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Visit a picket: Week two

The Strike Map team interview two striking workers about their time on the picket line

IT’S now two weeks since May Day and the current wave of industrial action doesn’t seem to be abating — if anything it seems to be increasing. 

Could this be our summer of discontent? If it is, we stand ready to map these strikes. 

When the National Education Union called strike action at the Girls Day School Trust’s 23 independent schools we mapped them. 

When the UCU prison educators struck at 43 sites we were there. Only this month when the CWU delivered a staggering 97.3 per cent Yes vote by the union’s Post Office workers, Strike Map was the only place to view their 23 picket lines. 

This week we’ve been interviewing striking workers to find out why they are on strike and to show you why solidarity is so important. 

First we spoke to a Coventry bin worker: “We’re on strike because bills are going up and wages aren’t. We’ve had no pay rise for years, so we’re fighting for a survival wage, never mind a living wage.

“There seems to be a war on the working class where we seem to be paying for everything.

“We don’t want to strike, but we can’t afford not to!

“Life is hard enough and it’s stressful being on strike, especially when you face a bullying employer who’s made ridiculous claims about our wages and tried to turn the public against us.

“Our Labour council has used agency workers — on higher pay! — to break our strike, they’ve suspended union reps and we’ve seen threats to our jobs.

“Union-busting is disgusting, but these bad bosses have created stronger trade unionists and that’s why our strike hasn’t been broken.

“The cost of living is going through the roof and all workers deserve a pay rise.”

We also spoke to a Rugby borough striker, who asked for their name to be withheld: “We’re coming up to completing two weeks of strike action in Rugby town and we remain as united and determined as we were when we first went on the gate. 

“For years our pay has stagnated and we have been paid far below the rate other neighbouring councils get — drivers especially are paid far below the national rate.

“In our depot, we have people earning barely a tenner an hour — many of our members are using foodbanks. Others have been stuck on zero-hours contracts. 

“The work we do is necessary and valuable. It’s all well and good clapping and applauding ‘key workers’ and then sending us back to jobs where we don’t earn enough to live. It’s time our work was recognised.”

Striking workers need you! Hundreds of people have already signed up to our important solidarity action — Visit a Picket — and we look forward to seeing and hearing about your picket visits so keep tagging us on social media! 

Before you visit, here are our tips to make sure it is successful:

Step 1:

Use our solidarity email function, contact the local branch to check picket days and times, as well as if the strike is still active. A model email you can use is here.

Step 2:

Arrange a date for you and your comrades, bring any banners you may have, the home-made ones are often the best.

Step 3:

Take photos of your group at the picket line and upload them to social media, making sure to tag in Strike Map UK #strikemapuk. 

Step 4:

Send us a short note via direct message or email of how you found it, so we can encourage others to sign up to visit a picket. 

Our Visit a Picket campaign is just the start of our attempt to link together class fighters from across our movement. 

On June 15 we are hosting an event led by reps, stewards and strike leaders on how we sustain action and win.

 Visit bit.ly/strikeandwin to learn more and register for June 15.

This is a small step towards the important reestablishment of the rank-and-file fighting committees of years gone by.

We hope all those troublemakers can join us for an evening of action planning and discussion on tactics, strategies and how we win. 

Robert Poole and Henry Fowler are the founders of Strike Map UK. Submit a strike or view our map www.strikemap.co.uk. Follow Strike Map UK on Twitter @StrikeMapUK.

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