North East Somerset council employs the bin workers at depots in Ashmead Road and Midland Road in Keynsham. Amid the so-called cost of living crisis, the council was only offering the Local Government Association’s (LGA’s) recommended £1,925 flat-rate pay rise. So, Unite stepped in and negotiated with the council. It ended with the local authority offering workers a 10% pay rise on top of the LGA increase. All this was without a strike.

    As Unite regional officer Andy Worth said:

    Due to the strength of union membership within the workforce, waste services workers were able to go through the industrial action process to trigger negotiations. Following successful talks under the auspices of the conciliation service ACAS, Unite was able to secure a regrade of all waste service employees, including a 10 per cent increase for loaders and LGV drivers.

    Council problems

    This is not the first time a union has had to support this council’s workers. In 2016, workers took strike action over pay with Bath and North East Somerset council’s waste contractor, Kier. This action also reached a settlement. Just this year, workers for another contractor in North Somerset also won a pay deal after agreeing to strike.

    Away from Somerset, and recently Coventry bin workers won a pay rise after a long industrial dispute. As Canary Amplify participant Karen Burns wrote:

    The dispute started on the 31 January 2022, and took six months to resolve.

    During the industrial action, Labour-run Coventry council brought in scab workers to cover the striking one’s jobs. But eventually, the council backed-down and workers got the pay rise they were fighting for. Meanwhile, in Somerset council bosses argue over paying staff fairly while one of them has been pocketing over £400,000 a year in income.

    Politicians not to be trusted

    As Burns wrote, central to the Coventry workers’ victory was solidarity. She noted that:

    It is about solidarity between working-class people… bin drivers in Trafford, Manchester had managed to win their dispute and achieved a higher rate of pay. This had ultimately spurred Coventry bin drivers on and made them more determined to fight for what they knew they deserved.

    But moreover, Burns said:

    The drivers’ dispute highlights a real disconnect between party politics and the lived experiences of the voting public. Coventry Labour council’s union-busting stance shows where politics wants to take workers’ rights.

    The situation in Somerset is similar. Except here, Lib Dem-run Bath and North Somerset council backed down before workers had to strike.

    It shows that firstly, the power of working-class people united cannot be underestimated. The victories also remind us that unscrupulous bosses who make a personal killing while mistreating their staff should not be tolerated. Further, it also shows that politicians, especially Labour ones, cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of the rest of us either.

    Featured image via Unite the Union – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

  • Coventry striking bin drivers win a pay rise

    We want a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

    The above comment comes from The Canary‘s interview with Pete Randle, the suspended union representative for bin drivers in Coventry. His comments tell the story of the ongoing Coventry bin drivers dispute from the drivers’ point of view. The dispute started on the 31 January 2022, and took six months to resolve. Randle stated that the handling of the dispute by a majority Labour council was all about union-busting. In fact, it was not about any money-saving exercise as corporate media would have us believe.

    Coventry city council has so far dominated media coverage on the ongoing bin drivers’ dispute. Corporate media has done their level best to feed the public a great deal of propaganda. In doing so, it has omitted the truth. Coventry council has hired Tom White Waste contract drivers to get around the impact of the strike.

    Now, it’s time to set the record straight. It’s time to tell the drivers’ story.

    Union-busting

    Unite has staunchly defended the drivers, and fought to resolve this dispute – as they confirmed for The Canary:

    Coventry HGV refuse drivers have been on an all-out strike since 31 January 2022 in a dispute over low pay. Unite’s support for the striking refuse workers in Coventry is 100 per cent solid including the union’s unwavering support for its rep Pete Randle who has been suspended by the council on bogus charges.

    Unite explained to The Canary why the strike was so important:

    The striking workers in Coventry earn a basic rate of just £22,183.

    Coventry bin workers standing outside parliament

    Unite also stated that Coventry council had been dragging their feet:

    There’s not an obstacle that prevents the council from paying the workers the rate for the job. The council has taken the decision to ignore its workers, to ignore the people of Coventry, and to spend millions trying to break the strike.

    Coventry council has so far not commented on any of the claims highlighted by The Canary.

    Pay disparities

    Coventry council’s pay claims show a disparity between the maximum wage that they state the drivers are earning, and the reality of the wage the drivers are on. The drivers work a 37-hour week and would have to do a 76-hour week to earn the wage that has been batted around in corporate media sources.

    Randle explained:

    A strike breaking workforce has been brought in, earning £18-£26 an hour.

    Tom White Waste were actually paid more than the striking workforce, according to Randle:

    Council drivers are on £11.29 an hour, and after 12 years are on a max of £14 an hour… we don’t even want the minimum of what Tom White workers are on.

    The heroic bin workers were successful in getting a pay rise. Reflecting on the resolution, Randle said:

    The deal gives us the financial equivalent of what we asked for, which was the Grade 6. We don’t mind what it’s called – the point is we achieved the extra pay. Specifically, we have been given extra pay in recognition of something we do already – which is work Saturdays.

    Often, striking workers are cast as somehow greedy – but if the likes of union-busting Tom White Waste can be paid higher, why shouldn’t the regular workers?

    Tom White Waste’s anti-union policy is very telling

    Further evidence of the union-busting agenda is that Tom White Waste, which employs the scab drivers, does not take on union members. However, it would seem that this private company treats its employees better, as confirmed by Unite who said:

    It has just emerged those refuse vehicle drivers employed by Tom White Ltd, a subsidiary of Coventry council that is being used to try to break the bin strike, have been given a 12 per cent pay increase.

    It really is not unreasonable for council bin drivers to expect the same. Coventry Telegraph‘s recent poll shows that public opinion and support has been on the side of the drivers. Randle makes a point of highlighting the fact that:

    We didn’t want to take industrial action, but we weren’t afraid to take it either. It was always a last resort to take the action.

    Coventry council had created a scenario where they were forcing further privatisation of key services onto their residents. As the above support shows, many residents saw the bigger picture. Because this really isn’t just about bins being emptied. Nor is it merely about just one lot of workers demanding more pay. These disputes are going on all over the UK, and they are indicative of a changing political climate.

    It is about solidarity between working-class people. Randle went on to confirm that bin drivers in Trafford, Manchester had managed to win their dispute and achieved a higher rate of pay. This had ultimately spurred Coventry bin drivers on and made them more determined to fight for what they knew they deserved.

    The Canary contacted Tom White Waste for comment, and they did not respond.

    Workers’ rights are under attack

    The formal resolution of this dispute isn’t the end of all this. In a political sense, the issues at the heart of this dispute still persist. As Randle said:

    It is clear that this strike has split public opinion, between those who are anti-union (your typical Tory voters), the Labour councillors who are also anti-union, and those who still align with Labour’s core traditional values.

    Disputes such as this highlight a split in a party that once represented working-class people. Randle goes on to explain that many party members have torn up their Labour membership cards in disgust:

    A number of us have chucked our membership cards on the brazier.

    The status quo is unlikely to change any time soon – not even under a Keir Starmer-led Labour Party. This is clearly an attack on workers’ rights. Union-busting is the agenda of those who try to keep the working classes on the back foot.  

    Solidarity between working-class people 

    The drivers’ dispute highlights a real disconnect between party politics and the lived experiences of the voting public. Coventry Labour council’s union-busting stance shows where politics wants to take workers’ rights.

    Coventry bin drivers are not greedy people. They just want a fair day’s pay. That really isn’t unreasonable, especially considering the cost of living crisis.

    Unite’s Sharon Graham wraps it all up in a nutshell on Unite’s website, by saying:

    While corporations make billions and ordinary working people suffer, this government chooses to attack the rights of British workers.

    Graham also sends out a clear message to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, when she adds this final thought:

     I don’t want hard-to-believe promises for the future; we need concrete action now. This is an attack on working people and on the whole of the labour movement. It’s time for the political wing that was founded by and continues to be funded by our members to step up to the plate.

    This dispute is indicative of the experiences felt by workers all over the UK. Solidarity with strike workers has to be a core part of the labour movement. The success of the Coventry bin workers strike should spur us all on to stand together with one another to get fair pay and good working conditions for everybody.

    Featured image and additional images via Pete Randle 

    By Karen Burns

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The TUC minimum wage plan has gone down like a cup of cold sick

    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) made an all-singing, all-dancing announcement on Tuesday 23 August. It released its plan for a £15-an-hour minimum wage. Sadly, people are underwhelmed by it, and are calling for a general strike instead. No wonder, really, when the TUC is years behind trade unions.

    TUC: £15 in eight years. Thanks!

    As the Guardian reported, the TUC is calling for a £15 minimum wage. It wants this by 2030 at the latest. You can read the full TUC report here. The Guardian noted that:

    In a move that opens a fresh policy gap between unions and Keir Starmer’s Labour party, the TUC has thrown its weight behind calls for a more ambitious legal floor on pay rates. The union body said the government needed to draw up plans to get wages rising as workers suffer the biggest hit to living standards on record.

    It said too many workers were living “wage packet to wage packet”, and a £15 minimum should be in place by at least 2030 but could be achieved sooner with a government that was serious about getting wages rising after years of sluggish pay growth.

    But, the TUC isn’t just calling for £15 an hour. It’s saying that the government should calculate the minimum wage as 75% of the national median pay. Currently, the minimum wage is 66% of the median. So, that would mean a higher average pay for the country. However, it’s really not good enough that its forecasts give the date that it will hit £15 as 2030.

    General strike now

    Twitter summed the situation up nicely. People have been saying the TUC plan is weak. Much of the talk is that the TUC should have called for a general strike:

    Jorge Martin said:

    You’ve oversold this. A 15 quid minimum wage by 2030 without any real campaign to mobilise for it means very little in the context of the worst cost of living crisis in two generations. What is needed is a united campaign of industrial action. #GeneralStrike

    Meanwhile, Scott Miller echoed similar:

    I’m underwhelmed. A £15 min wage is laudable but the UK is spiralling round the plughole. I was hoping for a much bigger announcement. We need to force a #GeneralElectionNow. Will there be a #GeneralStrike?

    But the TUC arguing for something that many don’t see as radical is hardly surprising.

    TUC: a history of ‘meh’

    As The Canary‘s Tom Coburg tweeted:

    The TUC has a long history of functioning as a break to any attempt to organise a general strike. The only way we will get a #GeneralStrike is if most if not all unions unilaterally go on strike simultaneously, combined with widespread community direct action.

    As LibCom wrote about the TUC, it has been:

    agents of [its] own decline through the very act of self-preservation. Taking on the role of mediator between the bosses and the workers saw [it] work to dampen down the very threat of workplace militancy which made [it] useful as mediators in the first place. Likewise, an unwillingness to organise where it isn’t cost effective to do so has seen [it] retreat into a cycle of declining membership and declining income.

    Moreover, the £15-an-hour idea isn’t new. The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) have been calling for it for at least three years. And with inflation set to hit a staggering 18%, the TUC giving people pie-in-the-sky for 2030 is not reading the room. As a minimum, we need a general strike – and perhaps a revolution should be on the cards too.

    Featured image via the TUC – screengrab and Robert Prax – pixabay

    By Steve Topple

  • Dave Ward: BT bosses have ‘Swiss banks’ while workers use foodbanks

    As the Communication Workers Union (CWU) prepares for another two-day strike, its general secretary Dave Ward has slammed BT bosses for “using Swiss banks while workers are using food banks”. He says that his members ‘won’t stop until they’re listened to’ and are ‘determined to win’.

    BT: everybody out

    Over 40,000 Openreach and BT call centre workers are striking again on Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 August. They’re walking out over pay. This is because BT has offered a flat £1,500 pay rise this year. The CWU says this is a “dramatic real-terms pay cut”. It noted in a press release that:

    It is also in the context of BT making £1.3 billion in annual profit, with CEO Philip Jansen gaining a £3.5 million pay package – a 32% wage increase – while the Big Issue and the BBC have reported instances of BT Group offices establishing food banks to assist employees.

    This is the first time BT workers have gone on strike since 1987. The action is also groundbreaking. Because it is the first ever national call centre strike in the UK. CWU members previously walked out on 29 July and 1 August. Now, they’re doing it across consecutive days. As the CWU said:

    The workers on strike look after the vast majority of Britain’s telecoms infrastructure, from mobile phone connection, broadband internet and back-up generators to national health systems, cyber security and data centres.

    The strike action is also likely to have a serious effect on the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband, and may cause significant issues for those working from home.

    Low-key BT

    BT’s response to the strikes has been low-key. It stated:

    We know that our colleagues are dealing with the impacts of high inflation and, although we’re disappointed, we respect their decision to strike. We have made the best pay award we could and we are in constant discussions with the CWU to find a way forward from here. In the meantime, we will continue to work to minimize any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected.

    But Ward’s response to BT is far from meek.

    ‘Swiss banks versus foodbanks’

    The CWU general secretary said in a press release:

    The disruption caused by this strike is entirely down to Philip Jansen and his ridiculous refusal to speak to his workers about a fair pay deal.

    These are the same workers who kept the country connected during the pandemic. Without CWU members, there would have been no home-working revolution, and vital technical infrastructure may have malfunctioned or been broken when our country most needed it.

    These people have performed phenomenally under great strain and have been given a real-terms pay cut for a reward, while Jansen has rewarded himself a 32% pay increase off the backs of their work.

    The reason for the strike is simple: workers will not accept a massive deterioration in their living standards.

    We won’t have bosses using Swiss banks while workers are using food banks.

    BT Group workers are saying: enough is enough. They have serious determination to win, and are not going to stop until they are listened to.

    Massive mobilisation

    The UK is currently gripped by the biggest worker mobilisation in decades. From rail, to post, via BT, barristers, dock workers and potentially civil servants and nurses – people have had enough of corporations and the government. With campaigns like Enough is Enough trying to join the dots between these individual actions, the mobilisation is further increasing. The challenge now is whether we can create enough sustained pressure to create lasting change in this country.

    Featured image via Vauxford – Wikimedia, resized to 770×403 pixels under licence CC BY-SA 4.0, and Good Morning Britain – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

  • As workers strike, Grant Shapps clusterf*cks live on TV

    Railway workers are in the middle of three days of strike action over appalling pay and conditions. And the transport secretary just did them a massive favour. Because Grant Shapps exposed live on TV that he knows nothing about the industry for which he’s responsible.

    Everybody out

    Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union are holding three days of strikes. Two of these, on Thursday 18 and Saturday 20 August, are across the rail network. Then on Friday 19 August, London Underground and Overground workers are also walking out. As everyone’s favourite leftie, RMT boss Mick Lynch, said:

    Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train operating companies have not offered us anything new.

    Tube bosses are having secret negotiations with the government about cutting costs by slashing jobs and undermining working conditions and pensions…

    RMT will continue to negotiate in good faith but we cannot tolerate being bullied or hoodwinked into accepting a raw deal for our members.

    The government need to stop their interference in these disputes so the employers can come to a negotiated settlement with us.

    So, what does the transport secretary do (apart from try to make laws to break strikes)? He goes on national TV and makes a fool of himself.

    Shapps: no clue

    Shapps was on BBC Breakfast. The show had apparently said there was only one train an hour running from London to Manchester. Shapps disagreed, saying:

    You incorrectly told your viewers there’s only one train running from Manchester to London… That’s not the case even under the reduced timetable. There’s four trains an hour.

    Host Charlie Stayt challenged this, saying:

    A direct train… There’s only one an hour at the moment.

    The BBC Breakfast host was right. As the show tweeted, it’s what the rail company Avanti West Coast has said:

    Not one to admit when he’s wrong, Shapps continued to challenge Stayt, saying:

    Well, all I can tell is there are still trains running down the West Coast mainline.

    He even questioned Stayt’s defintion of a “direct train”. Twitter exploded, with people shocked that the transport secretary knew nothing about our rail system.

    Serial nincompoopery from Shapps

    Of course, Shapps is a serial nincompoop. From chaos about travelling during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic to lying for Boris Johnson over Partygate, the transport secretary is one of the more ridiculous figures to have emerged from the Tory Party in recent years – and that’s saying something.

    But to expose in the middle of major industrial action that you know nothing about the industry affected? Now that’s peak clusterfucking.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

  • With more strikes on the cards unions must ditch Labour

    Some trade unions have signalled that they are moving towards striking over pay. This comes as others are either actively taking industrial action or balloting members for it. However, once again Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has made its position clear – it’s not the party of industrial action. So, it’s time for unions to ditch the party for good.

    Strikes across the UK

    At the minute, several unions are striking. These include:

    Other unions are currently balloting, or have balloted, members on strike action. These include:

    On top of all this, several other unions are making noise about potential strike action. These include:

    This is perhaps looking set to be the largest-scale series of strikes since 2011. But will the alleged ‘party of working people‘, Labour, support all these strikes? Probably not.

    Labour: anti-trade unionism

    So far, Keir Starmer has made it clear that his party doesn’t support the RMT strike. He even tried to stop his frontbenchers going to picket lines. Then, on Tuesday 28 June, Labour’s shadow economic secretary Tulip Siddiq was on Sky News. She said of the RMT action:

    We didn’t support the strikes, as they happened now, because we felt they were very disruptive to the country.

    Host Kay Burley also asked if Siddiq would support a BMA strike. Siddiq said:

    I support a situation where we pay people properly.

    Yes, Siddiq really did say that. You’d be forgiven for thinking those words came out of a Tory’s mouth.

    General strike now

    If Labour was living up to its founding principles, then as a minimum it would support every strike. In an ideal world, it would be calling for a general (national) strike – as some unions have already hinted at.

    Given the surge of ongoing and potential industrial action, unions would do well to call a general strike. If Labour won’t support it, or any other action, then so be it. Working-class people don’t need a Tory-lite party to be able to affect change.

    Power lies within the hands of the people. Now, the unions need to step up and bring the UK to a standstill – while ditching Labour at the same time. Nothing less will do.

    Featured image via RTÉ News – YouTube and Wikimedia 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The truth about the rail strikes

    There’s lot of nonsense flying around in the establishment media about the rail strikes. Curtis Daily explains why the strikes and unions are an essential line of defence against the destructive capitalist system the press and politicians are fighting to uphold.

    By Curtis Daly

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Shapps says RMT claim he wrecked talks ‘a total lie’ as Thursday’s rail strikes set to go ahead – UK politics live

    Transport secretary accuses rail union of ‘wasting time and making false claims’

    Moderna has announced that it will open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre in the UK. In a visit to mark the announcement, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said:

    We all saw during the pandemic the differences that cutting edge vaccines and treatments can make and we all particularly saw that the mRNA technology has been very transformational. It has literally saved millions of lives over the last couple of years.

    And that’s why I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between the UK government and Moderna, where Moderna will established here in the UK, a global R&D facility with over £1bn for investment in this cutting edge technology, and also a huge manufacturing centre, their largest outside of the US, and so this is a great investment in the UK, and gives huge confidence to our life sciences sector already leading in Europe.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • The Sunday Times changed an article backing-up the RMT strike

    Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times published and then changed an article about the railways. It showed part of the reason why the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union are striking. Little wonder really that the right-wing shitrag wouldn’t want the piece to continue as it was. Fortunately, the internet doesn’t forget.

    Closing all ticket offices

    As the Association of British Commuters (ABC) tweeted:

    The Sunday Times ran the article on 19 June. Originally, the headline was:

    Secret plan to close all railway ticket offices as strikes grip Britain

    It reported that:

    All ticket offices are to close on the railways, forcing passengers to book online under plans to save up to £500 million a year.

    The rail industry has drawn up a confidential strategy to phase out paper tickets and close or “repurpose” 980 ticket offices in England, starting in September.

    The Sunday Times continued by saying that three million people over the age of 65 do not have internet access, and:

    The switch to online ticket sales will worry those who struggle with digital services or do not have a smartphone. While many people already download train tickets to their phones, some older people are used to paper ones and will not welcome the switch to online-only.

    It carried on talking about the RMT strike. Then, at 12:30pm on 19 June, the Sunday Times altered the article.

    Sunday Times: editing the truth

    The headline now reads:

    We will keep striking until we get a deal, warns RMT

    It leads with the RMT strike and general secretary Mick Lynch’s comments to Sky News. The Sunday Times moved the story on ticket offices further down the article. And suddenly, associate political editor Henry Zeffman was additionally credited as the author.

    Essentially, the Sunday Times has dampened the story down – possibly because it shores up the RMT’s strike action. The ABC tweeted that readers weren’t happy:

    Not that you’d think all of this if you believed Zeffman. He defended the Sunday Times‘ post-publication editing of the article:

    Doing the Tories’ bidding

    Zeffman can spin it all he wants. The clear implication is that the original Sunday Times article:

    1. was damaging to the Tory government;
    2. showed just why the RMT is striking; and
    3. prompted an angry backlash from readers.

    Therefore, the editors had no choice but to alter it – Murdoch’s paper couldn’t possibly be seen to give weight to a trade union’s strike, after all.

    Featured image via the Association of British Commuters

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The RMT strike is on and the public must support it

    The rail strike is officially on, across three days in June. Naturally, the right-wing backlash against the strike is also on. However, with over 50,000 workers set to walk out, there’s very little the naysayers can do.

    Rail chaos

    As The Canary previously reported, Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union members have voted for the biggest strike in over 25 years. It’s over pay, conditions, rail companies’ threats of compulsory redundancies, and working practices. The backdrop to this is the rail industry cutting services in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Plus, Network Rail is cutting 2,500 safety-critical jobs.

    So, the RMT isn’t having it. It balloted its members over strike action. 71% of them took part, and 89% voted for strike action. At the time, transport secretary Grant Shapps threatened to change the law to try and stop the strike. Then, the right-wing media fell into line – attacking the RMT, its members, and the strike. But none of this has deterred the union.

    Everybody out

    The RMT announced on Tuesday 7 June that the strike would go ahead across three days. These will be 21, 23 and 25 June. As it wrote, the strike is:

    due to the inability of the rail employers to come to a negotiated settlement with RMT.

    Network Rail and the train operating companies have subjected their staff to multiyear pay freezes and plan to cut thousands of jobs which will make the railways unsafe.

    Despite intense talks with the rail bosses, RMT has not been able to secure a pay proposal nor a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.

    The right-wing media has once again launched ridiculous attacks on the RMT. For example, the Daily Mail front page on Wednesday 8 June screamed:

    HARD-LEFT RAIL UNION STRIKE TO PARALYSE BRITAIN

    Public ownership

    Of course, the public still seem to back publicly-owned rail. A recent opinion poll showed that 60% of the public support public ownership of the railways. This comes off the back of rail users having already had enough of the privatised network. Transport Focus reported on passenger satisfaction before the pandemic, in January 2019:

    Passenger satisfaction with rail services has fallen to a 10-year low. In the latest survey, overall satisfaction with rail services was 79 per cent, the lowest level since 2008, with more than one in five passengers (21 per cent) not satisfied.

    While the government has had to take back control of several privately-run rail franchises, it’s unlikely it will ever fully nationalise the network. So, if politicians won’t listen to the public, our best bet to improve services is to support the industrial action of those who work on the railways.

    Featured image via the RMT

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • As the RMT says it’s striking the right-wing media loses it

    RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) union members have voted for the biggest strike on the railways in over a quarter of a century. Predictably, the right-wing media and politicians have already got the knives out for the workers and their union.

    RMT versus the rich

    The strike, across nearly all train operators and Network Rail, is broad. The RMT wrote that:

    pay, no compulsory redundancies, and a guarantee there will be no detrimental changes to working practices.

    Network Rail has proposed cutting 2,500 safety critical maintenance jobs which… would make rail accidents more likely and lead to ‘trains flying off the tracks’.

    Almost as soon as the RMT proposed the strike ballot, the government acted. Grant Shapps was reportedly considering changing the law in response. He was looking at making it a legal requirement that a minimum number of railway staff have to work during strike action. RMT boss Mick Lynch accused Shapps of trying:

    to make effective strike action illegal on the railways

    Not that this stopped the RMT. It balloted its members on the action, and the results are now in.

    Everybody out

    The union wrote:

    71% of those balloted took part in the vote with 89% voting in favour of strike action and only 11% voting against.

    The union will now be demanding urgent talks with Network Rail and the 15 train operating companies that were balloted to find a negotiated settlement to the dispute over pay, jobs and safety.

    Already, the corporate media is losing its shit.

    Right-wing pushback against the RMT

    Sky News wrote (without saying who said it) that:

    Services could be reduced to around a fifth of the normal weekday timetable. It is also possible trains will only run for part of the day, such as from 7am to 7pm, and only on main lines.

    The Times decided to focus on RMT bosses earning a decent wage. Of course, Rupert Murdoch’s outlet didn’t frame it like that. It wrote:

    It has emerged that rail union bosses took home nearly £500,000 in pay and perks between them during the first year of the pandemic — including more than £4,000 in car benefits.

    Meanwhile, the Daily Mail took pleasure in reporting on Good Morning Britain (GMB) host Richard Madeley’s comments about the strike. It screamed:

    ‘You have your hands around the windpipe of the country’: Richard Madeley blasts militant union boss who’s holding UK hostage with threat of crippling summer rail strikes unless train drivers get 11% rise to average £59k salary

    TalkTV’s right-wing zealot Julia Hartley-Brewer waded into the debate in a way only she could:

    Back to the 70s

    Over at the Telegraph, it ran a hit piece reminiscent of a headline it published about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The article’s headline originally was:

    The unions cannot grab back power like the 1970s

    Then, the Telegraph changed it to:

    This is the unions’ chance to seize control of Britain – and they’re taking it

    Its ‘chief city commentator’ (whatever the hell that job is), Ben Marlow, wrote that the RMT strike poses:

    a very real risk that the trade union movement reasserts its grip on Britain, in a throwback to the ruinous 1970s when militant bosses repeatedly brought it to a standstill.

    Of course, all this is entirely predictable. Whenever there’s a whiff of workers fighting to improve their lives under the corporate capitalist system, its gatekeepers in the right-wing media strike back. We can’t have power being taken away from the rich, after all.

    Featured image via TalkTV – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Unions hit out at Grant Shapps’ plans to block industrial action

    Government plans for a minimum staffing requirement during rail strikes have been slammed as “desperate nonsense”.

    Unions reacted with anger to an interview in a Sunday newspaper by transport secretary Grant Shapps. It’s come just days before a ballot result set to bring the threat of a national rail strike closer.

    More than 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and train operators have been voting on whether to launch an industrial action campaign over jobs, pay and conditions.

    RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said he expected support for strikes when the ballot result is announced later this week. He told the PA news agency:

    We are asking for job security and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, and we will not accept imposition of detrimental pay and conditions.

    P&O Ferries announcement
    Mick Lynch of the RMT said his union would not accept detrimental pay and conditions (Gareth Fuller/PA)

    Making industrial action illegal

    Shapps told the Sunday Telegraph that ministers are looking at drawing up laws which would make industrial action illegal unless a certain number of staff are working.

    Referring to a pledge in the Conservative manifesto for minimum services during strikes, he said:

    We had a pledge in there about minimum service levels.

    If they really got to that point, then minimum service levels would be a way to work towards protecting those freight routes and those sorts of things.

    In response, Lynch said:

    Any attempt by Grant Shapps to make effective strike action illegal on the railways will be met with the fiercest resistance from RMT and the wider trade union movement.

    The Government need to focus all their efforts on finding a just settlement to this rail dispute, not attack the democratic rights of working people.

    Britain already has the worst trade union rights in Western Europe.

    We have not fought tooth and nail for railway workers since our forebears set up the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in 1872, in order to meekly accept a future where our members are prevented from legally withdrawing their labour.

    Moreover, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) is also threatening industrial action in the same dispute. TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said:

    What we are seeing here is desperate nonsense from the Tories who have chosen to attack working people in our union who kept the railways running every single day of the pandemic.

    What the Government should be doing is putting in place measures to deal with the Tory cost of living crisis, including ensuring that wages keep pace with inflation.

    It’s laughable to see Grant Shapps scampering off to drip poison in the ears of journalists instead of backing polices to put our railways front and centre of our economic recovery from Covid. He should be ashamed.

    Frankly, the Tories can pass whatever law they wish to deny our members their fundamental rights – our union will defy their unjust and undemocratic laws every step of the way.

    The difference between a slave and a worker is the latter’s ability to withdraw their labour.

    TUC Congress 2015
    Manuel Cortes described the Tory plans as ‘desperate nonsense’ (Rick Findler/PA)

    Other unions vow to fight

    Other unions have also joined in to voice their criticism. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said:

    Ministers have spectacularly failed to deal with the cost of living crisis. Now they are trying to distract from their failure by picking a fight with unions.

    The right to strike is crucial in a free society.

    Threatening the right to strike tilts the balance in the workplace too far towards the employers. And it means workers can’t stand up for decent services and safety at work – or defend their jobs or pay.

    We will fight these unfair and unworkable proposals to undermine unions and undermine the right to strike, and we will win.

    TUC Congress 2019
    Frances O’Grady of the TUC said the Government was trying to pick a fight with the unions (Andrew Matthews/PA)

    Meanwhile Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

    Unite will confront head-on, and by whatever means necessary, any further attacks on the right to strike.

    In Britain we already operate under the most restrictive labour laws in western Europe. A workers’ right to withdraw their labour is inalienable in any democracy worth its name.

    This is a cynical, authoritarian move designed to protect corporate profits and has been wheeled out to satisfy the needs of short-term factional politics.

    While corporations make billions and ordinary working people suffer, this Government chooses to attack the rights of British workers.

    When P&O, a billion-dollar company owned by a foreign dictatorship, brutally sacked 800 British workers, they broke the law. The Government’s response was a fine.

    When British workers threaten to defend their living standards in the face of a cost-of-living crisis not of their making, this Government threatens to take away their democratic rights.

    We are now forced to put the Government on notice. Unite will not sacrifice the protection of our members’ jobs, pay and conditions on the altar of ‘partygate’. If you force our legitimate activities outside of the law, then don’t expect us to play by the rules.

    The RMT ballot closes on Tuesday 24 May, with the result expected on Wednesday.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The GMB Union just scabbed on Deliveroo workers

    A notorious food delivery company has just signed a deal with an equally contentious trade union. It reeks of corporate capitalist cronyism. And, it looks set to completely undermine workers’ rights – despite what both parties are claiming.

    GMB Union: the bosses’ Trojan horse

    The GMB Union is hardly radical. From its backing of fossil fuel-burning, earthquake-causing fracking to its support for Lisa Nandy in Labour’s 2020 leadership contest – the GMB is as centrist as a union gets. Now, its deal with Deliveroo cements the union’s status as a scabbing, right-wing, bosses’ Trojan horse.

    It gleefully announced on Twitter:

    The accompanying video was a nauseating piece of PR. It stated things like:

    Together, Deliveroo and GMB are standing up for what matters to riders.

    Eh? If the GMB is working “together” with Deliveroo – then who is the union “standing up for”? What exactly do they think riders care about? It could be they care about inflation that keeps making their slave wages worth even less?

    No, of course not. If GMB are in bed with Deliveroo, then they’re saying that the most basic function of a trade union – standing up to bosses – is surplus to their requirements.

    Fuming

    The IWGB Union, which has brilliantly represented Deliveroo workers for years, was fuming. It said:

    Deliveroo… has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting the IWGB in court to prevent collective bargaining with its riders. Deliveroo has always claimed that collective bargaining would come at the cost of flexible working, but this partnership proves that this has always been a lie to scare workers away from unionising. Now as we appeal our collective bargaining case to the Supreme Court, Deliveroo has cynically made this backroom deal with the GMB, which has no record of organising couriers and presents no threat to their exploitative business practices, to protect itself in the event that it loses at the final stage.

    So, the GMB has effectively scabbed on another union.

    Scabs gon’ scab

    The bosses and scabs who organised this dodgy deal with Deliveroo should be ashamed. But they probably won’t be. Because just think: was this even a difficult choice for GMB? No, it’s an easy choice for those shitheels. And, it’s nothing new for a centrist Labour-affiliated union.

    As far back as 1944, Marxists were moaning about how Labour’s trade unions were effectively working for the bosses. As George Padmore wrote back then:

    because the ideology of the ruling-class has permeated the Labour Movement and corrupted influential sections of the leadership…Trade Union leaders have become… closely tied with Monopoly-Capitalists. And as a corollary of this, some of those Labour officials are now actively preaching capitalist control and planning, and at the same time helping Ministers of a Tory-disguised Government to make regulations against the fundamental interests of the working-class. In this way, the Corporate State is being gradually introduced.

    Ring any bells? That’s exactly where we’re at now. It’s time for every decent trade unionist to drop the GMB Union quicker than Keir Starmer can gulp down a curry and a beer. These scabs don’t stand up for workers. They represent no-one but themselves.

    Featured image via GMB Union – screengrab 

    By Steve Topple

  • Blair thinks Labour shouldn’t represent labour!

    Tony Blair has emerged from his crypt to give another “hot take” on the Labour party, and this time – no joke – he thinks it’s a mistake for the Labour party to be aligned with labour unions.

    By Curtis Daly

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Labour just shat on striking public sector workers

    Just to complete the Labour Party’s return to being a capitalist cheerleader, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has now thrown public sector workers under the bus. During an interview, she refused to support public sector strikes. Her comments, coupled with her boss’s, show the party is heading further down the right-wing rabbit hole.

    Labour: ‘what are strikes?’

    Former BBC presenter and right-wing stooge Andrew Marr was interviewing Reeves on LBC on Tuesday 29 March. He asked her if public sector workers were to strike over pay would the Labour Party stand “shoulder-to-shoulder” with them. Reeves said:

    Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that

    A bit late, Reeves. As The Canary reported, workers are striking over pay and conditions up and down the UK. So, Marr asked her again. Reeves still refused to answer the question, saying:

    I’m not going to jump to those outcomes.

    But Reeves’ performance is not out of line with current Labour values.

    Don’t mention disabled people

    Just weeks ago, Starmer said:

    We are the party of working people; our founding and defining mission.

    He also noted:

    a Labour government… will be in partnership with business, to create work. Because Labour is the party of work, we always have been.

    As Disability News Service (DNS) reported, Starmer’s comments echo what Reeves said when she served under Ed Miliband. The then-shadow work and pensions secretary said:

    We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, [as] the party to represent those who are out of work… Labour are a party of working people, formed for and by working people.

    Clearly, Labour still has a problem with social security claimants. Reeves’ interview with Marr shows the party has a problem with striking. But both hers and Starmer’s recent comments also appear to point to a deeper issue – that Labour now has a problem with public sector workers.

    Starmer stuttering on statism

    Reeves not supporting public sector strikes is one thing. But Starmer saying that ‘business creates work’ is about as corporate capitalist as it gets.

    Firstly, it’s a clear indicator of his, and the party’s, ongoing refusal to support the public ownership of industry and services. Because by saying ‘business creates work’ Starmer is downplaying the state providing public sector jobs.

    Secondly, it shows that Starmer is trying to break Labour’s historic link to public sector workers. For example, his refusal to support, and contempt for, Coventry bin workers striking against a Labour council shows where his priorities lie.

    Moreover, Starmer’s position is also very obviously anti-socialist in terms of supporting bosses and bourgeoisie politicians as wealth creators, rather than the workers. Interestingly, his idea that bosses and businesses ‘create work’ is also bad capitalist economics: the consumer creates work via consumption, not the business itself. So Starmer can’t seem to even get his capitalism right. 

    Labour: abandon all hope ye who enter here

    Couple all this with yet another round of proscriptions of left-wing groups, and Labour is pretty much dead as a party of working-class, democratic socialist values, thinking and actions. Anyone who has these values needs to drop Starmer’s party, now. We should be looking beyond Westminster for real, radical politics and social change. Because it’s clear that none of the mainstream parties serve the interests of the majority.

    Featured image via LBC – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • It’s another week of massive strike action in the UK

    There’s a wave of strike action sweeping the UK this week. From public transport workers to hospital staff via couriers, people are taking action against bad employers. But what are these strikes all about? And are there victories workers can look to for inspiration in their fight for their rights?

    Teaching strike with a victory thrown in

    First, National Education Union (NEU) members are striking at Walthamstow Primary Academy. It’s over, as a petition says:

    their employer, United Learning, not paying teachers at the correct pay band, giving them additional leadership and management responsibilities but not paying them for this with ‘Teaching & Learning Responsibility Payments’ (TLRs), workload issues, high levels of bullying and unequal treatment of staff.

    Examples of the appalling treatment allegedly include United Learning denying one permanent teacher maternity pay. There’s hope for the staff, though; the NEU recently won changes for its staff at another academy trust after it and its members threatened to strike.

    University strike… and a victory, too

    University staff across the UK are also striking. They’ve walked out over pay, pensions, and working conditions. Since 2009, the University and College Union (UCU) says bosses have cut staff pay by 25% in real terms due to “below inflation pay offers”.

    On Tuesday 22 February, bosses confirmed that staff would also typically see a 35% cut to their pensions. The UCU strike has seen over 50,000 staff at 68 unis walk out in recent weeks. Starting on 28 March, staff at 27 unis were on strike.

    UCU and its members have also recently won a victory. They threatened strike action, and got Sheffield International College to improve their pay and holiday allowance.

    A victory for workers at an infamous hospital

    Great Ormond Street is a world-famous children’s hospital, but bosses are giving outsourced security staff an unhealthy deal. The United Voices of the World (UVW) union has been supporting them. It says the staff:

    are denied the same annual leave, sick leave, and career progression as other NHS workers.

    UVW calls this a “two-tier system“. But bosses are battering the striking workers. They got a court to place an injunction on the strike. This means staff could be fined or jailed for taking action outside the hospital:

    But there is hope for the security staff; UVW Union and its members already won a victory at GOSH. Outsourced cleaners threatened industrial action, and managed to force GOSH to change them all onto NHS contracts.

    Striking couriers, bus staff and more

    Meanwhile, delivery couriers have been on strike too. It’s the longest-running UK gig economy one. The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union has been supporting them. It involves people who work for Stuart Delivery, a subsidiary of DPD, which provides couriers for JustEat. In December 2021, it cut workers’ pay, slashing their delivery rates by 24%. This means couriers get a minimum of £3.40 per delivery, down from £4.50. Over at Fox’s Glacier Mint, workers are striking over fire and rehire tactics.

    In the south, the GMB Union’s southern branch is fighting on several fronts. Bin workers at Adur and Worthing council are striking over pay and conditions. Outsourced security staff at Croydon University Hospital are also threatening action over pay and conditions. Also, Unite the Union members walked out on 28 and 29 March at bus depots across South London – once more over pay and conditions. The workers brought 30 bus routes operated by Arriva to a halt. In Manchester, Unite workers are striking at CHEP UK, a pallet-making company.

    Again, local strikes have seen victories. Bin workers in Wiltshire just won a pay rise. An ongoing dispute in Glasgow over the city council’s pay discrimination against women appeared to see the impasse begin to be broken. And workers have called off a bin strike in Solihull after council bosses met their demands.

    Wins are possible

    What many of these actions show is that workers can win against public bodies and private corporations. Of course, the key to victory is solidarity and unity – and these strikes have loads of that.

    The Canary stands with these workers – and we’d ask our readers to do the same.

    Featured image via Gary Palmer 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • It’s time to root out racism, misogyny and homophobia in the trade union movement

    Former National Education Union (NEU) Policy Specialist (LGBT+ and Race Equality) Camille Kumar has resigned from her role due to her experiences of discrimination on the grounds of her race, gender, and sexuality within the union.

    As exemplified by radical, grassroots United Voices of the World (UVW) Union’s recent victory securing full NHS contracts for Great Ormond Street Hospital cleaners, trade unions still play a vital role in ensuring fair wages and conditions for workers. But Kumar’s experience within the NEU – an enormous, mainstream union – reflects the institutionalised racism, misogyny and homophobia that remains unaddressed within the trade union movement.

    Pushed out

    In January, Kumar resigned from her NEU role on the grounds that the union subjected her to interpersonal and institutional racist, sexist, and homophobic discrimination.

    Upon returning to work from maternity leave, Kumar noticed that her work was being “discounted, side-lined and undervalued”. Speaking to her “demoralising” experience of “deskilling and gaslighting”, she explained:

    Every single piece of work I was directed to undertake during my pregnancy has not been used and some that were initially published on the website have since been removed or superseded by work commissioned by (white male) consultants.

    She adds that her work – such as extensive LGBTQ+ inclusion guidance for schools – was replaced by less radical work by white colleagues. The union removed other pieces of Kumar’s work from the NEU’s website while she was away without consulting her.

    This reflects the pregnancy and maternity discrimination that many working people still encounter when they decide to start a family. But also the ways in which white voices are often prioritised in workplaces and social justice movements, while racially minoritised women are often overlooked and undervalued.

    In an email explaining her resignation to comrades within the union she said:

    I have been increasingly disheartened by the NEU’s cynical approach to the BLM movement – releasing multiple statements in support of BLM but in practice actively shutting down Black workers’ activism.

    Kumar added:

    I raised these issues among others with my line manager and AGS [assistant general secretary] and have been met with denial, incomplete truths and obfuscation. When I expressed my feelings of confusion, hurt and upset I was accused of being ‘aggressive’, a word too often used to describe women of colour in the workplace.

    Indeed, this is a racist, misogynistic stereotype frequently used to silence and marginalise assertive Black women.

    A spokesperson from the NEU told The Canary:

    The NEU takes all complaints of discrimination seriously. The particular issues raised by this ex-member of staff are currently under investigation in accordance with agreed confidential processes so it would not be appropriate to comment further.

    A wider issue within the union

    As reported by The Canary in November 2021, Black NEU members spoke out about “feeling let down by the Union in race discrimination cases“. In an open letter expressing solidarity with Kumar, the Black Educators Alliance said:

    Just like the projects that Camille worked on, Black member led projects, such as Decolonising the Curriculum, were discontinued without the consultation of Black members. Motions presented to and passed at the Union’s Annual Conference by Black members are routinely dismissed.

    In April 2021, NEU members voted in favour of a campaign for a moratorium – a temporary legal ban – on school exclusions to give vulnerable and marginalised children returning to school a chance to adjust to the ‘new normal’. Despite the campaign’s success, union leaders have yet to commit to the vote’s result.

    In their open letter, the alliance added:

    Decisions on issues affecting Black members are made by senior white NEU staff without any comradery to Black members. It is a most condescending act of betrayal that we continue to endure over and over again in both our careers and within our union activism.

    A spokesperson from the NEU told The Canary:

    The National Education Union takes its commitment to bringing about positive change for race equality and LGBT+ equality seriously and works actively to ensure this is achieved. The NEU works with external organisations on equality issues as well as producing our own materials for use in schools and colleges. Training sessions for members and union staff are also regularly undertaken.

    Beyond the NEU

    But the NEU isn’t the only union at fault. In February, UNISON’s National Officer of Race Equality Margaret Greer launched a claim against the union on the grounds that she has ‘been subjected to race discrimination and victimisation‘.

    Greer has been an active anti-racist trade unionist for 34 years. She alleges that despite her longstanding commitment to the movement, UNISON deemed her ineligible to be considered for the position of general secretary due to a rule which demands that applicants have 5 years’ “continuous” membership or employment in the run up to their candidacy.

    In January, an employment judge stated that the rule could be interpreted to either reflect the union’s interpretation, or Greer’s understanding ‘that a person needs to have at least 5 years’ membership’. Greer adds that there is “no reference to the term “continuous” in the rules in relation to membership”.

    Greer alleges that:

    The Union has tried to use all its muscle to strike out certain aspects of my claim, including my allegation that I was eligible for elections; however, they have been unsuccessful with this.

    Calling for institutional change, she said:

    I have dedicated my life to the trade union movement, but they too need to change like all sectors and organisations. In the history of the trade union movement there has only ever been three General Secretary’s of BME background.

    Greer is raising funds to cover the cost of her legal battle. The main hearing is due to take place in June and July 2022.

    An institutionalised problem

    These are not isolated incidents. A 2019 survey commissioned by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on racism in the workplace suggested that racism remained widespread within the movement.

    Many respondents reported experiences of racism from trade union members and officials. Others highlighted incidents of members, managers and employers working together to cover up racism in the workplace.

    Further, as reported by the report’s co-author Stephen Ashe:

    a considerable number of people reported that trade union officers were reluctant to get involved in incidents where the perpetrator(s) was also a trade union member(s), as well as being indifferent towards, if not dismissive of, participant’s experiences of workplace racism.

    These responses reflect Kumar’s experience, and demonstrate the extent to which interpersonal and institutional racism operates within the trade union movement. TUC’s report shows that despite campaigns to address entrenched inequalities in other workplaces, the trade union movement is yet to confront its own institutionalised racism and other forms of discrimination.

    Time for action

    The Black Educators Alliance is hosting a fringe event at the NEU’s national conference in April. Here, they intend to address institutional racism within the union as well as the education system at large.

    The alliance is urging supporters to sign its open letter calling on the NEU “to nourish and maintain a positive working environment” for Black, LGBTQ+ and female staff and members. The group’s demands include the establishment of an anti-racist working group to address structural and interpersonal racism at the NEU, and greater oversight for equalities seat holders.

    They are also calling for the provision of specialist support for victims of discrimination. And a formal investigation into racism, misogyny and homophobia at the NEU led by an independent barrister.

    If the trade union movement truly seeks to protect and further the rights of all working-class people, it must take urgent action to address and root out all forms of discrimination in its ranks.

    Featured image via Clay Banks/Unsplash (Cropped to 770x403px)

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • It’s the Tories’ spring conference this weekend. Time to protest.

    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) was supposed to be protesting at this year’s Tory spring conference, but it ended up redirecting its energy to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Never fear, though – as local groups in the North West are refusing to let the Tories off the hook that easily.

    The conference is taking place on 18 and 19 March at the Blackpool Winter Gardens.

    The TUC: cancelling a protest

    On 9 March, the TUC said it was cancelling its planned protest on Saturday 19 March. It said in a statement:

    Over the coming fortnight we will be mobilising trade unionists in support of the ITUC day of solidarity with Ukraine on 15 March.

    And we will support the mobilisations in London and around the UK for the UN Antiracism Day on 19-20 March – particularly as this government refuses to welcome enough refugees from Ukraine into the UK.

    The wages and bills crisis is about to bite. The TUC and the whole trade union movement demand action. So we will be bringing our campaign to win pay rises and a new deal for workers to a town or city near you soon and hosting a national mobilisation in London this summer. Dates and details to be announced soon.

    But local groups clearly felt they should still take action.

    Tory spring conference: the demo is on

    So, two days of action are happening anyway. Wendy Fell from Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Trade Union Council and Unite Community Lancashire said in a statement:

    Within 24 hours we and allies locally… turned round the TUC pulling out. We have got things agreed with the police who will be all over that area of Blackpool. We have got a march route organised and adverts and social media material ready.

    The two days of action will see plenty going on. On 18 March, St Johns Square in Blackpool will see stalls and speakers from 1pm. Then, on 19 March, people will meet at the Comedy Carpet on the sea front near to the Blackpool Tower. They’ll march to the Tory conference at Winter Gardens/St Johns Square. If you can make it in person, be sure to follow the demo on social media:

    The agenda of the protest at the Tory Party spring conference

    Blackpool: get there if you can

    Fell said that the Tories:

    will try and dominate the domestic news agenda with their narrative. While the media and the Conservatives are in Blackpool, we will attempt to get our own ideas across, ideas which include social justice and fairness – unlike theirs.

    The Conservatives haven’t had a conference here since 2007 and it warrants a big turnout to let them know we’re watching. Watching as they trash our NHS, increase food-bank use, give their mates lucrative contracts, fail to deliver on any promises, ignore the refugee crisis, refuse to act on the environment, the cost of living crisis and so much more.

    With the price rises and cost of living crisis, disabled people face the devastating impacts of poverty more fiercely than other demographic. Please do all you can to help us in that crucial task.

    So, if you’re in or near Blackpool on 18 and 19 March, it’s time to show the Tories that people won’t take their toxic governance lying down.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • The RMT has been out supporting rail passengers who pay ‘more for less’

    A trade union has been out in force campaigning over the raw deal train companies give passengers. It’s making noise about the fact that while companies put fares up, they’re cutting back staff and services. You could say that passengers are paying “more for less”, which is exactly what the union is claiming.

    Rail fares up – shareholder’s money up

    On Wednesday 9 March, the RMT Union was out at train stations across England. It’s been raising awareness about the state of the rail system. Specifically, the RMT has been highlighting the cost of tickets versus the service passengers actually receive:

    As the RMT said on its website:

    In March 2022, rail fares increased by another 3.8% and in the last decade they have increased by an eye watering 30%.

    Usually, the government sets a formula to work out the yearly ticket price increases, which hit in January. This year it capped and delayed the rise because of soaring inflation. But despite this, the 3.8% rise was the biggest since 2013. Meanwhile, the RMT says train companies paid out over £2bn in dividends to shareholders. And at the same time, they’ve neglected staff and created chaotic services.

    Cuts and chaos

    For example, in January the rail industry claimed the government had told it to cut 10% of spending to save money. The government denied this, but it seems that in some areas reductions in services due to the pandemic may become permanent. Meanwhile, RMT members are fighting for fair pay.

    An outsourced cleaning company is making a real-terms cut to its staff’s pay. On 9 March, the RMT said another strike hitting a separate cleaning outsourcing company would also be going ahead – once again, over pay. In February, staff on the TransPennine Express service walked out over pay and conditions. On 7 March, reports emerged of “shambolic” services on South Western Railways.

    But this kind of chaos is hardly unusual. Back in 2021, the government had to take the Southeastern train operator back into public control. The move came after the company failed to declare millions in taxpayer funding. The Southern Rail franchise saw years of laughable services coupled with passenger anger.

    Public dissatisfaction

    All this has resulted in public unhappiness with our rail system. Before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Transport Focus reported on passenger satisfaction. It wrote in January 2019 that:

    Passenger satisfaction with rail services has fallen to a 10-year low. In the latest survey, overall satisfaction with rail services was 79 per cent, the lowest level since 2008, with more than one in five passengers (21 per cent) not satisfied.

    So, the RMT’s campaign is sorely needed. The privatisation of our rail network has not just failed workers. Companies’ perpetual chaos and focus on profits has made the system a disaster for passengers too.

    Featured image via the RMT

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Tube bosses’ anti-strike propaganda absolutely stinks

    Bosses at the London Underground (LU) and Transport for London (TfL) are playing fast and loose with the truth over why tube workers are striking. It comes as the capital was brought to a standstill by the dispute. LU and TfL have been waging an all-out propaganda war against striking workers, and they’ve been using the pandemic and Londoner’s finances as leverage.

    TfL: axing tube jobs

    Back in December 2021, TfL said it was freezing recruitment on customer service jobs. The Guardian reported that this meant TfL would not fill 350 jobs when staff left, nor would it fill 250 vacancies it currently has. Or, as ITV News put it, TfL made plans:

    to axe up to 600 jobs.

    TfL and LU claimed it was due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. LU director of customer operations Nick Dent told the Guardian:

    The devastating impact of the pandemic on our finances has made a programme of change urgently necessary.

    Bosses: cutting pensions?

    Bosses are also reviewing workers’ pensions. As the RMT highlighted, London mayor Sadiq Khan’s independent review called workers’ pensions:

    ‘expensive’, ‘unreformed’, ‘outdated’ and too generous to employees. It said that by reforming the scheme, TfL could save £100 million per annum

    So, Khan is carrying out another review. And the RMT is worried this could mean him and TfL cutting workers’ pensions.

    Obviously, trade unions weren’t happy, and the RMT planned strike action. Now that’s happening, TfL and LU are back-tracking – making out no one is losing their job.

    Everybody out. No – literally everybody

    On Tuesday 1 March, around 10,000 tube workers began a 24 hour strike and brought the entire underground to a halt:

    Already, TfL and LU have launched a propaganda war against their workers.

    Blatant propaganda

    TfL boss Andy Lord told PA:

    We haven’t proposed any changes to pensions or terms and conditions, and nobody has or will lose their jobs because of the proposals we have set out, so this action is completely unnecessary.

    That’s clearly not the whole story given that TfL and LU are implementing a recruitment freeze and Khan is reviewing pensions. But Lord went further – trying to spook Londoner’s over their finances. He said workers protecting their livelihoods are:

    threatening London’s recovery from the pandemic.

    Khan’s spokesperson said similar. PA reported that they argued:

    the strikes will cause disruption to Londoners and businesses trying to recover from two devastating years.

    Of course, Khan previously attacked tube workers over another strike in November 2021. But the strike is not just down to LU, TfL, and Khan. Because the Tory government has also had a hand in the chaos.

    Tories: managed decline of the tube?

    The Tories’ pulled TfL’s government funded grant in 2018. This meant the network lost around £700m a year, which it had to try and make up. As the website Ian Visits reported, the effect of the pandemic meant the government had to prop-up TfL with extra cash. As it wrote, TfL is now on its fourth short-term funding boost from the Tories. But it comes with conditions. Ian Visits wrote:

    TfL commits to deliver a plan by 31st March 2022 demonstrating the options that exist to achieve up to £400 million of additional revenue or cost savings in 2022/23, in addition to delivering the previously agreed operating cost savings for the 2021/22 financial year.

    So, given that the Tories are forcing TfL to make savings, it’s of little wonder workers are scared about their pensions and jobs.

    RMT: not having it

    RMT general secretary Mick Lynch told PA that workers were caught in “a turf war” between Khan and the Tories. He said:

    the mayor agreed to submit proposals to the Government that will result in detrimental changes to pensions.

    [Khan] has to decide if he is on the side of key workers who have kept London moving during the pandemic, or Tory ministers hellbent on punishing Tube workers.

    So far, the evidence shows Khan bowing-down to the Tories. And with TfL and LU pretending the workers are striking over nothing, it seems they’re no different either. RMT members will be striking again on Friday 4 March. Londoners and everyone across the country would do well to get behind them.

    Featured image via the RMT Union

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Here’s a round-up of the strikes happening nationwide

    Amid the cost of living crisis, workers up and down the UK are fighting back. Various strikes are taking place. And one left-wing party has provided a round up of them.

    Breakthrough showing how it’s done

    Of course, the party showing support for all these strikes isn’t Labour; that would be too much to ask. Instead, it’s the Breakthrough Party, and on 23 February it tweeted a useful thread that detailed several current strikes:

     

    No sick pay for RMT workers

    First up, and rail cleaners have walked out over pay conditions. Members of the RMT union are fighting for £15 an hour. Currently, bosses pay these workers either the minimum or real living wage. But as the RMT said, rising inflation means that for these people to avoid a real-terms pay cut:

    a worker on the National Minimum Wage would need £1,252 more a year… while a worker on the Real Living Wage would need £1,395 more.

    Meanwhile, their employer Churchill made a nice profit last year and paid its directors a £3.8m dividend. Despite this, it can’t even be bothered to pay its cleaners sick pay. So, the workers have downed tools:

    Pensions rip-off for uni staff

    University staff across the UK are also striking. They’ve walked out over pay, pensions, and working conditions. Since 2009, the University and College Union (UCU) says bosses have cut staff pay by 25% in real terms due to “below inflation pay offers”. On Tuesday 22 February, bosses confirmed that staff would also see at least a 35% cut to their pensions. The UCU strike has seen over 50,000 staff at 68 unis walk out:

    To top this off, the UCU is balloting staff over strike action at Staffordshire university. It’s over what the union calls bosses making a “two-tier workforce”. The university will employ new staff on different contracts to existing ones which will place them on a worse pension scheme. Meanwhile, around 1,500 workers from a group of private girls schools are also striking. Again, this is over pensions. They’re part of the National Education Union (NEU):

    What a load of rubbish

    Over in Coventry, refuse workers have been on a long-running strike. Again, it’s over pay. Labour-run Coventry council pays its refuse workers less than the going rate, and the council also makes staff work over 50 hours a week. The strike has been a damning example of how the Labour Party operates.

    SKWAWKBOX said the council was a “scab“. It reported on Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in the Birmingham Erdington by-election Dave Nellist. He spoke to Not The Andrew Marr Show about the strike, and accused Coventry council of spending £3m to try and break the strike:

    Meanwhile, Unite has threatened to pull funding from Labour over its council’s actions. Keir Starmer simply sneered at the Coventry strike and Labour’s part in it.

    An unhealthy deal

    Great Ormond Street is a world-famous children’s hospital, but bosses are giving outsourced security staff an unhealthy deal. United Voices of the World (UVW) union has been supporting them. It says the staff:

    are denied the same annual leave, sick leave, and career progression as other NHS workers.

    UVW calls this a “two-tier system“. But bosses are battering the striking workers. They got a court to place an injunction on the strike. This means staff could be fined or jailed for taking action outside the hospital. So, workers are holding a rally on Friday 25 February at 12pm. If you can, go and support them:

    Bosses not delivering the goods

    And finally, delivery couriers have been on a walk-out for over two months. The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union has been supporting them. It involves people who work for Stuart Delivery, a subsidiary of DPD, that provides couriers for JustEat. In December 2021, it cut workers’ pay – slashing their delivery rates by 24%. This means couriers get a minimum of £3.40 per delivery, down from £4.50.

    As IWGB said, for the bosses it’s different:

    in 2020, Stuart’s highest earning director received a 1000 percent pay rise over the previous year to over £2 million

    You can send an email to Stuart Delivery bosses here to show your solidarity with the workers.

    General strike: everybody out?

    With so many strikes happening up and down the country, and the cost of living crisis spiralling, it is time for collective action. As a minimum, more trade unions should organise actions. If they won’t, then workers should organise wild cat strikes. Moreover, surely the time for a general strike from all workers and unions is now: demanding as a minimum an end to government cuts and a national living wage of £15. Nothing less will do.

    Featured image via UVW Union – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Auto Workers Vote Overwhelmingly for Independent Union at GM Plant in Mexico

    Independent unions at other plants have won higher wages and benefits than those under Mexico's largest trade union.

    Auto workers at a General Motors plant in central Mexico delivered a landslide victory to an independent union in a vote held February 1-2. It’s a major breakthrough for workers and labor activists seeking to break the vice grip of the employer-friendly unions that have long dominated Mexico’s labor movement.

    Turnout among the plant’s 6,300 eligible voters was 88 percent. The independent union SINTTIA (the National Auto Workers Union) picked up 4,192 votes — 78 percent of the vote. SINTTIA, which grew out of the successful campaign which ousted the previous corrupt union last year, promised to raise wages and fight for workers on the shop floor.

    Workers at the Silao plant voted last August to invalidate the contract held by a well-connected national auto workers union headed by Congressman Tereso Medina of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). That union was affiliated to the Congress of Mexican Labor (CTM), the country’s largest union federation.

    CTM affiliates, tied to the long-ruling PRI, have long been criticized for signing employer-friendly “protection contracts,” which lock in low wages and prevent workers from organizing genuine unions.

    In this week’s vote, a paltry 247 votes went to another CTM affiliate that appeared on the ballot, with 932 (17 percent) to a third union known as “the Coalition,” widely perceived by workers to be a CTM front. (A fourth competitor got just 18 votes.)

    “Today I believe we as workers are more united than ever,” said Alejandra Morales, SINTTIA’s principal officer, who has worked at the plant for 11 years in the paint department. “Not only in Silao, but in all of Mexico.”

    The weekend before the vote, Morales reported receiving threats outside her home from three people in a pickup with the license plates removed, part of what she called a “campaign of intimidation and defamation” by “the mafia of anti-democratic and charro unions.” SINTTIA’s secretary of organization reported getting death threats on Facebook and WhatsApp.

    Shot in the Arm

    SINTTIA’s victory is a shot in the arm for the independent union movement in Mexico; the vote was closely followed domestically and internationally.

    Under Mexico’s labor law reform, which went into effect in 2019, all existing union contracts must be voted on by May 1, 2023, a measure aimed at allowing workers to democratically choose their unions — a freedom long denied Mexican workers. Most union contracts in Mexico have been signed behind the backs of workers by employers like GM and corrupt Mexican union officials — often before any workers are even hired.

    Thus far, votes to delegitimate contracts and open the door toward choosing a new union have been few and far between. As of mid-January, majorities in only 24 workplaces — less than 1 percent of those where legitimation votes have been held — have opted to throw out the existing union. The GM Silao plant is by far the biggest to do this. It’s also the first where workers have voted to join a new union.

    “What we hope is that [workers at] new companies see that they can beat the CTM,” said Juan Armando Fajardo Rivera, the union’s press secretary, who has worked at the plant for 13 years. “The CTM isn’t invincible. If you want a union, you can achieve it with the new reform.”

    International Support

    Support for the effort to vote in a genuine union at GM Silao poured in from unions and labor activists across the globe. The UAW and AFL-CIO issued statements pushing the Mexican government to ensure the vote was fair and free from intimidation. Unionists from Brazil, Canada, and the U.S. joined an international delegation to the vote; among the Brazilian delegation were eight members of local unions at GM.

    The second-place finisher, the CTM-linked Coalition, attacked the international solidarity shown by unions and workers around the globe as “foreign interference,” and made the fear of job loss a centerpiece of their campaign. “Both the Canadians and the Americans want to take our production to their countries,” said a leader of the Coalition in an interview with El Financiero.

    SINTTIA, for its part, embraced the support. “The union struggle encompasses the whole world,” said Fajardo Rivera. “It’s not just in Mexico.”

    “It’s important to recognize the commitment of workers from other countries,” said Morales, “because it’s important that the whole working class, not just from here but globally, be in constant communication for the betterment of everyone.”

    What’s Next

    Once the results are certified by Mexican labor authorities, SINTTIA will enter negotiations with GM. Earlier this week, the automaker reported it had pulled in a record $10 billion in profits last year.

    Workers at the Silao plant make the lucrative Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, but earn less than $25 for a 12-hour shift. Foremost on their minds is a wage increase. “What workers would like most is to have a decent salary that is enough for their day-to-day [needs],” said Morales.

    Among the other demands that SINTTIA highlighted in its election campaign were bathroom breaks, improved benefits, food and transportation paid for by the company, and better ability to take vacation time.

    The independent unions that exist at three of Mexico’s two dozen auto assembly plants — at Nissan, Audi, and Volkswagen — have won higher wages and benefits than those where contracts are controlled by protection unions linked to the CTM. Those unions, who formed the federation FESIIAAAN (the Federation of Independent Unions of the Automobile, Auto Parts, Aerospace and Tire Industries) in 2018, were vocal in their support for SINTTIA.

    “We know that those unions have been working for years to obtain what they are earning today [and] their benefits,” said Morales. “We lost a lot over the years, so we are going to have to advance bit by bit.”

    Under Mexico’s reformed labor law, the union has six months to negotiate a contract and get it approved by a majority of the plant’s workers.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Public transport’ is about to become more of a monopoly

    Two of the biggest transport companies in the UK just revealed they’re merging into one. The move smashes the idea of a ‘public transport’ system even further. And, assuming the competition authority doesn’t intervene, it’ll have repercussions for staff and possibly passengers

    A huge merger: Stagecoach and National Express

    As PA reported, bus and coach group National Express has agreed an all-share takeover of rival Stagecoach. But the government might have something to say. This is because of the potential of a market monopoly. As Sky News reported:

    the deal… was also likely to attract the attention of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as the enlarged company would control 40,000 vehicles and 70,000 staff.

    In other words, National Express would end up having huge control over bus services. This could mean, for example, increased fares due to the lack of competition. Sky News continued:

    CMA concerns would be likely to centre on whether the deal weakened competition in certain regions and routes or raised the prospect of higher fares.

    But the merger comes against a backdrop of entrenched problems across bus services.

    Transport chaos

    A report by former UN poverty rapporteur Philip Alston slammed the UK’s bus network as a “deeply fragmented system that would shock those not accustomed to it”. Meanwhile, as The Canary previously reported, the RMT union has been taking industrial action against Stagecoach. It’s over pay and working conditions. Some drivers earn less than £23,000 a year.

    But Stagecoach isn’t a first-time offender when it comes to staff pay and conditions. It lost the bids on three rail franchises in 2019 because it wouldn’t comply with government rules over pensions. The RMT has also historically taken strike action against National Express, too. So, the merger is likely to cause unrest among workers.

    Stagecoach and National Express: a billion pound deal

    As PA reported, the deal will bring together two of the UK’s biggest transport firms. It will create a combined firm worth around £1.9bn. Under the terms of the tie-up, National Express shareholders would own around 75% of the combined group. Stagecoach shareholders will own the remainder. The deal values Stagecoach at around £437m.

    PA said that the merger will cut 50 jobs under plans to slash annual costs by at least £45m. The cuts will be at the two firms’ head offices, IT and corporate departments. But the companies’ stressed there would be no front-line job losses, like drivers, or depot closures due to the deal. Also, Stagecoach has said it will now sell-off the Falcon South-West coach service and its 35% stake in Scottish Citylink Coaches.

    Monopoly?

    Unite the Union general secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement:

    This takeover must not be paid for by attacks to workers’ terms and conditions…

    We expect the newly expanded National Express company to work with us to respect existing agreements, and must warn that failure to do this or any attempt to make our members worse off will be forcefully resisted.

    So, it’s unclear how this new monopoly will improve the situation – except for the two companies’ bosses and shareholders.

    Featured image via – Flickr – Glen Wallace

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Unite’s cut in funding to Labour could benefit several other projects

    Union leader Sharon Graham has said Unite plans to withdraw a big chunk of Labour Party funding. Going forwards, the money will be used to help workers by other means. The union will still pay £1m in affiliation fees, but Graham said other cash will go on more valuable causes.

    Unite’s firebrand general-secretary told the Guardian, “there’s a lot of other money that we use from our political fund where, actually, I’m not sure we’re getting the best value for it”.

    She added:

     The fact that I am being quite robust is because Labour needs to talk about workers, needs to defend workers and needs to defend communities.

    And there are quite a number of other projects that could benefit from union backing.

    Labour

    Graham called Labour’s recent reshuffle “white noise”. She had strong words for Labour:

    I don’t know what world they’re living in, but [they] don’t live in the one in I’m living in, because [in] the one I’m inhabiting, people are frightened.

    And this isn’t the first time. The Unite leader recently clashed with London mayor Sadiq Khan after he attacked striking transport workers:

    Turning away

    As workers turn away from Keir Starmer’s increasingly right-wing party, other projects could be in line for union support. Sharon Graham mentioned the idea of a national care service in Scotland:

    If we can get in a national care service in Scotland, if we can drive that through, then let’s put the resource in Scotland, let’s get some campaigning going on there properly.

    Westminster, Graham said, “isn’t the font of everything, you know, and actually, there’s other ways to try and get things in, by pace-setting”.

    New horizons

    And it is true. Any number of actual pro-worker initiatives could be energised by more union funding. Post-Corbyn, the Labour Party has shifted back towards a Blairite position: pro-capitalist and pro-war. Recent appointments like David Lammy as shadow foreign secretary prove this beyond doubt – at least if his hawkish record is anything to go by. But where could the money go?

    Well, there are any number of projects which could benefit from union backing. Perhaps these could include new and existing left media platforms to counter the influence of private and state broadcasters. One outcome of Corbynism was a new network of channels and organisations. The Canary, Skwawkbox, Double Down News, and Declassified UK – to name just a few. And none of them enjoy billionaire backers like the Tory press.

    Pro-worker

    Worker’s education programs like the WEA are needed more than ever so that worker’s can access education and expand their minds. It’s high time initiatives like this were properly funded.

    The unions could increase funding to training programmes for activists and organizers on everything from climate change to antiracism. And these fit snugly with refugee and migrant solidarity efforts to help desperate and displaced people affected by Priti Patel’s hostile environment

    And all of these have an international aspect. From solidarity campaigns with workers in Latin American and the Middle East, to support for oppressed people from Palestine to Europe.

    Rejuvenation

    It’s for Unite to decide where it puts cash freed up from Labour. But there are plenty of worthy causes outside Starmer’s floundering party which could do with a hand. And let’s hope the money gets used where its needed.

    Featured image via – Wikimedia Commons/Office of US Speaker of the House

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Amazon’s Black Friday turns into a global disaster

    Amazon’s Black Friday saw it becoming the subject of blockades, strikes, and protests around the world as activists and campaigners targeted it over a list of “crimes” nearly as substantial as its founder Jeff Bezos’s bank balance.

    XR: facing-off with Amazon on Black Friday

    As reported by PA, Extinction Rebellion (XR) has been blockading Amazon distribution (“fulfilment“) centres around the UK. PA noted that XR’s Black Friday demonstration involving around 20 activists started at 4am at the distribution centre in Dunfermline, Fife. The group said it was also targeting Amazon sites in Doncaster, Darlington, Newcastle, Manchester, Peterborough, Derby, Coventry, Rugeley, Dartford, Bristol, Tilbury, and Milton Keynes. XR said in a press release that the UK action was part of Europe-wide disruption. It has also been targeting fulfilment centres in Germany and the Netherlands.

    PA reported that protesters with lock-ons and placards had stopped lorries entering the Fife site and some from leaving. In the Midlands, XR disrupted three Amazon fulfilment centres:

    It also blockaded a site in Essex:

    The group said in a press release that:

    The action is taking place on Black Friday in order to confront the exploitative and environmentally destructive business practices of one of the world’s largest companies. Amazon is known for a long list of widely recognised “crimes”… while making its founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos one of the richest men on earth.

    Criminal practices?

    XR says Amazon’s list of crimes includes:

    • Emitting “60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year — more than a medium sized country and the equivalent of burning through 140 million barrels of oil”.
    • Lobbying the “US Government to fight against climate legislation, despite pledging to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040. This target also does not include its supply chain which contributes 75% of its overall emissions… They are committing the very definition of greenwash”.
    • “Treating its workers ‘like robots’, with a report… stating that ambulances have been called out to UK warehouses 971 times since 2018. … An employee died at the site in Tilbury just last month”.
    • “Routinely” destroying “millions of items of unsold stock and returned items. Many of the products – including smart TVs and laptops – are often new and unused”.
    • “Legally” reporting “billions of pounds of sales in a tax haven, meaning they are stealing from the general public in order to grow”.

    Activist and student Maciej Walczuk told PA:

    We have to recognise that the consumption in the global north is largely based upon the exploitation of the working class and the global south, while companies like Amazon make massive profits and contribute to worsening the climate and ecological crisis.

    We need a new system that respects people and the planet, instead of blindly chasing profit.

    And it wasn’t just XR exposing Amazon’s crimes on Black Friday.

    Make Bezos pay

    Make Amazon Pay is a global coalition of campaign groups that’s also been taking action against the company. Make Amazon Pay has organised protests and strikes by Amazon workers around the world. For example, workers walked out in Germany:

    The group released a video:

    Make Amazon Pay has a list of common demands for the company. They include calls for Amazon to:

    • Improve the workplace.
    • Provide job security.
    • Respect workers’ universal rights.
    • Operate sustainably.
    • Pay back to society.

    Hitting Amazon where it hurts?

    Owen Espley from campaign group War on Want said:

    Amazon’s growing power is a threat to communities and workers around the world. Amazon is abusing its dominance across online retail, cloud services, and logistics, to create unfair competition that is driving down standards for everyone. Amazon workers face unsafe conditions, constant surveillance and are treated like robots.

    It’s time for Amazon to pay fair wages, fair taxes, and for its impact on the planet.

    It will be interesting to see if the Black Friday chaos for Amazon has hit it and Bezos where it really hurts – in their wallets.

    Featured image via Alex Street/Extinction Rebellion and additional reporting by PA

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

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