Join the NSSN lobby of the TUC – 11 Sept, 1pm, Holiday Inn Hotel, Brighton
Rob Williams, Socialist Party workplace and trade union organiser
The summer strikes are hotting up as workers hit back against the cost-of-living squeeze.
Alongside the growing number of localised disputes, transport workers in the RMT, Aslef, TSSA and Unite are stepping up their national struggle in a week of strike action. The CWU is organising national strike action by its members across Royal Mail, BT and the Post Office over six days. On 31 August, 155,000 CWU members will walk out together in Royal Mail and BT.
Disputes are blowing up on a weekly basis, many of them resulting in significant gains. Nearly 2,000 dockers at Felixstowe are about to strike – the port through which almost half of the UK’s containers are transported. On 10 August, thousands of construction workers under the NAECI agreement, working as contractors at sites such as oil refineries and power stations, walked out taking unofficial action to demand the pay rise they need and deserve.
On top of these, public sector unions are preparing for national strike ballots in the autumn.
All of this represents a step change in the level of action. The unions are becoming a pole of attraction to working-class people, desperate to keep a roof over their heads, worried how they’ll keep the lights and heating on in the winter. With the abject role of Keir Starmer and his New Labour Party, this is even more the case.
No wonder that thousands of non-unionised Amazon workers joined the strike wave and walked off the job when one of the biggest companies in the world ‘offered’ them the insult of a pay rise between 35p and 50p per hour! This predominately young workforce of up to 75,000 are learning the reality that workers are more powerful if they are organised in the trade union movement, taking action together.
And that is the case for all workers, particularly the six and a half million already in the unions. On picket line after picket line, workers agree with the idea of striking together. They know that the Tories are in crisis and on the ropes, but the knockout punch has to be delivered.
That’s why the National Shop Stewards Network rally and lobby of TUC Congress on 11 September in Brighton is so important.
Join the lobby – send the message to the union leaders: coordinate the action.
Get your union branch or trades council to back the lobby
The NSSN is supported by the following unions: Unite the Union, RMT, CWU, FBU, Napo, BFAWU, POA and NUM.
In addition, the rally and lobby is supported by: Brighton Trades Council, Cardiff Trades Council, Coventry Trades Council, Swansea Trades Council, Barts Health Unite, Cardiff Unite, Coventry Unite Tom Mann branch, Doctors in Unite, GMP London Print Unite branch, Housing Workers Unite branch, South Birmingham Unite, Waltham Forest Council Unite, and branches of Unison have supported the plan to lobby the TUC.
To find out about transport to the lobby, to add your support, and to make a donation to the NSSN, go to shopstewards.net
