Two Major Strikes in the UK

“It used to be that if a place treated you like crap, you’d just go somewhere else. It’s got to the point where there’s nowhere else to go. We’ve reached a tipping point. We’re on minimum wage, on zero-hours. There’s no such thing as overtime anymore, and now they’re starting to mess with our tips. There’s only so much more we can take”.

With these words a young English worker describes his and many other’s condition on the eve of an important and unprecedented direct action in the catering sector. On October 6, fast food workers belonging to McDonald’s, TGI Fridays and Wetherspoons set up a joint strike to conclude, or give a new start we might say, to the particular struggles of which we saw several episodes happening in the last year. The cases of sexual harassment at McDonald’s or the disputes over tips at TGIFridays had only been the sparks on which the unavoidable need to end miserable wages and zero-hours contracts, as well as the disparity in remuneration that affects people under 25 had blown. And from isolated and scattered initiatives, the understanding that a coordinated action was necessary to give a greater impulse to the struggle had been gaining ground, mostly young people with no family support and no prospect of professional advancement, crushed by a labour market in a continous downward trend, these workers have formed or joined grassroots trade unions impenetrable to bureaucrats and collaborative strategies of all kinds, that are mostly run by the workers themselves to meet their immediate interests, incompatible with those of their bosses. And where the consciousness that their situation will be difficult to improve if the existing production relations remain as such begins to spread.

The strike was mainly promoted by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), but GMB Union and the larger Unite the Union also back it up and push their members into action. Obviously, however, the anger was not limited to members of these unions. And so, when the strike action had already been defined, gig economy workers from the food delivery industry decided decisively to participate in the walk out. They were united by a very similar living condition, with very low wages and unguaranteed work hours, and also saw in the unity of the workers the only possibility of salvation. It must be said that this segment of workers lives in a condition at the limit of sustainability, since they are denied even the most basic rights. Although in most cases these are actual full-time jobs as well as the only source of income, these riders are told that they should see themselves as “entrepreneurs”, who work when and how they want, who are real arbiters of their own destiny. The reality is that they have no choice but to suffer a wild exploitation with the incessant uncertainty of not being able to keep up with rent and bills. Working without holiday pay, sick pay and incentives in the event of adverse weather conditions.

As many as 9 cities in the United Kingdom have seen the joint mobilization of UberEats and Deliveroo drivers, with a very participated event in the city center of Cardiff. These workers are almost entirely organised by two other major grassroots trade unions, IWGB and IWW in a single network, the Couriers Network. It certainly seems rather premature at this stage to talk about the establishment of a single trade union front, but it is surprising how quickly and easily these unions can reach full agreement on unity of action, so as to inflict as much damage as possible on the opponent by means of the strike. In a very precarious sector where it has always been difficult to organize the workforce due to its fragmentation, as many as 5 unions have managed to combine their efforts in a relatively short time.

But this was not the only episode of bold struggle that crossed the United Kingdom in recent months. Much attention deserves the genuine organizational experience of London cleaning workers at the hands of the United Voices of the World trade union. Nearly all immigrant proletarians, these workers toil at the city’s most renowned public offices only to make the misery of the national minimum wage, set at £7.83 per hour. This, if perhaps it will be enough to guarantee a wretched life outside London, in the financial capital is equivalent to being able to pay for rent and little more. As a matter of fact, the minimum wage for living in London, called the “London living wage”, is indicated at £10.20 per hour and highlights the significant difference in the cost of living between the capital and the rest of the country.

With 100% of votes in favor, the cleaners at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) decided to be on strike for three days from 6 to 8 August. The main demands were to raise wages to £10.20 per hour for all, plus an end to unequal treatment and rights between internal workers and outsourced ones. The action seemed very energetic and loud right from the start: in addition to the pickets, the cleaners entered both buildings, interrupting the regular business operations. An initial acceptance of dialogue expressed by a spokesman for the RBKC was followed by the reversal of the press office, which finally expressed the refusal to listen to the workers’ requests. But the fuse had already been lit.

Workers from other buildings in the city, including London’s luxury private hospitals joined the UVW en masse and immediately organised a vote to decide whether or not to strike. Upon news of possible strike actions, the company that employs these workers offered them a pay rise from £7.83 to £9.18, which is a 17% increase. A move that could have made the conflict fall back. But that did not have the desired effect as the workers went ahead their own way and with another total consensus decided to continue to strike until all their demands are met. A few days after the news breaks: the management of the Kensington Council recognizes an increase in salary to £10.20 per hour starting from December 2018 and going retroactively from October 2018. In addition, their precarious contract will be reviewed and the possibility of early termination by the contractor eliminated.

Even before this victory and in the following days, other segments of the workforce employed by the Ministry of Justice also joined the UVW. Security guards and receptionists, both with lower pay than the London Living Wage, decided to fight alongside the cleaners and continue with new strikes in the coming months. The battle will also continue at the private hospitals. It is worth saying that the greatest result of the fight is the improvement of the organization and its extension.

On the Facebook page of the UVW union there are three publications concerning the strike of October 6 in the fast food industry. And the message is clear: “Your struggle is our struggle and we need maximum unity and solidarity to grow in strength”. At the same time, the country’s largest reformist party, the Labour Party, sends its own Members of Parliament to the pickets, declaring its support to the strikes and its intention to legislate for an increase in the minimum wage to £10. We have no doubt that this is yet another deception, in a narrative that would be very similar to the Italian one where reformism initially embraces working class’ radical demands for the purpose of winning the elections, then ends up only adopting workfare measures that are perfectly functional to the perpetration of exploitation. At this moment the Labour Party and the regime unions show a false support but they always remain the representation of the pacifying force of the movement. They are waiting for the first opportunity to harness it and force it to the path of collaboration and sacrifice, always with a view to the national interest, which is claimed, in bad faith, common to both exploiters and exploited. The English working class therefore has a task: not to listen to those who want to feed them with crumbs and continue on their valiant path of struggle