Union organising

Deserters or class fighters?

Since 2012, Workers’ Liberty members have been involved in supporting outsourced workers at the University of London in their fight for sick pay, holiday entitlement, and pension equality with their directly-employed colleagues. Their campaign, “3 Cosas” (“3 Things”), began after their hard-fought campaign to win the London Living Wage, which they won in summer 2012. Throughout both fights, the workers have been self-organised, holding regular workers’ and campaign meetings. They had been members of the Senate House branch of Unison, and repeatedly attempted to seek the support of their branch...

3 Cosas, independent unions, and transforming the labour movement

Earlier this summer, Max Watson, Chair of London Met Unison, and on the National Executive Council, wrote on his blog an article entitled “IWGB: Two small unions?” . Max documents the behaviour of the IWGB (Independent Workers union of Great Britain) trade union at London Met – claiming poaching, duplicity, and more. He goes on to draw parallels with a collection of workers and campaign I am heavily involved with at the University of London, based at Senate House in Bloomsbury (I am the Youth Officer of the Unison branch, and an IWGB member). The campaign is called "Tres Cosas” (“three things”...

The fast food workers' fightback

In America, fast food workers employed by chains like McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut have struck back against low pay and bullying managers. Regional strikes in November 2012 and April 2013 were followed by a nationwide strike on 29 August. The workers’ headline demand is a $15 per hour minimum wage (most currently earn slightly more than $7). Workers also want union recognition and an end to management bullying. The fast food workers’ movement followed a similar, and ongoing, struggle of Walmart workers, the world’s biggest private-sector employer. The movement has a profound...

How fair is Fairphone?

I recently attended the London launch of Fairphone — “a seriously cool smartphone that puts social values first”. Fairphone is a Dutch initiative to create an alternative to the decidely “unfair” phones that are being made and sold today. Their phone, prototypes of which were available at the launch, is in some ways an improvement upon the mass-manufactured phones most of us carry around today. Those phones are usually made with little or no concern for the environment or the well-being of the workers who make them. Fairphone, on the other hand, aims to use “fair and conflict-free resources”...

"The fundamental element was our confidence in the working class"

Mike Treen, the National Director of the Unite union in New Zealand (no connection to the British union of the same name) spoke to Solidarity about their drives to organise precarious workers in the fast food and service industries. The “Supersize My Pay” campaign in the mid-2000s established Unite in the fast food industry. We won agreements with the major chains — Restaurant Brands (which owns Pizza Hut, KFC, and others), then McDonald’s, and finally Burger King. It was a long and exhausting struggle. We realised that, given the competitive nature of the fast food industry, we needed an...

Joe Hill

Joe Hill was a Swedish-American labour activist and songwriter, a member and troubadour of the Industrial Workers of the World. Framed for robbery and murder he was executed by firing squad in November 1915. A decade later, this verse appeared in Labour Defender, monthly magazine of the International Labour Defence. High, head and back unbending—fearless and true, Into the night unending; why was it you? Heart that was quick with song, torn with their lead; Life that was young and strong, shattered and dead. Singer of manly songs, laughter and tears; Singer of Labor's wrongs, joys, hopes and...

“3 Cosas” news

The “3 Cosas” campaign of outsourced workers at the University of London for sick pay, holiday, and pensions equality organised a week-long “planton” at the university’s flagship Senate House building on 8-13 July. The planton (from the Spanish “plantar”, meaning to plant or install – there is no direct English translation, but the nearest equivalent is “presence”) involved holding all-day stalls outside Senate House offering tea, coffee, biscuits, and (most importantly) information about the campaign and the union to members of staff. New members were signed up to the IWGB University of...

Were the University of London outsourced workers right to leave Unison?

This article was written in response to a piece in Socialist Review. The author has also requested that it be published there. We host it in our website in the interests of furthering the debate. The move of Senate House cleaners, other outsourced staff, and their supporters to leave Unison en masse and form a University of London branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), after the annulment of their elections, has sparked heated debate within trade union circles, especially among Unison activists. Sandy Nicoll, branch secretary of SOAS Unison, contributed to this debate...

3 Cosas campaigners invade Senate House

Outsourced workers at the University of London are keeping up the pressure on management as part of their “3 Cosas” campaign to win pensions, holiday, and sick pay equality with their directly employed colleagues. An unannounced demonstration disrupted a conference in the university’s flagship Senate House building on 28 June, and while some attendees were angry at the disruption, many expressed support for the workers. Demonstrators briefly blocked the doors to Vice Chancellor Adrian Smith’s office. The “Justice for Cleaners” campaign at SOAS, one of the University of London’s member colleges...

Student activists set up impromptu holiday camp in support of 3 Cosas campaign

The University of London Union (ULU) mobilised student activist to set up an impromptu "holiday camp" outside the office of Vice Chancellor Adrian Smith in the university's iconic Senate House building. The action aimed to highlight the inequality between the holiday entitlement of outsourced workers (cleaners, catering staff, and security guards) and directly-employed staff, and was part of a summer of direct action called by ULU and the University of London branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), the union which organises many outsourced workers. The "3 Cosas" campaign...

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