Megaphone Petition Against Government Plans to Allow the Hiring of Agency Strike Breakers

I’ve also received this email from Megaphone urging people to sign their petition about the government’s proposal to undermine the unions by allowing companies to hire agency staff to break the strike. I’ve signed it, as strikes, or the threat of strike action, is the major weapon for unions to protect the rights of their members and workers as a whole.

‘David —

This week has been huge for the trade union movement. The TUC Join a Union website is seeing record traffic, with visits this week up 800%. 

As RMT members stand up for their jobs, pay and our services, they are giving hope and confidence to millions of workers. The last few weeks has clearly shown that if you want a pay rise, a secure job and a decent life, you need to be in a union.

So what has the governments response to this been? To propose laws that would undermine the most powerful tactic working people have: strike action.

The Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, is proposing to change the law to allow companies to replace striking workers, with inexperienced agency workers. 

The government will try to sneak these changes through so people don’t notice, so we must get the word out far and wide. We will not let them undermine our right to strike.

Will you add your name to the petition to stop plans to undermine unions by allowing companies to hire temporary staff during strike action?

Sign the petition

We cannot let this happen.

Allowing agency staff to replace striking workers would undermine the right to strike and create genuine safety risks for the public and workers.

Please sign and share the petition now.

In Unity,

Anthony,

Megaphone UK

Email from the Megaphone Urging Support for the Railway Strike

I also got this email from the left-wing campaigning organisation the Megaphone urging people to write to their MPs making it plain they support the RMT and the railway strike. As the email points out it’s not just about the train drivers’ pay, but about all the other rail workers and opposing the devastating cuts to public services.

‘David,

It’s the biggest show of industrial power in a generation.

Rail unions are running three days of national strike action to put a stop to devastating cuts to services, staff and conditions proposed by company bosses on million-pound salaries.

When jobs are on the chopping block and livelihoods are at stake, union members stand together to defend each other.

And 50,000 rail workers from mechanics to depot workers, ticket officers and many more need our solidarity tomorrow:

In just a few hours, rail workers across the UK will take to the picket lines for the fight of their lives. Can you write to your MP and show you stand with them?

WRITE TO YOUR MP

We have the resources and the funding to build a world-class rail system in the UK.

But for two years, this government and the Transport Minister have chosen confrontation over negotiation.

They choose to bail out private companies, while workers in safety-critical jobs face the sack.

They choose to condemn rail unions, when train bosses make millions in profits and cut corners on pay.

They even want to ban the right to strike, removing our most powerful bargaining tool when we have no other means to act.

Everyone deserves better pay, jobs and services. And rail workers are standing up for our safety.

A win for rail workers this week is a win for all of us in the UK who believe in our collective power to organise, demonstrate and win a better future.

Defend our rail service and defend people’s jobs — email your MP and ask them to write to the Transport Minister today.

In solidarity with tomorrow’s strikers,

Anthony,

Megaphone UK’

I’ve had absolutely no problem writing to my local MP to say that I do, and I support not only the union’s strike, but the fundamental right to strike, which the Tories have always hated and always tried to curb and ban anyway they can.

Privatisation has been a disaster. The rail network needs to be taken back into public ownership and properly funded and maintained, without the profits being siphoned off into shareholder’s dividends and the bloated salaries of the management.

Megaphone’s Internet Petition against P&O’s Mass Sacking

As you’ll know from the news, P&O have caused outrage by their mass sacking of 800 employees over Zoom. The sacked workers are to be replaced by agency staff. The ferry company claims that this is the only way they can keep afloat, pun intended. I honestly don’t see how. Yes, agency staff have the advantage to employers of being recruited and dismissed as needed without all that inconvenient stuff about sick and maternity pay and leave and other awkward worker’s rights. But it’s also something of a false economy, as in addition to the worker they also have to pay the agency. It can, therefore, be much more expensive to hire an agency worker instead of recruiting an ordinary employee. But it’s another attack on workers’ rights, all for the benefit of capital.

The unions, RMT and Nautilus, are naturally up in arms and protesting. As are many others. I got this message today from Megaphone, a left-wing organisation, urging me to sign their petition against it. I have done so, and urge anyone else who feels strongly about this issue to do so as well. If nothing else, I think it’s an utter disgrace and an insult to tell people they don’t have a job over Zoom.

Yesterday, 800 workers at P&O Ferries were sacked via Zoom call. This shameful act is devastating for these workers, their families, and communities.

We cannot let this happen

The government can stop this, but they will not act unless thousands of us speak up. If callous acts like this are allowed, no one’s livelihood is safe. 

You can support these workers by adding your name and sharing this petition right now. There is already mounting pressure on the government to intervene, but we must show how many of us are outraged. 

Sign the petition

In Solidarity,

Anthony

Megaphone Campaigns’