Union organising

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...

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...

Teachers at Bishop Challoner school in East London are balloting for strikes against management bullying. Union activists say that the atmosphere in the workplace has become so bad that many of the school’s most experienced and longest-serving teachers are considering leaving. Since the appointment of a new head three years ago, and subsequent management restructure which replaced the old senior management with new managers loyal to the head, and with no ties to the staff, workload and stress has steadily increased. Members of staff spoke to Solidarity and told us about a litany of smaller and...

In mid-April 2013, I visited Istanbul to meet a group of socialist activists involved in building a workers’ support group, Uluslararası Işçi Dayanışması Derneği (Association of International Workers’ Solidarity, UID DER). My visit co-incided with feverish campaigns to prepare for May Day celebrations. UID DER runs six community centres in rented-out shopfronts in different working-class neighbourhoods of Istanbul and Ankara; they want to open offices in other places. On the morning of my arrival we went to see the office in Sarigazi, a diverse neighbourhood, where Turks and Alawites live...

In a row with Jeremy Hunt, the Royal College of Nursing has rejected calls for it to split into two organisations — a professional body and a trade union. Hunt, parroting the conclusions of the Francis Report into the Mid Staffordshire Hospital scandal, argues that the RCN was complicit there because they “allowed their trade union responsibilities to trump their responsibilities as a Royal College to raise professional standards.” But this conclusion was nothing but Francis’ own bourgeois prejudice. In fact, the problem was that the RCN did not behave like a trade union. As the report...

Sussex University branches of the University and College Union (UCU) and Unite have both returned large majorities for strikes against outsourcing in indicative ballots. UCU members vote returned a 75% majority on a 60% turnout, and the Unite ballot returned a 93% majority on a 70% turnout. Unison, which conducted a “membership survey” on industrial action, has yet to release its results. They are due on Thursday 9 May, but many workers say they have yet to receive their papers so are fighting for an extension in order to allow them to vote. Workers could strike against the outsourcing of 235...

On the afternoon of 24 April, Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building housing textile factories in Savar, a suburb of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, collapsed. When rescuers gave up searching for survivors on 29 April, the official death toll was 380. Local police ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday 23 April after workers reported cracks in the building’s structure. The factory owners ignored these concerns and forced more than 2,000 workers to remain in the building. Workers reported the use of intimidation tactics, including threats of docking pay, to silence those who spoke out...

Solidarity 281 (10 April 2013) carried an interview with a worker involved in the “3 Cosas” campaign at the University of London, who explained their decision to quit Unison and join the Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB). Their decision has caused some debate in the wider labour movement. We print two contributions originally posted on the AWL website. While it is perfectly understandable why our colleagues have left Unison, and the responsibility for this lies entirely with the branch and regional leadership of Unison, this is a massive defeat for both the Senate House Unison branch...

Bruce Robinson reviews Campaigning Online and Winning: How Labour Start’s ActNOW campaigns are making unions stronger by Eric Lee and Edd Mustill. Working-class solidarity follows capitalist globalisation to respond to attacks on workers’ rights wherever and whenever they occur. “The international nature of the global economy is often seen as being bad for workers and of course it often is. But it is also potentially a source of great strength for us. When we enter into a struggle we have allies all over the world”, Lee and Mustill comment. As electronic communication has become accessible...

Four hundred fast food workers in New York struck and demonstrated on 4 April to demand a $15/hour minimum wage. The strike involved workers at McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, and other multinational fast food chains. Naquasia Legrand, a KFC worker, said low pay in the fast food industry forced workers to make impossible choices: “You have to decide whether to feed your family or get a Metrocard so you can go to work. Or you have to choose between paying your rent or feeding your child”. The strike was part of the Fast Food Forward (FFW) campaign, an initiative of the Service...