“Legislation alone will not protect workers or create strength and militancy, only building power and engagement in every workplace will be able to achieve this.”
In our Red Weekly Column, Fraser McGuire looks at the new union rights that arrive in October, and why a priority for the left must be to continue to organise in workplaces.
Over the next few months, trade unions will gain important statutory rights, including the right to request access to workplaces (both physically and digitally) at any employer with more than 21 staff, which is currently on track to come into place in October.
It would be surprising if access requests at major anti-union employers were met with anything short of resolute denials and legal challenges, but it looks as though referrals to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) will be able to result in employers facing serious fines, possibly up to £500,000 for multiple breaches. This is a fantastic opportunity, but one we must be ready to capitalise on.
CAC referrals will not create themselves, and the mapping and organising of new workplaces will be impossible without the active participation and development of the workers in those sites, and this will be impossible to build with the servicing model which still prevails in many trade unions.
Workers building power in precarious industries, like the United Voices of the World (UVW) who have just won recognition at Radisson Blu hotels in London or Unite Hospitality who have seen historic hospitality strikes in multiple regions, are already winning without these access rights, because they are adapting to the industrial landscape of the 21st Century and focusing on organising over servicing.
This coming shift in access rights will create substantial chances for trade unions to gather information, and contact and recruit workers in unorganised and greenfield sites; however, the wider impact on membership and the development of new campaigns will hinge on the extent to which our movement can make the most of the changes.
Increasing resources and capacity for organising in low-density sectors is non-negotiable for taking advantage of this, but organising models themselves must also be examined to reap the benefits.
The models that need to become more widespread are those that empower worker-to-worker organising and training. Successfully implemented, these organising models should empower rank-and-file members.
The best examples of campaigns that win in workplaces and sectors with low trade union density are the ones where workers are sharing knowledge and practical resources from the get-go; for mapping and organising rather than relying on external full-time staff, practising persuasive 1-1 conversations, and linking industrial campaigns with wider community spaces.
There will also be challenges in sectors like hospitality or social care, and those where gig-economy models and agency work are prevalent. There are many areas of the industrial landscape where ‘the workplace’ and even ‘the employer’ can be contested concepts.
A worker employed on a zero-hours contract, split across three sites, working a different rota every week, does not experience “the workplace” as a single stable place a union can simply walk into. Access rights will undoubtedly be easier to navigate in sites with a clearly defined, settled workforce, but unions will need to adapt to reach the more challenging areas.
Workers on precarious contracts will still face more risk of retribution and anti-union victimisation even if a full-time official from a union is allowed occasional access to their workplace. Legislation alone will not protect workers or create strength and militancy; only building power and engagement in every workplace will be able to achieve this.
Of course, we should take seriously that the Government has handed us a better legal position for accessing workplaces than we’ve had in a generation, but the greater priority must be for us to pivot to the militant structures and organising models the union movement needs.
- The Red Weekly Column will appear regularly on Labour Outlook from one of our regular socialist contributors.
- Fraser McGuire is the Chair of East Midlands Unite Hospitality, Chair of TUC Young Members’ Committee and an organiser for Arise: A Festival Of Left Ideas. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram.
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