The Metropolis

A reason to support next week's walkout as illustrated by woman in a pub

Josh Hall | Thursday 24 November, 2011 16:06

This week the South London Solidarity Federation won a seemingly small, but very important fight against an employer who had robbed a worker of their wages.

The employee was owed more than £700 by the manager of a pub in which she worked – work for which she had not been paid for six weeks. When she refused to turn up, she was sacked.

The manager of the pub apparently spent some time trying to fob the employee off with excuses, before simply refusing to answer phone calls or emails. In response, SolFed called for a picket of the pub.

Funnily enough, when faced with the prospect of their customers being made aware of the fact that they didn’t feel the need to pay their staff, the pub recanted. The wages have now been paid in full.

Meanwhile, yesterday the national construction workers’ dispute stepped up a gear following the occupation of the Grattes headquarters in central London. Grattes is one of six large construction firms that have pulled out of a forty year-old national agreement on terms and conditions. The new agreement, known as the Building Engineering Services National Agreement (BESNA), will see electricians endure a 35 per cent pay cut, mass deskilling across the construction sector, dramatic cuts in overtime and travel pay, and vicious attacks on unfair dismissal rules.

Construction workers have been given two options: sign the new contract, or lose your job.

In response, electricians and others have held weekly pickets of construction sites across the country. Sites including Blackfriars Crossrail have frequently been closed – and, faced with the prospect of widespread disruption two firms have already abandoned BESNA, assuring workers that their rights under the original national agreement would be preserved.

Direct action works. Amongst the most interesting characteristics of these actions is that they have both been organised outside the regular framework of union bureaucracy. Indeed, despite being faced with the most dramatic attack on their workers’ terms and conditions for decades, it has taken the construction unions months to get around to even calling a ballot. In the absence of adequate representation, workers have simply walked out – and they are beginning to cripple major construction projects as a result.

Next week will see the largest industrial action in the UK for decades. Millions of public sector workers will walk out, telling the government that they refuse to pay for a crisis they didn’t cause.

November 30 will be an important day in recent labour history – but it will be but the faintest taster of what is coming in 2012. As the crisis deepens, as job losses increase, as youth unemployment continues to spiral, and as employment rights are decimated, we should be prepared to organise – inside the union infrastructure when it is convenient, and outside it when it is insufficient.

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