Free Our Unions

FBU wins LRC to back ‘Free Our Unions’ campaign

Published 3rd April 2019.

The following motion was proposed by the Fire Brigades Union to the Labour Representation Committee conference on 9 February 2019, and passed unanimously.

CWU: free our unions to tackle low pay and precariousness

The following motion was passed at London Labour Party conference (2-3 March 2019) after being submitted by the London region of the Communication Workers’ Union.

“Our unions must free themselves from their chains” – speech by Justine Canady

Published 25th January 2018

On 23 January Bakers’ Union member Justine Canady led a workshop at a Fire Brigades Union training event for new reps on fighting the anti-trade union laws. This is what she said in her speech.

Firefighters support Free Our Unions campaign

Published 23rd January 2019

Eastern region FBU have voted to back the Free Our Unions statement. Firefighter and FBU regional secretary Riccardo La Torre said:

In an industry that has faced over a decade of austerity and cuts, firefighters and fire control staff understand all to well the shackles that the anti-union laws place on us, as workers fighting to defend our jobs and the vital life-saving service we provide to the public. The FBU is the only organisation defending the fire service from savage, life-threatening cuts, and these laws are designed to stop us from doing so effectively. Since the 1980s governments and have been putting a crop of legislation in place to stop workers from organising and fighting back.
It’s time for the Labour Party to act as the voice of workers and, together with the trade union movement, send a clear message. Enough is enough – we must call unapologetically for the repeal of all anti-trade union laws.

“We must ensure the next Labour government acts quickly and decisively”

Published on 18th December 2018.

On 7 December Region 7 of the Fire Brigades Union (West Midlands) passed the following motion.

Green Party backs call to free our unions

Published 7th December 2018

The Green Party has sent us the following statement:

We seek a strong legal charter of workers rights because workers need an effective right to strike. We concur with the Labour Party 2017 conference demand to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act and the anti-union laws introduced under Conservative Governments in the 1980s and 90s, which remained in place after 1997.

What’s in the Institute of Employment Rights manifestos and what does Labour say about them?

Published in November 2018

John McDonnell has said in several recent interviews that one of a Corbyn government’s priorities in its first hundred days will be to “restore” trade union rights. What rights are we talking about?

Angela Rayner was right about the anti-union laws

In September 2014, Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner (then a UNISON official, not yet an MP) spoke at a Manchester Trades Council public meeting about the need to repeal the anti-trade union laws introduced by the Tories in the 1980s and 90s. She wrote a summary of her speech for Unison North West, expressing the case briefly but forcefully. Excerpts below.

“We will not be bullied” – Glasgow workers defy council’s threat of anti-union laws

Published 24th October 2018.

In response to Glasgow refuse workers, street sweepers and parking attendants refusing to work in solidarity with striking home care, cleaning and catering workers, Glasgow city council has threatened their union, the GMB, with legal action under the anti-union laws.

Women’s strike shakes Glasgow, male workers take solidarity action

Published on 23rd October 2018.

At this stage, The Clarion can’t report anything much about the Glasgow “women’s strike” by thousands of home care, cleaning and catering workers that you won’t get from the GMB and from the bourgeois press.

We do however want to note the strike and express our solidarity. We hope to find opportunities for practical support and solidarity actions, and to help rouse the wider labour movement in support of the Glasgow workers’ struggle.