How joining Food & Solidarity supercharges your union membership!
What’s the link between union membership & community empowerment?
Why join a union?
Why would you join an organisation where you pay fees?
Being alone with your problems sometimes seems like an unavoidable fact of life. Sometimes our friends and family don’t know what they can say or do to help us. Sometimes they really seem overwhelmed with their own problems, which aren’t exactly the same as ours. Even if it feels like it, it’s not always true, however, that we are on our own with our problems. Sometimes we are sitting right next to people who are dealing with the same things. This is often true at work.
Whilst sometimes we think about our co-workers as part of the hell that is other people, they can be the ones who share the same problems most or find it easiest to understand our frustrations. When on our own, we can end up blaming ourselves for problems that other people created or feel consumed by anger and helplessness. When we join a union at work, it offers us the chance to have others back us up in taking action to solve our problems. With our fellow workers, we can have a different way of looking at, and responding to, the things which make us miserable at work, whether those be low wages, bully bosses, insecure contracts, or unsafe working conditions. When we are with people who are struggling with the same issues, we have a ready group who can work together to take action. That might mean meeting with bosses to negotiate over these issues or taking industrial action. When we are being singled out for unfair treatment, our fellow workers can help us discreetly gather evidence of how others are treated to make our case or act as caseworkers, helping us face management through whatever processes they set out for us to raise these issues. Solidarity, the principle underlying unions, is a word for the way we don’t turn away from each other’s problems and instead offer practical or emotional support that enables us to fight to turn things around.
Most of the things that allow our working lives to be bearable were won by workers in unions working together in this way. The fact we know we shouldn’t end up maimed or killed by our work, the fact we get breaks, paid leave when we are ill or bereaved, and don’t have to work every single day of the year: all down to workers in unions.
How do I join a union at work?
In many workplaces, there is what is known as a ‘recognised’ union, which means the boss or bosses need to work with that union. That is, the union which negotiates on behalf of all workers or workers within particular groups (e.g. all administrative staff), regardless of whether all workers are in the union. You should be able to find out if there is a recognised union by asking colleagues, looking on your workplace intranet, or looking at noticeboards around your workplace to find information. Sometimes workplaces will include union representatives or ‘reps’ in induction meetings, or these reps will seek out new employees to make sure they know about the union. This doesn’t always happen, though, so sometimes you do need to ask a few people. Usually, joining is a very simple process of filling in a form and setting up a direct debit to pay union dues, which are often linked to wages so that those who earn less pay less and those who earn more pay more.
What if there is no union in my workplace?
If there is no union, you can work with your co-workers to choose which union to join and encourage other workers in your workplace to join that union. These are the first steps toward becoming a strong force that can fight back and win better pay and conditions for yourselves. If there is a union, but it is not yet recognised, you can push for recognition by building membership. Once you have some workers on your side, you can make a request for recognition in writing under UK Schedule A1 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. If the bosses reject this request, you can still win the right to be recognised under UK law via the Central Arbitration Committee if you have a big enough group of workers signed up.
Why pay to join a union?
There are always costs associated with running a union. Unions use the money they get from collecting dues to pay workers when their pay is withheld for striking, to seek legal advice on behalf of their members, to produce electronic and print materials, to run conferences, congresses, or other big decision-making meetings, to keep records up to date, and to manage accounts.
Sometimes the idea of paying dues puts people off. People might feel they are not getting anything from the dues they pay. It’s not visible what foolish or harmful actions bosses forgo in fear of unionised workers fighting back and embarrassing them.
If unions had to seek funding from employers, from governments, or charitable donations to function, they wouldn’t be able to be independent or to oppose those who fund them. Because unions run on the dues paid by their members, they are owned by their members, which means they can act in their members’ best interest, rather than keeping wealthy donors or powerful bosses happy.
What if I don’t work? What about my problems outside of work?
There are organisations which operate similarly to unions in our communities as well. These organisations provide us with solidarity, meaning we are not alone with our struggles and offer us the means to fight back against the things we suffer, like poverty, poor housing, or inadequate local services.
For those with access to benefits, there are benefits claimants unions. For disabled people, there are disabled people’s organisations, including Disabled People Against Cuts, who fight back against discrimination and public service cuts. There are also cross-cutting organisations like Food & Solidarity, which utilise a combination of community direct provision and direct action to work on a range of issues.
If you don’t live in an area where there is a community organisation which offers the solidarity you need, you can build one. Food & Solidarity is open to helping you think about how to do this, you could event open a local group of Food & Solidarity in your area if you want to do this work. Either way, you can get in touch.
Why pay to join a community organisation like Food & Solidarity?
Organisations like Food & Solidarity, which is a member-led, not-for-profit, mutually-trading company limited by guarantee, operate in a way that is distinct from charities. Based on principles of solidarity and not charity, members of such an organisation work in ways that support the lives of their fellow members, looking after one another. The aim is to avoid degrading volunteer-beneficiary dynamics and by all members paying membership fees and having an equal vote and an equal say in how things are done, regardless of whether they pay more or less into the pot, we work toward this aim.
This model of sourcing the money needed for the organisation’s activities helps the organisation resist the call to make access to the benefit of membership means-tested. It means there is no need to create ‘poverty porn’ to attract funders, and means there is no need to intrude on members’ lives to prove impact by exposing the details of their suffering. It also means the organisation is free to make powerful people its targets when necessary. When community groups rely on handouts from local authorities, for example, this stops them criticising local government failings and putting pressure on them to do better.
In Food & Solidarity, much of membership fees is spent on buying food, which is divided up into food parcels for members, based on what food each member orders. By having everyone involved be an equal member, the organisation can avoid doing what is easiest for volunteers rather than what is best for the members. One example of this is in the way Food & Solidarity makes food parcels according to each member’s order, rather than as a one-size-fits-all process. Why should being poor mean you have no choice what you get? Wealthy people who always have a choice about what to eat and those going to food banks normally have little to no choice in what they get. Resisting a ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ mentality is important for this work to be radical and solidarity-based, as opposed to business-as-usual maintaining the status quo .
How joining Food & Solidarity supercharges your union membership
As suggested above, unions and Food & Solidarity share many principles and ways of doing things, reaping the benefits of both
dues-based financial independence from those whose interests don’t align with ours and
the power of direct action to create positive change.
In addition to this alignment, the work of the two is synergistic in various ways. One way is that Food & Solidarity has mutually-supporting relationships with union branches. Food & Solidarity members visit picket lines to demonstrate support when workers go on strike and to make striking workers aware of the practical solidarity on offer: Strikers Solidarity Parcels. These parcels are for non-members who are on strike, to support them while they are not being paid. On the basis that this is an important form of solidarity, some union branches have given Food & Solidarity money to help keep strikers solidarity parcels going, knowing that the value of the parcels is greater than the pound and pence value they give, both because of the greater buying power we have when we put money together (a.k.a. economies of scale) and because the power of solidarity is also in the encouragement and emboldening it engenders in those involved. Just the knowledge that those on strike will not be on their own can make those at negotiating tables fight harder for what they and their fellow workers deserve. In Food & Solidarity, we know that when striking workers win, everyone wins.
More resources
For Advice and information on workplace law https://www.acas.org.uk/
See the TUC’s ‘Union Finder’ https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion
Also check out some of the unions not affiliated to the TUC or Labour Party
United voices of the World https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/en/
The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain https://iwgb.org.uk/en/join/
