On the Amazon picket line in Coventry (Picture: Richard Milner)
There were big picket lines outside Amazon in Coventry on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. Workers are still battling the company for better pay and conditions and for their chosen union, the GMB, to be recognised.
One worker who has previously worked on strike days told Socialist Worker, “Working for Amazon persuaded me to strike. Managers from other sites are constantly hassling workers about leaving the union, but it’s having the opposite effect—more people are joining.”
Another worker added that their strike was not just about money but dignity at work. Workers at Amazon in Coventry are still fighting for union recognition. But they also know that taking action before that happens is important. According to local activist Sean, who has been on the picket lines with workers since the beginning, striking before gaining union recognition has “shocked Amazon to the core”.
He added that “the company’s month-long campaign against the union only seems to be succeeding in angering more workers”. The strike days come a week after workers at the Minworth Amazon site near Birmingham headed out to picket lines. Amazon workers in Coventry and Minworth must keep piling the pressure on the bosses. The best way to do this is to escalate and strike together.
Workers at Goldsmiths university in south London planned to begin a marking and assessment boycott (Mab) on Friday this week. Members of the UCU union voted to strike and take part in a Mab over bosses’ plans to cut over 130 jobs. The bosses’ plan to make cuts to staffing would be devastating.
The plan includes sacking half of the academics in the history department and half in the sociology department. Author Bernardine Evaristo has called on the bosses at Goldsmiths not to cut a masters in black British literature. She said it was “shocking” that the only masters in black British literature were now under threat.
Evaristo added that the course “shouldn’t be seen as dispensable but as an essential course that is intellectually and culturally enriching for academia, the college and society”. The redundancies at Goldsmiths are only the tip of the iceberg. The bosses are taking a sledgehammer to thousands of jobs in higher education.
At almost 50 universities bosses are planning to make cuts to departments or make workers redundant. It’s a blatant attack on the sector by university bosses who are mainly targeting the arts, languages and humanities subjects. The only response is to fight—and to unite those facing such a threat.
Workers at the University of Kent voted to strike earlier this month. UCU union members at Sheffield Hallam University also began voting in a strike ballot on Monday of this week. Every worker under threat from redundancy should join them as part of a joined up fight to save higher education.
Around 500 care workers in the GMB union across Scotland struck over unfair pay grading last week. Workers in West Dunbartonshire walked out last Wednesday and Thursday, and workers in Renfrewshire also walked out on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
Care workers at Falkirk council went on strike for four days earlier this month. Workers are angry that the pay for their role, which is done predominantly by women, is less in comparison to more male[1]dominated jobs. Last Sunday hundreds joined a rally in Glasgow.
One of the home carers who attended said, “For a long time, we’ve been told, ‘You’ll never go on strike, you care too much, you’ll never stand up for yourselves.’ “We’ve had enough now— we’ve been taken for granted for too long.” Workers in Scotland shouldn’t listen to council bosses if they try to make excuses—they should strike until they get what they deserve
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