Parirs Dixon (far left above), courier driver and chair of Sheffield IWGB, on Northern couriers' struggle for their rights.
As soon as Stuart introduced the new “linear pay” structure, we told them we were going to strike. They delayed it, but as soon as they brought it back, we did what we said we were going to do. That was 6 December.
I’ve been in the IWGB more than two years, but this is my first strike. However, I’ve been central to it. I think getting a union involved is absolutely, 100%, the right thing to do. It gives you power. That’s why we’ve been able to have the longest gig economy strike in UK history. Speaking for myself it’s made me feel very positive about being active and helping other workers.
Some drivers are sceptical about unions. So you get people who don’t want to take part in the strike, but also people who are taking part but don’t want to join the union. The only way to overcome that is winning. That’s another reason winning this one is important.
When you win, you get noticed. People start to say, they won it, we can too. Getting wins is the biggest thing to get people pushing.
In the other cities the strike has spread to, they’ve adopted their own distinctive tactics. For instance in Chesterfield they did something we’ve not done in Sheffield, which is an all day strike. In addition to Chesterfield, Sunderland, Blackpool and Huddersfield, we’ve had some other cities getting in touch. We need to develop this in the places that have started and then see what else is possible.
Beyond UK cities, we’ve had global solidarity, workers taking notice of our dispute – in Italy, Hong Kong, Poland, Australia, Spain…
This is all great but I’m not satisfied, because we’ve not got the result we started for.
We’ve made some headway. We’ve got meetings with the UK management of Stuart. We’ve had a win on pay for waiting times. We need to keep going.
The strike is how we’ll win, but beyond the strike and after the strike, we need unity and solidarity among all drivers. That’s the real power. When we have solidarity, if someone gets disrespect from a certain restaurant say, we can discuss what to do, and we might strike that restaurant – it will be different next time we go there. That’s how we assert couriers’ interests.
Strike pay is a big deal, because we’ve been going for a long time – so please donate to the strike fund. Do things on social media, put something on Twitter, send an email to Stuart. If you can come to our picket lines in Sheffield and elsewhere, that’s great.
We’re in a situation where everything is going up, gas and electricity have gone up and will be going up again, the cost of petrol is up, we have to pay for insurance in order to drive, and yet at the same time companies like Stuart are trying to cut our pay.
All drivers, in fact all workers, need to remember that we’re at the bottom of pyramid, but we’re the ones who generate the income. If we stop working, that stops. When we interfere with companies’ income, they start to get notice; we can scare them and make them meet our needs. We need to recognise our power. Even for self-employed workers, it’s not really an individual job – we need to recognise it’s collective, get everyone in and act collectively. It’s not easy: get a union behind you, that’s 100% needed.
"Don't be scared"
More from courier activist Raja Khan