{"id":19089,"date":"2021-05-21T21:56:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T21:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=19089"},"modified":"2022-01-07T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T12:02:18","slug":"successful-resistance-to-fire-rehire-in-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/05\/21\/successful-resistance-to-fire-rehire-in-manchester\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful resistance to fire and rehire in Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Ian Allinson a member of rs21 and rank and file candidate for UNITE general secretary in 2017, writes about the successful resistance by Manchester bus workers to the imposition of Fire &amp; Rehire using Covid-19 as an excuse.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE TO FIRE AND REHIRE IN MANCHESTER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-19090\" src=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Unknown-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"174\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S3NhKUUu5So\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Strikers were celebrating after voting to accept an offer and return to work. The strike was defensive \u2013 resisting an employer which used fire and rehire to try to force through a dramatic worsening of terms and conditions and an end to meaningful bargaining over future changes.<\/p>\n<p>Strikers are rightly proud of their epic fight \u2013 the longest bus strike in British history. The strikers achieved a lot. Not just fighting off fire and rehire for themselves, but winning a commitment from the whole Go Ahead group never to use it again. They won the reinstatement of two sacked workers and disciplinary threats against 37 more. They won an above-inflation pay deal for two years. They were almost entirely successful in stopping attacks on their sick pay and time allowances. They prevented the employer being able to unilaterally make future changes.<\/p>\n<p>All the strikers recognise that this wasn\u2019t an unqualified victory. Most accepted the logic that they had to make concessions to ensure the viability of their employer, an issue discussed in my\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rs21.org.uk\/2021\/05\/06\/manchester-bus-strike-fire-and-rehire\/\">previous article<\/a>\u00a0about the strike. The workers had agreed to offer major concessions on unpaid meal breaks and a longer working day, on a temporary basis for two years until bus franchising comes in. Go Ahead refused to make any commitment to give back these concessions. Everyone involved recognises that there will be battles to come, particularly when bus franchising starts in two years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n<p>The concessions led to Go North West needing fewer staff and Unite reps worried that cuts would be made by firing people on the flimsiest of pretexts. This led them to agree a severance programme to cut staff.<\/p>\n<p>There were steps that could have been taken to put more pressure on Go Ahead, as discussed in the previous article. But the Unite apparatus discouraged strikers from visiting other bus depots to build solidarity. Last week, when Unite officers tried to push members into balloting on the offer, there was strong opposition, forcing the ballot to be delayed while rostering concerns were addressed in further talks.<\/p>\n<p>Even this week, there was 21.5% \u2018No\u2019 vote. There was huge pressure from the Unite apparatus to accept the deal, leaving strikers unconfident that they would get the support they needed if they fought on and most concluding that this was the best deal they could achieve.<\/p>\n<p>Even strikers who are critical of the Unite leadership are clear that they won, even if they had won less than they should. There\u2019s no shame for workers in making compromises or concessions after putting up such a hard fight. The strikers are going back to work having shown that workers can beat fire and rehire, having successfully fought off the worst of Go Ahead\u2019s attacks, feeling their strength, and having made powerful bonds between themselves and rejuvenated the networks of activists who provided solidarity. They are an inspiration and they are right to be proud.<\/p>\n<p>19th May 2021<\/p>\n<p>This article was first posted at:- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rs21.org.uk\/2021\/05\/19\/watch-interviews-with-go-north-west-bus-strikers\/\">Video | Interviews with Go North West bus strikers<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>also see:-<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/30\/school-opening-revolt-puts-the-squeeze-on-union-bosses\/\">1. School Opening Revolt Puts The Squeeze On Union Bosses \u2013 Socialist Democracy (Ireland)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/09\/newry-mourne-and-down-council-workers-strike\/\">2. Newry, Mourne and Down Council workers\u2019 strike \u2013 Socialist Democracy (Ireland)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/the-british-left-the-uk-state-1-1.pdf\">3. The British eft and the UK state \u2013 Chapter 6. Two forces for possible future Socialist advances \u2013Ian Allinson\u2019s Grassroots Left election campaign for the UNITE general secretary and the appearance of anti-racist, pro-migrant Left Remain forces in the new Labour intake &#8211; Allan Armstrong, RCF<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2018\/08\/27\/open-letter-and-peitition-to-len-mccluskey\/\">4. \u00a0Open letter and petion to Len McCluskey &#8211; Ian Allison, Unite Grassroots Left<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/03\/grassroots-unite-leadership-candidate-attacks-mccluskeys-and-coynes-capitulation-to-anti-migrant-politics\/\">5. Grassroots Left Unite leadership candidate attacks Coyne&#8217;s and McCluskey&#8217;s capitulation to anti-migrant politics &#8211; Ian Allinson, Unite Grassroots Left<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ian Allinson a member of rs21 and rank and file candidate for UNITE general secretary in 2017, writes about the successful resistance by Manchester bus workers to the imposition of Fire &amp; Rehire using Covid-19 as an excuse. &nbsp; SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE TO FIRE AND REHIRE IN MANCHESTER Strikers were celebrating after voting to accept an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1852,1855,1856],"tags":[5262],"class_list":["post-19089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-communists-organise","category-exploitation-and-emancipation","category-economic-struggles","tag-author-ian-allinson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":1417,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19089"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20250,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089\/revisions\/20250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}