Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #joinaunion

Most recents (15)

A funny thing is happening as I regain parts of my life as a result of receiving #HBOT after a 14 month battle with #LongCovid. While I'm incredibly grateful to be one of the lucky ones who found a treatment they respond to I'm also trying to come to terms with the possibility
That some of the damage maybe permanent. For example the other day I was taking the boat out after a spin up the river, there is a winch on the stern that keeps the boat on the trailer. I couldn't figure out how it works. I've been using those winches for years. Literally like
Second nature to me. It operates in such a way as you have to have several things lined up so it will tighten properly. Not matter what I did I could not put the pieces together. #Brainfog means I am unable to do tasks which require multiple areas of focus.
Read 8 tweets
After 13 long years of catastrophic Tory misrule...
#PMQs
#JoinAUnion
#EnoughIsEnough
#SupportTheStrikes
#GeneralElectionN0W
The answer to Britain's multiple crises is obvious: #TaxtheRich
Read 5 tweets
#THREAD

A #strike is a withdrawal of labour by a worker, often under the instruction of a trade union.

Strikes have been happening since the workers at the Royal Necropolis at Deir el-Medina in Egypt organised an uprising in 1152 BC over late wages.

worldhistory.org/article/1089/t…
British industrial action has a much shorter, but turbulent, history. There were withdrawals of labour in the medieval & early modern periods, although these were organised by small groups of craft workers in contravention of legislation such as the Statute of Artificers (1563).
Between 1696-1720s, the Journeymen of Feltmakers negotiated with employers & occasionally called strikes. London tailors did much the same from the 1720s, but the Combination Acts prevented workers combining in a trade union, prohibited such action, & wages were fixed by statute.
Read 15 tweets
Used my energy for the day visiting the nearest @ucu @aberdeen_ucu picket line with Dr Blinky in support of their ongoing #Strikes 👊🏻💪🏻

Sadly #royalmailstrikes had packed up by the time i was on my way back so i couldn't say hello👋🏻

#Solidarity #StrongerTogether #JoinAUnion 3 people, one man and 2 wom...
Got too excited seeing people, this 1 hour at a picket has been the most socialising and energetic thing ive done in 20 months. Already feeling the effects, but so nice to see folk and show solidarity to the first #union i ever joined (even though im no longer a member)
The work unions do benefit all of us. Employers want your labour, workers want to have a life outside of work.

If you like your holiday pay, sick pay, parental leave, maximum work hours, minimum wage, pensions, safety at work etc, then you support unions.
Read 5 tweets
#THREAD

The Combination Act of 1799 - passed under the Govt of William Pitt the Younger as a response to Jacobin activity & the fear that workers would strike during a conflict - prohibited trade unions & collective bargaining by British workers.

#EnoughIsEnough #JoinAUnion Image
Throughout the 1790s, the war against France was presented as an ideological struggle between French republicanism vs. British monarchism, with the British government seeking to mobilise public opinion in support of the war.

#JoinaUnion Image
The Pitt government waged a vigorous propaganda campaign, contrasting the 'ordered' society of Britain dominated by the aristocracy & the gentry, with the "anarchy" of the French revolution. Pitt's Govt always sought to associate British "radicals" with the revolution in France. Image
Read 11 tweets
#THREAD

So Giorgia Meloni is set to become Italy’s first female PM.

Very concerningly, she leads a party that is indisputably further to the right than any mainstream political movement Italy has seen since the days of its former fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.
Despite using inflammatory rhetoric & holding illiberal views, Meloni is not a fascist - her ideology aligns with many in the UK Tory Party. But she will have to form a government with her 'firebrand' coalition partners Matteo Salvini & Silvio Berlusconi.

thelocal.it/20180302/italy…
Like so many right-wing politicians, journalists, presenters, pundits & activists, Meloni is against abortion rights, migration, same sex marriage & parenting, & predictably claims "traditional values" & "ways of life" are "under attack" because of globalization & liberal ideals.
Read 18 tweets
If @grantshapps had his way we would all still be in the workhouse.
His intervention is just the latest in a growing list of political attacks on trade unions and the most fundamental rights held by working people. 1/6
Whilst this outbreak is clearly framed by a pony parade within the @Conservatives, it is also deeply serious and shows just how out of touch our political class are.

The @GOVUK has miscalculated. People can see behind the usual narrative of “Union bad, boss good". 2/6
This is not the 1970’s. The #CostOfLivingCrisis is the latest episode in a long term war on the living standards of workers.
For decades wages have been pushed down while profits for bosses and investors have gone up and up. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
#THREAD

Tory MPs: 357

Tory Party members: 160K

Daily Mail readers: 860K

UK Union members: 6.6 MILLION.

While nearly a quarter of UK employees are union members, this is a much lower number than in many other *MORE EQUAL* European countries.

#JoinAUnion #CostOfLivingCrisis
Nordic countries have far lower income inequality & higher trade union membership than Britain. 92.2% of workers belong to a union in Iceland & its Gini coefficient is just 26.1, compared with 41.5 in the US, where only 10.3% of workers are union members.
Over the past century, unions have successfully campaigned for a minimum wage, holiday & sickness pay, equal opportunity rights, maternity and paternity rights and a two-day weekend for British workers, among other benefits.

#JoinAUnion

theconversation.com/unions-fight-t…
Read 20 tweets
#THREAD

Public sector vs private sector pay.

UK private sector pay grew almost five times as fast as public sector workers’ remuneration in the year to May.

#joinaunion

ft.com/content/d819ba…
Real regular pay (wages adjusted for prices & bonus payments) across the board was 2.8% lower in the three months to May than in the same period of 2021 - the sixth monthly decline in a row, & the biggest drop since modern records began in 2001.
The latest ONS figures show total pay growth of 7.2% in the private sector compared with just 1.5% in the public sector. Many unions are threatening strikes if the Govt holds pay rises below 5% for the current financial year, while inflation is above 9%.

Read 8 tweets
Working class people are being told by Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch & non-dom billionaire Jonathan Harmsworth that they must just accept high #inequality & the #CostOfLivingCrisis, but Britain was a much more equal society in the 1970s than it has been at any time since.
Govts are supposed to UNITE people & look after EVERYONE, but our Govt instead uses divisive 'wedge issues' like Rwanda & the strike to scare & manipulate people into believing scapegoats like asylum seekers & unions are responsible for Britain's problems.
Given a supportive news media, it's easy to manipulate people: having endured a decade of #austerity, & now a #CostOfLivingCrisis, it's hidden from voters that from 2009-19, the collective wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people INCREASED by £480 BILLION.
Read 6 tweets
Royal Mail workers to vote on strike action that could cripple deliveries

A 2% 'pay rise' is a REAL-TERMS PAY *CUT* when inflation is running at 9%, and is expected to hit 11% by the end of the year. #IStandWithRoyalMail @CWUnews

Workers DESERVE a pay

mirror.co.uk/money/jobs/roy…
rise that MEETS OR EXCEEDS inflation, especially when Royal Mail made QUADRUPLE the pre-pandemic profit of £726 MILLION. Thats £726,000,000. And they're refusing to budge from a 2% pay offer.

This is PREDATORY GREED from bosses at this point, and we need to FIGHT for workers
RIGHTS.

There's reasons #ToryFascists are wanting to scrap the Human Rights Act...partly to ensure a #ReturnToSerfdom in a #ModernFeudalism scenario.

We CANNOT allow this. This is #ClassWar at this point.

#IStandWithRoyalMailStrikers

#WorkersRightsAttacked
Read 9 tweets
Worker strikes 'not easy to organise' and need 'burning sense of injustice'

@The_TUC Are DEMANDING a fair wage for work. That meets or is above inflation. Workers DEMAND a decent standard of living, and to be brought out of poverty. 4 MILLION kids in

mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/t…
poverty, most have a parent in work. Foid bank use going up & donations going down are leading to them running out of food & having to close without helping everyone that needs it. Teachers, Care Workers, Retail Staff, even our NURSES having to use food banks. 8.5 MILLION in
poverty by the end of this year. Our PM deciding he doesn't need ethics oversight. Why? A summer of attempting to Union-break forthcoming??

Workers have a RIGHT not to live in poverty. So do the Disabled & Elderly. (Until they take that away too, as @DominicRaab says he
Read 7 tweets
#ThoughtForTheDay

Bonuses in the financial & insurance sector have hit a record high, growing by 27.9% over the last year, while average wages in the same period grew by just 4.2% - nearly £6BILLION was paid out in City bonuses in March alone.

#LevellingUp #CostOfLivingCrisis
“There is no justification for such obscene City bonuses at the best of times – let alone during a #CostOfLivingCrisis. While City executives rake it in, millions are struggling to keep their heads above water.” - Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary.

theguardian.com/business/2022/…
“Working people are at breaking point, having been left badly exposed to soaring bills after a decade of standstill wages & universal credit cuts. Ministers have no hesitation in calling for public sector pay restraint, but turn a blind eye to shocking City excess.”

#JoinaUnion
Read 5 tweets
Non unionised workers in the US earn 84c for every dollar unionised workers earn.

Sad to read the effort to unionise an Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed.

#JoinAUnion
(Source: bls.gov/news.release/p….)

Does anyone know equivalent data for the UK?
(Seriously, everyone should join a union. I was a member of @GMB_union whilst practising as a QC and I am still a member of @GMB_union now I am Director of @GoodLawProject).
Read 3 tweets
/// THREAD on Chancellor @RishiSunak's announcement tonight on the future of the income support schemes. 1/
After considerable media speculation, the Chancellor has finally pronounced on the economic future of millions, by detailing the changes to be made to the #JobRetentionScheme (JRS) and the #SelfEmployedIncomeSupportScheme (SEISS). theguardian.com/politics/2020/… 2/
These have been the two most important income support measures in what is likely to be the biggest economic recession in modern history. Both had serious shortcomings from the get-go. 3/
Read 22 tweets

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