Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://secure.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1164/33646
From The Socialist newspaper, 26 January 2022
Worksop Wincanton logistics workers begin ninth week of strike action
Wincanton (Click to enlarge)
Jon Dale, Mansfield Socialist Party
450 Unite members are in their ninth week of strike action against Wincanton - the logistics company running the vast Worksop site for B&Q.
After helping B&Q's parent company, Kingfisher, and Wincanton rack up massive profits during the pandemic, workers are demanding a pay rise at least keeping up with inflation. With prices rising fast, the longer Wincanton hold out, the higher the cost to them will be!
Workers are also fed up with management harassment. As one picket said: "It's like we've gone back 100 years." Trade union reps have also been pressured (unsuccessfully) to leave the company.
The workers have been strengthened after a 100% vote to strike (on a 97% turnout) by drivers at the Cambuslang depot near Glasgow. The Unite union members are employed by GXO, another massive logistics company. Drivers at Doncaster and Worksop depots are also to vote on whether to strike, which would leave B&Q and Screwfix stores without deliveries.
If the depot workers and drivers strike together, it will maximise pressure on B&Q to press Wincanton and GXO to settle.
Already there is evidence of the pressure the strike is causing, with bare shelves in local stores. Trade unionists and socialists are leafleting staff and customers in stores in solidarity with the Worksop strikers.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- We must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 26 January 2022:
What we think
We need a workers' alternative to big business Tories and Labour
News
Lords reject parts of anti-protest bill
Social care providers put profit before residents' needs - nationalise care now
Cost of living
Trade unions and the cuts
Trade unions and the fight against council cuts
Workplace news
Sheffield Just Eat strikers step up action and hold mass rally
Oaks Park School: valiant strike exposed state of schools
Education: Workload and inflation goes up, incomes fall
DWP reps demand action from PCS leadership
10,000 tube workers vote to strike - don't make workers pay for TfL funding crisis
Strike action by Carmarthenshire winter gritters wins concessions from council
Universities: Strike action at 68 in two disputes
Worksop Wincanton logistics workers begin ninth week of strike action
International news
Trade unionists in the USA fighting back
Campaigns news
Hundreds protest to save St Mary's Leisure Centre in Southampton
Wakefield TUSC - Fighting for low-paid workers and NHS
Eviction resistance on the march in Waltham Forest
This is students' chance to fight back - help build 2 March NUS walkout
Environment
Britain's waterways choked with a 'chemical cocktail'
Readers' opinion
War in Yemen, made in Harlow, profit for rich
UK Covid-19 mortality similar to Spanish Flu
It's my party, and I'll lie if I want to
Home | The Socialist 26 January 2022 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2021