Category: Campaign For Trade Union Freedom News
The Right To Strike: The Heart Of Worker Empowerment
By IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary, Atle Høie
The right to strike and the right to organize are fundamental pillars of worker empowerment, enshrined in International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98. These rights are essential for workers and unions to protect their interests and assert their power against the enormous economic and political influence of employers. Without the ability to strike, workers are left defenseless in wage negotiations, working conditions, and basic workplace dignity.
At the core of these protections is the right to organize. This right allows employees to unite and advocate collectively on shared issues.
However, in some parts of the world union discrimination is widespread. Even companies that engage in collective bargaining resist unionization efforts where they can, undermining the fundamental rights of their workers. A striking example is the recent action by IndustriALL affiliate United Auto Workers (UAW), which filed federal labour charges against former US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The charges accuse them of illegally threatening and intimidating workers who stand up for their rights by engaging in strikes. This case underlines the ongoing global struggle for labour rights, even at companies with significant international influence. Tesla, a company notorious for its anti-union stance, employs over 120,000 workers worldwide yet refuses to engage in collective bargaining.
Attempts to organize within Tesla have been met with fierce resistance, with Elon Musk himself threatening retaliation against workers who attempt to unionize. This has led to significant tensions with labour unions, particularly in Sweden. Swedish union IF Metall became the first to take action against Tesla’s anti-union practices, initiating industrial action on 27th October 2023 in 12 Tesla-owned garages and expanding to 20 more locations. Despite brief negotiations in November last year, Tesla remained steadfast in its refusal to sign a collective agreement. The company’s management has dismissed labour rights, arguing that they are not part of “the company’s concept.” Elon Musk has publicly criticized unions, claiming they create division and negativity within companies. IndustriALL general secretary, Atle Høie, says: “Elon Musk’s business model is one that is designed to avoid respecting human rights. We must defend workers and the rights that they have fought so long for. We stand with the UAW in their fight.”
This conflict is not just about Tesla and its workers—it is a symbol of the broader battle for labour rights and the critical importance of the freedom to organize and strike. Without these rights, workers around the world remain vulnerable to exploitation and injustice.
The right to strike is not just a tool—it is a crucial defense that ensures workers can stand up for themselves and each other.
Demand Real Change Not Empty Promises Or Half Measures
By Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union and C0-Chair of the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom
We are at a pivotal moment for workers’ rights in our country: after fourteen years of austerity and our rights being systematically stripped back we have an opportunity for change.
I know there are mixed feelings around just how much change there will be under this Labour government. The election has shown us that the fight for justice and fairness in the workplace and our communities is far from over, and now more than ever, we need to unify our voices and our efforts, because seeing five Reform candidates be elected into Parliament should be much more of a concern to all of us than what Starmer is or isn’t going to do in the next one hundred days.
Our union, the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), recently conducted a comprehensive survey to understand the concerns and priorities of our members. The results highlighted the urgent need for political and economic transformation.
Whilst many would argue there is no difference in the main political parties and ask what is the point in politics, our members are actually politically engaged and determined to see change.
They are not content with the status quo. The issues they face are not unique to our sector but reflect broader societal challenges. The cost-of-living crisis, which makes it difficult for families to afford basic necessities like food, energy, and housing, unsurprisingly was the main concern. A crisis that has been compounded by low pay, poor management practices, and insecure working conditions.
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In the workplace, our members are grappling with low wages, bullying management styles, unsafe working conditions, and insufficient staffing. They are asked to do more with less, often under the strain of unsociable hours and insecure contracts.
Our survey results clearly outline what our members believe is necessary to address these challenges. Their voices have shaped the Bakers’ Dozen manifesto of 13 key demands that we will continue to advocate for tirelessly:
• £15 an Hour Minimum Wage: because every worker deserves a living wage, regardless of age. This will end the unfair youth limit on the national minimum wage.
• Abolish Zero-Hour Contracts: We demand job security and predictability for all workers and this should be all Zero Hour contracts because they can all be exploitative.
• Full Employment Rights from Day One: All workers should have their rights protected from the moment they start their job.
• Contractual Sick Pay at 100%: Employers must provide six weeks of sick pay at full wage to all workers.
• Repeal Anti-Union Legislation: Unions need the freedom to organise and advocate without restrictive laws.
• Maximum Workplace Temperature: Legislation is needed to ensure safe and comfortable working conditions.
• Accountability for Company Failures: Companies must not evade their financial responsibilities through administration loopholes.
• Public Ownership of Utilities: Water, energy, and Royal Mail should be publicly owned to curb excessive pricing and ensure fair access.
• Right to Food: A statutory right to food, free school meals, and a cap on supermarket profits are essential to combat food insecurity.
• Affordable Public Transport: Re-nationalise train companies, cap bus fares, and provide free public transport for young people aged 16-25.
• End Arms Sales to Israel: We must take a stand for human rights and justice globally.
• Abolish Tuition Fees: Education should be accessible to all, regardless of financial background and they must bring back a new and improved version of the Union Learn Fund in England so everyone has the opportunity to upskill and develop themselves.
• Create a National Care Service: Providing dignity and care for the elderly and vulnerable is a societal duty.
These demands are not just aspirations; they are essential changes that will improve the lives of our members and the wider community. Our collective strength and solidarity are our greatest assets. We must continue to organise, educate, and mobilise to hold those in power accountable: just because they are now the Labour Party it does not mean we can rest on our laurels.
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In the wake of the election, we need to send a clear message to our newly-elected representatives: we will not accept empty promises or half measures. We demand real change, and we will not rest until we see it.
Together, we can build a future where every worker is treated with dignity, respect, and fairness. We can’t rely on politicians to do that, we have to do it ourselves.
We can push out the far right and stop Reform gaining any more ground, but to do that we need to be able to do our jobs as trade unionists, have access to workers and work together across the movement, challenging their rhetoric and showing people that we are the ones who will support them, not Farage and his ilk.
Many thanks to Sarah Woolley for her permission to publish her speech here, given at the annual Institute for Employment Rights/Campaign For Trade Union Freedom eve-of-Gala rally in Durham, on July 13th and also published by Simon Fletcher on his Substack Blog site
50 Years Of The Health & Safety At Work Act
By Shelly Asquith, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Officer in the TUC Organisation, Skills and Services Department.
50 years ago today, one of the first new laws of a newly elected Labour government was the Health and Safety at Work Act.Half a century on, what is the legacy? And what do we need now as another Labour government takes office?
Ever since the Trades Union Congress was established, in 1868, we have fought to protect workers.
When, just over a century later, we saw health and safety at work regulation enshrined in law, it was a welcome move: A new agency that could prosecute employers who failed to keep work safe represented a serious deterrent, and one we would not have seen were it not for union pressure.
Since then, the number of fatal injuries at work has fallen by over 80 per cent, from 651 deaths in 1974 to 138 this year.
A foundation to build on, one might think. Instead, over time, the main work safety regulators have been systematically de-funded and defanged.
So much so that you are now more likely to win the lottery than have a safety inspector visit your workplace. Fewer inspectors, inspections and actions against employers – especially so during the Covid crisis, that saw thousands of workers die following exposure at work. The austerity-hit HSE has had a 54 per cent cut in funding, and in local authorities the picture is even worse.
In turn, we are seeing a surge in occupational ill-health. While fewer workers die from injuries on the job, many suffer the effects of occupational cancers or work-related stress. In fact, an estimated 50,000 people in Britain lose their life to work causes every year. Despite all the rules and regulations, employers still cut corners, prioritising profit over people’s lives.
All the while, it has remained our unions that we rely on to keep work safe. As our formal protections are undermined and eroded, it’s not the law we turn to, but each other.
When the TUC undertook a study in the Covid pandemic, comparing workplaces with safety reps and those without, we found workplaces with union reps were 20 per cent more likely to have the right PPE, and 40 per cent more likely to have had a risk assessment shared with the workforce.
Trade union health and safety reps are the most effective guard against hazardous work, the only reliable regulation in the workplace. Much of the activities of safety reps goes on in the background, and it cannot be overstated the difference we can make, influencing risk management and representing colleagues.
Sometimes, too, we demonstrate that the right to withdraw our labour is our ultimate leverage, far beyond the words of an Act or the warnings of an unlikely inspection.
In the last year we have seen industrial action get the goods. Where management failed to recognise safety concerns raised by unions, we saw housing workers strike over asbestos exposure, on the railways a strike over long hours causing fatigue, and in one local authority, an indefinite walkout over access to sick pay.
In all these cases, the workers won.
The 1974 Act was not a magic wand, and the existing legislation does not go far enough. For example, unions are still seeking greater rights for reps, guaranteed access to workplaces where we have members, explicit protection from specific hazards like working in extreme heat, the recognition of work-related suicide.
The list goes on. The TUC will continue to make the case for more resources in workplace health and safety – strong unions, effective regulation, and justice for all those entitled to it.
What’s more, if the Act, in its 50th year, is going to be worth more than the paper it’s written on, then we need a regulator, an enforcer, that functions. We need a properly funded HSE and stronger rights for union safety reps, starting with repealing the anti-strike laws that limit our ability to act in the face of danger.
While governments and Ministers can be reshuffled or unseated overnight, an organised working class is far harder to replace or beat.
Legislation is important, but unions are vital. That’s why, to mark the 50th year of a law designed to improve our safety, we are focusing our efforts on engaging the frontline, not the frontbench: By finding, training and retaining hundreds of new union health and safety reps.
With an ageing profile of existing reps, we are especially looking for young union members to take on the role, so that they might play their part in keeping workers safe for the next 50 years.