Workers' Liberty

The new strike days, 24 and 25 April, are hugely important in the Shelter dispute. Much has been achieved so far:

• A union has been built from a shell into a reasonably well-organised majority of Shelter staff.

• Four successive ballot results have demonstrated staff’s rejection of the cuts.
• Shelter staff have taken national strike action for the first time ever, forcing management to come back to the negotiating table after they vowed they would not.
• A huge amount of support from the wider labour movement has been pouring in, and this has allowed the creation of a good-sized strike fund.
• A great deal of negative press for Shelter management.

Shelter bosses will claim that they will "never" back down. But they said that before our first strikes, and then... backed down, at least partially. They are clearly shocked and un-nerved by Shelter workers' rejection of their measly ACAS offer. More action can get them to back down properly.

Those on the picket lines should be proud of all that has been achieved, but there is much that still remains to be done! Shelter bosses must be made to pay for their ruthless attack on workers!

In order to force real concessions from management rather than just insulting one-off bribes, we, the existing union members need to talk to non-members and scabs and turn their attitudes towards support for the strikes. We need to seek to assist in building the strike fund. Don’t leave it down to the shop stewards!

Despite its relatively small size, this dispute is hugely important to the labour movement. Workers at Shelter can lead the way for the rest of the sector. Other workers are looking to us to prove that charity workers will fight for their rights. And other "third sector" bosses are looking for a green light to carry out the same ruthless policies as Adam Sampson.

For too long the voluntary sector has been a place where lack of job security, poor pay and unpaid overtime “for the service users” has been the norm.

The New Labour government is relying on this. Not only are they eroding public sector workers’ pay, they also want to use the voluntary sector to provide low-grade, cut-price public services.

NUT, PCS and UCU are on strike to force decent pay deals from government, but Shelter staff also have a part to play. Together, workers can show this Government that there is nowhere to hide from their failed economic policy of wage-freezing and privatisation. Public services cannot be provided on the cheap, either by civil servants or by charities!