What can you say to
your son when he asks "why is my life so sh*te?" All you can do listen and
sympathise.
You may recall an article (click here to read it) about my son in which his world was falling down all around him,
with the threat of redundancy hanging over him and the thought that he would
not be able to provide for his daughter.
Well what a difference
a Mayday Bank Holiday makes, from a pessimistic depressed mood to optimism
about the future and now a willingness to fight for his future. What can I do as a dad, not just sit back and
sympathise? No I got up off my backside and printed up 100 leaflets appealing
to the workers to join the union and started leafleting the shifts on Mayday. So
by Tuesday night all shifts would have been leafleted. By then the bosses in
this anti-union firm started to get nervous and brought out their plans to
reduce pay by issuing a letter telling the workers the pay was to be cut and
the workers would have to sign a variation to contract by Friday.
This 5% pay cut would take the pay back to
2005 levels. In addition the workers have never received a productivity bonus
in the last five years – the management has made the targets impossible
to reach. The workers have good arguments about pay: for example the management
in the past said that because the price of aluminium had gone up to £300 a
tonne the no pay increase could be made. Therefore now it is at £163 a tonne
the management could double the pay.
Come Tuesday night and
before I could start leafleting I was grabbed by two of the workers and taken
inside the factory to have an ad-hoc meeting with the two of the shifts. The anger amongst these workers is at boiling
point the idea of a pay cut has been the last straw after giving in on the redundancies.
After giving in on the redundancies all the staff side
have resigned from the works council, a non union talking shop.An eagerness to join the union followed and union
recruitment leaflets went out of my hand faster than hotcakes. I emphasised that
they should not sign the letter on Friday instead I have organised a meeting on
Friday evening when the majority of staff can get to meet with a fulltime
officer of the union.
Watch this space it
will be soon when I can disclose the name of the factory at that time I expect
that I will be requesting solidarity with these workers who will be venting
they industrial muscle.
I urge everyone find a
non-unionised workplace find out what issues are affecting them, create a
leaflet that address these issues and put in the time and effort to win new
workers to the struggle.Although
getting up at 5.00 in the morning and going back at 10 in the evening to do
leafleting was hard; the respect given to me and Socialist Appeal by these
workers for making the effort is reward and reinforces the Marxist perspective.
