“Please come down to our picket line and support us.” This was the call made by Paul Roberts, an HGV driver and victimised Unite shop steward, speaking to Merseyside Socialist Party members.
As a result of Paul’s sacking, HGV drivers employed by GXO logistics company, and based at the company’s Lockheed Road depot in Warrington, are taking indefinite strike action. The workers are on a contract to supply PTS and City Plumbing outlets, delivering taps and pipes across the UK. The strike began on 22 May and Socialist Party members have visited the picket lines in support.
Paul was successfully signing workers at GXO up as members of Unite, and fighting for better terms and working conditions. The workers have raised issues around poor pay and toilet facilities, and some pay rises had been won. The branch members are now determined to defend their rep and their ability to organise in the workplace.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says the union “will leave no stone unturned until our member has been reinstated.”
Socialist Party members on Merseyside will offer whatever support they can to Paul and his members. If the trade union movement mobilises, Unite can win this dispute and send a signal to big business that workers will not take attacks from ruthless and unscrupulous employers lying down. HGV drivers have organised and won big pay rises in several companies in the last couple of years.
Ultimately, it is the drive for profit that lies behind the attacks big business are inflicting on workforces like those at GXO, and on determined fighting trade unionists like Paul.
Socialist Party members are encouraging the pickets to link up with other striking workers in the private and public sectors at the conference of the National Shop Stewards Network on 24 June. And we are also talking with strikers about how only socialist public ownership, and democratic control and planning, of essential infrastructure needs in society can provide a long-term cure to these attacks.
