Union organising

Parirs Dixon (above in middle, wearing hat), chair of the Sheffield Independent Workers of Great Britain branch, spoke to Solidarity . It’s going well. I heard that we’ve got Middlesbrough on board now, and potential for other cities like Wakefield etc., which is good. It’s spreading, which we need. Once we get a good spread, and all those cities coming on board properly, it’ll make the strike stronger and more national. That’s best for all of us in the union. That’s the way we can get a win. If it’s national, we all have to do the same thing… The indication that all these cities are in...

It’s always easier to “talk union” on the job when the union is balloting for industrial action. I often tell workmates, “the union isn’t an insurance policy, it’s a tool for us to win change at work.” It’s easier to grasp that when we’re voting about whether to go on strike. Workmates for whom our recent ballot on the Tube was the first experience of an industrial action ballot, and who aren’t well-versed in the restrictions of the anti-union laws, had pretty good instincts about it all. “I don’t get it,” says one, “why can’t we vote online? Or set up a ballot box in the mess room and all...

On Sunday 30 January, a strike by couriers working for Just Eat and Stuart Delivery was on its 36th day. Drivers in Sheffield and other cities are organising daily pickets and protests to fight off the 24% cut in their base rate of pay that Stuart implemented late in 2021, while their own revenues doubled and their top executive enjoyed a 1,000% pay increase, taking his remuneration to £2,000,000. On that day, drivers sprung a surprise action against a large, busy McDonald’s drive-thru in the Woodseats area of Sheffield, blocking off the drive-thru entrance with a pair of large jeeps and...

On Saturday 15 January, I spoke at the “Kill the Bill” demonstration in London. The demo protested both the Policing Bill and the Nationalities and Borders Bill. We need an ongoing movement against both pieces of legislation, which represent a slide towards authoritarianism. The government’s war on migrants has direct industrial implications for our union (PCS) members who work in the Border Force. The government wants our members to drag migrant boats back towards France. Given that these boats are frequently overcrowded and unseaworthy, such a policy greatly increases the danger to the...

JustEat striker Khalil Lange spoke at a Kill the Bill demo in Sheffield on 15 January. “I am a JustEat driver and we have been striking in the city since 6 December. We worked throughout the pandemic; we were delivering prescriptions, food, Apple products to students who were still working from home; we were delivering an awful lot to people who were isolating — we showed up to their doors. “We were happy to keep the country going. We figured when it was all done they were going to respect us. They did not. They cut our money by 24% on the base rate and raised their CEO’s pay by 1,000%. “We...

Workers at the Ta'aman food factory, located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park in Ma'ale Adumim, a Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, are organising to demand improved conditions, better pensions, and recognition of their union. They struck from 5-12 December, after the employer refused to recognise their union and negotiate over their demands. Workers began organising through the Workers' Advice Centre-Ma'an (WAC-Ma'an) in October. WAC-Ma'an is a radical workers' centre which organises in both Israel and Palestine, organising both Jewish and Arab workers, and often...

Redditors at r/antiwork have organised to flood the Kellogg’s corporation process for hiring scab labour with bogus applications. Once Kellogg’s had announced its intention to hire scab labour, members created a comprehensive guide for how to create a realistic seeming faux application which quickly became one of the subreddit’s most popular posts. At one stage, the sheer volume of applications caused Kellogg’s website to crash. Hundreds of workers across four Kellogg’s plants in the US have been on strike for over two months after rejecting a contract negotiated between the company and the...

Our union’s (PCS) National Executive Committee met on 9 December, and agreed to conduct a consultative ballot of our entire civil service membership for industrial action over pay and pensions. This is wrapped up into our Cost of Living campaign. The ballot will cover the UK Civil Service and those of Scotland and Wales. The same NEC agreed our pay claim for next year. Those demands will include such things as the levelling-up of pay rates for all our members. As part of the campaign we are also demanding a decrease in employer contributions to the pension schemes. We know from the government...

Ethan Bradley was chair of the national Couriers and Logistics Branch of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) . He passed away in York on 24 November at the age of 28 following a cycling accident, just as members of the organisation he chaired were preparing for the historic action in Sheffield , with his assistance. His funeral was held in York on 14 December. You can read an obituary here . Donate to the funeral fund here .

On Monday 13 December, a meeting of food couriers in Sheffield voted to extend their strike against logistics firm Stuart for another week. Their strike is now the longest and largest in the history of the UK gig economy. Activists in Workers’ Liberty have been helping to build the local couriers’ branch of the IWGB since 2019 and have been centrally involved in this strike from the very start. Drivers in Sheffield and Chesterfield are striking against a 24% cut to their per-delivery base rate made by Stuart, which organises takeaway deliveries for JustEat. Drivers in cities where this new...