Call for ACTION | Support the Co-op Strikers

The Co-op is an employer that publicly states ‘it is a different kind of business.’ Sadly for our Unite members, they have experienced a business that fails to recognise the current cost-of-living crisis while at the same time attacking their workers’ terms and conditions of employment.

The Co-op can and should do better. We urge you to add your name to the petition and also ask your MP and MSP to support the following EDMs. It’s time for the Co-op to live up to its stated values of solidarity, democracy and equality.

1. Sign the Megaphone petition – Add your name today
2. Ask your MSP to sign the Scottish parliament EDM – see if they’ve signed and if not call on them to add their name
3. Send the Co-op CEO a message on Twitter

Support the striking Co-op workers today

Defend the right to strike in Crawley

The government wants to make it harder for workers to negotiate better pay and conditions by attacking our fundamental right to strike.

Workers across six sectors are being targeted in the Strikes Bill, including transport and health. This is an unprecedented attack on the right to strike across the entire country.

For towns like Crawley, where a large proportion of residents work at Gatwick Airport, this represents a threat to the civil liberties of an entire community. Unite for a Workers’ Economy is bringing together workers and the wider community to defend the right to strike in Crawley.

Sign the petition to Crawley’s MP and get involved in the campaign here.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: We say no to crumbs - Workers will "not be broken or beaten by Rishi Sunak" says Unite's Sharon Graham - Sunday Mirror - 1 January 2023 

Struggling workers WILL continue striking for fair pay in 2023 and WON’T “settle for crumbs”, a campaigning union leader warned. Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “We will not be broken or beaten by Rishi Sunak and his government. We are here to stay.” She was referring to planned anti-strike legislation and speculation that unions were set to run out of money.

Defiant Ms Graham added: “ Unite has a strike fund worth tens of millions of pounds, it is topped up every month. All the talk of new and more powerful attacks on the unions that the prime minister and others have promised shows they are guilty of a grand miscalculation. Just who pays for the latest economic crisis will be the question of 2023." Read the full Sunday Mirror story

Why Ofgem is failing and needs to take action

‘Rampant profiteering’: Unite asks Ofgem to cap power distributors’ profits after UK networks rake in £15.8bn, Sharon Graham says they’re holding the public to ransom

The companies responsible for bringing electricity to UK homes have been accused of “rampant profiteering” by a leading union that is calling for the energy regulator to cap their earnings.

• Why Ofgem is failing and needs to take action - Find out more in the Unite campaign update - November 2022

Get involved 

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#WorkersEconomy  #CostOfGreedCrisis -  Find out more in the Unite campaign update

About the Unite for a Workers’ Economy campaign

From workplace to community, the Unite for a Workers’ Economy campaign is driving a UK-wide strategy to help bring change following the failure of politicians to act. With the aim of collective action, the Union now looks to drive this country’s political agenda instead of commenting on it. This is more than mutual aid. It is the potential for agitation, mobilisation, and for campaigns that organise communities — led by people for the people.

Join Unite as Britain and Ireland’s biggest union focuses on building popular, working-class power to change the system that is rigged against us. 

• From workplace to community, Unite is driving a UK-wide strategy to help bring change following the failure of politicians to act. With the aim of unifying collectivism, the Union will now look to drive this country’s political agenda as opposed to commenting on it.
• Unite is investing in communities that feel alienated by politics and are being left behind by the broken economy and cost of living crisis. Unite is in the community, acting on the concerns of working people instead of telling them what to think. And as working people make their voices heard, we are taking direct action rather than waiting for politicians to save us.
• Unite is upending the status quo by investing in people, not politics. This ground-breaking campaign seeks to organise communities, led by people for the people. We will not stop simply because an election has passed. This long-term work is taking place alongside a groundswell of industrial action from working people who are refusing to accept low wages and attacks to our public services.
• Together, we will put the power back into the hands of working people where it belongs. The ground is there for us to build on, and we’re just getting started

Our economy isn’t working for anyone but the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations. The very workers who kept our nation running throughout the pandemic face a cost of living crisis, while the 1% reap the rewards of our labour. Working people didn’t create this mess, and yet are being called to accept low wages amidst rising prices as corporate executives make record profits. “Our economy isn’t working for workers, only for corporate Britain and its rich backers. It’s time for workers and communities to fight back.” – Sharon Graham.

Workers and community members unite

From workplace to community Unite is driving a UK-wide strategy to help bring change to ‘heartland’ communities following the failure of politicians to act. With the aim of unifying collectivism at the workplace and within local communities, the union will now look to drive the political agenda as opposed to commenting on it. 

This fight is about the workplace, our families, communities and the power of a united working class. We stand with workers taking action and will organise support on the picket lines, we will help mobilise in our communities to equip people to fight back against cuts.

The ground is there for us to build on, and we’re just getting started. Unite for a workers' economy. Join our movement - sign up to the campaign today.

Campaign news and updates

Check out these recent updates and news stories highlighting the Unite for a Workers' Economy campaign in action and join our movement - sign up to the campaign today.

Minsters made a choice about this economic crisis - to make working people pay for it - The Guardian, December 2022 Sharon Graham writes: Rishi Sunak says his government is different, but the pro-elite and anti-worker policies have carried on without a pause	Union Leaders Vow To Step Up Battle For Better Pay In 2023  We say no to crumbs - Sunday Mirror, 1 January 2023
'Fatcat profits up but wages down - Tory failings mean we need unions more than ever' - Mirror, August 2022 Guest columnist Sharon Graham writes in the Mirror and says the economic mess Britain finds itself in underlines that we need unions more than ever.	Sharon Graham interviewed in the Big Issue North on  how she is delivering double digit pay rise for Unite members across the country

Check out the links below for the latest campaign news updates as well as all the news on Unite's wins in the workplace. Join our movement - sign up to the Unite for a Workers' Economy campaign today.

Follow the campaign on social media

Follow the campaign on Facebook: @Unite4WorkersEconomy	Follow the campaign on Twitter: @UniteEconomy
	Our economy isn’t working for ordinary people, only for corporate Britain & its rich backers. It’s time for workers & communities to fight back. It’s time for us to build a movement for change based on a unity of the workplace with local communities - popular working-class power. pic.twitter.com/7M2nJ5G76f — Unite For A Workers' Economy (@UniteEconomy) August 21, 2022
Follow Sharon Graham on Instagram: @UniteSharon	Follow the campaign on Instagram: @Unite4workerseconomy
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Graham (@unitesharon)	View this post on Instagram A post shared by Unite For A Workers' Economy (@unite4workerseconomy)

Past events

Watch the video update

EVENT: Details and coverage of the Unite call for lower energy prices