Union organising

A good start, but there’s more

On the first glance Eve Livingston’s book Make Bosses Pay is a good basis for any young wide-eyed lefty wanting to understand the trade union movement. The book gives an easy-to-understand overview of British trade unionism while also focusing on issues young people face in the movement. The book gives a historical basis for where we are today, in part touching on the anti-union laws that shackle collective power. Livingston addresses the demoralisation many activists feel when they join unions and find they are met with the apathy of bureaucracy and inaction, telling the reader, “your union...

Building broad support for the couriers

On Tuesday 17 May, delivery couriers across the UK organised in the IWGB union are staging a national day of action. In Sheffield, Chesterfield, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Hartlepool and elsewhere, couriers will stage a day of strikes and protests. At the time of writing (8am on 17 May), all delivery services in Hartlepool were offline. In London, supporters of the couriers’ cause are set to demonstrate outside JustEat headquarters. This is a part of a long-running dispute between couriers across the UK and Stuart, a logistics firm which performs deliveries for JustEat and which cut the base...

Couriers next big day of action is on 17 May

As Ramadan drew to a close in early May, food couriers in Sheffield, Chesterfield, Middlesbrough and the Leeds area suspended their daily or weekly strike action, resolving to move instead to co-ordinated national days of action. The next day of action will fall on 17 May. Meanwhile, the torch of sustained daily action is being carried by drivers in Darlington, who have been shutting down all food delivery business in that town for two hours every lunchtime throughout the month of May. Drivers in nearby Hartlepool have also recently held a meeting with the IWGB with a view to entering the...

Better paths to union renewal

Having read none of the three books Gregor Gall reviews in his article in Solidarity 632 (“Unions: potential for resurgence”), I cannot comment on whether his critique of them is fair. Gregor is surely right that abstract exhortations to greater militancy, and acting as though merely holding up the examples of previous strikes will be sufficient inspiration for other workers to take action, are not sound strategies for rebuilding union power. And yes, a conception of “the rank and file” as a stage army that simply needs the right sort of socialists at the head of it to command it to victory...

Junket for bosses, pay cut for workers

At the same time as many of its drivers are striking against penury due to over-hiring (meaning more competition for piece-rate work among spuriously self-employed drivers), rising fuel costs, a cost-of-living crisis and pay cuts, JustEat has hit the headlines for spending 15 million euros on a blow-out ski holiday for some head office staff. 5,400 white-collar employees and managers of JustEat were taken to Arosa, a Swiss mountain resort. Shareholders have complained as well as drivers, since the junket follows several months of very poor share price performance. A flunky for JustEat CEO...

Unions: the potential for resurgence

With the cost-of-living crisis in full swing, it would not be illogical to foresee potential for unions to become resurgent again. So, what light do Pluto Press’s three books from 2021 shed on the challenges facing unions here? They are Eve Livingston’s Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions , Jane Hardy’s Nothing to Lose But Our Chains: Work and Resistance in Twenty-First-Century Britain and Jane Holgate’s Arise: Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence . All involved undertaking interviews with activists and those working for unions. Yet they are pitched in different ways. Livingston’s is more of a...

Unions: the potential for resurgence

With the cost-of-living crisis in full swing, it would not be illogical to foresee potential for unions to become resurgent again. So, what light do Pluto Press's three books from 2021 shed on the challenges facing unions here?

Food courier strikes spread to Leeds

Food courier strikes have spread to Leeds: there are now weekly strike actions and drivers’ meetings taking place in Beeston, Heckmondwike, Birstall and Morley. There is an urgent need for Leeds-based socialists to mobilise behind this struggle, as socialists have recently in Chesterfield, Middlesbrough, Mansfield, Worcester and Sheffield, to great effect. The strikes are part of a battle across the UK over pay, against industry giant JustEat and their delivery supplier Stuart. At the same time as fuel prices spiral upwards, Stuart riders are dealing with the effects of a 24% cut in their base...

Stalling in Kirklees union impasse

In mid-February, Paul Holmes, elected national president of Unison in June 2021, was re-elected as secretary of Kirklees local government branch. After the branch’s AGM in February, union officials said that the branch would be returning to normal functioning after two years under regional control while Holmes and other branch officers were suspended by the council. The council sacked Holmes on 2 February. He is appealing. Today, 28 March, we tried to contact the Kirklees branch office and got an answerphone message that the branch cannot respond to phone or email enquiries. Members wanting...

From fear to fightback (John Moloney's column)

We need to learn from the result of our consultative ballot over cost-of-living issues. We will be able to break the data down to workplace and branch levels, and the places with higher rates of return will give us an indication of where we have stronger organisation. Around 70,000 members took part in the ballot, but that includes those who voted electronically and postally, as we have some members for whom we don’t have email addresses. As can be imagined, amongst those who voted electronically we had a higher turnout. It’s clear we didn’t sufficiently energise our activist base in this...

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