{"id":21580,"date":"2022-05-15T11:37:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T11:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=21580"},"modified":"2023-01-04T18:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T18:22:40","slug":"the-gmb-union-just-scabbed-on-deliveroo-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2022\/05\/15\/the-gmb-union-just-scabbed-on-deliveroo-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"The GMB union just scabbed on Deliveroo workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article, written by Stephen Topple, exposes the GMB’s role in helping the bosses to undermine independent trade unions. \u00a0It was first posted on The Canary blog.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE GMB UNION JUST SCABBED ON DELIVEROO WORKERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A notorious food delivery company has just signed a deal with an equally contentious trade union. It reeks of corporate capitalist cronyism. And, it looks set to completely undermine workers\u2019 rights \u2013 despite what both parties are claiming.<\/p>\n

GMB Union: the bosses\u2019 Trojan horse<\/strong><\/p>\n

The GMB Union is hardly radical. From\u00a0its backing<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0fossil fuel-burning, earthquake-causing fracking<\/a>\u00a0to its support for\u00a0Lisa Nandy<\/a>\u00a0in Labour\u2019s 2020 leadership contest \u2013 the GMB is as centrist as a union gets. Now, its deal with Deliveroo cements the union\u2019s status as a scabbing, right-wing, bosses\u2019 Trojan horse.<\/p>\n

It gleefully announced on Twitter:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/opinion\/2022\/05\/13\/the-gmb-union-just-scabbed-on-deliveroo-workers\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The accompanying video was a nauseating piece of PR. It stated things like:<\/p>\n

Together, Deliveroo and GMB are standing up for what matters to riders.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eh? If the GMB is working \u201ctogether\u201d with Deliveroo \u2013 then who is the union \u201cstanding up for\u201d? What exactly do they think riders care about? It could be they care about inflation that keeps making their\u00a0slave wages<\/a>\u00a0worth even less?<\/p>\n

No, of course not. If GMB are in bed with Deliveroo, then they\u2019re saying that the most basic function of a trade union \u2013 standing up to bosses \u2013 is surplus to their requirements.<\/p>\n

Fuming<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0IWGB Union<\/a>, which has brilliantly represented Deliveroo workers for years, was fuming. It said:<\/p>\n

Deliveroo\u2026 has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting the IWGB in court to prevent collective bargaining with its riders. Deliveroo has always claimed that collective bargaining would come at the cost of flexible working, but this partnership proves that this has always been a lie to scare workers away from unionising. Now as we appeal our collective bargaining case to the Supreme Court, Deliveroo has cynically made this backroom deal with the GMB, which has no record of organising couriers and presents no threat to their exploitative business practices, to protect itself in the event that it loses at the final stage.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, the GMB has effectively scabbed on another union.<\/p>\n

Scabs gon\u2019 scab<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bosses and scabs who organised this dodgy deal with Deliveroo should be ashamed. But they probably won\u2019t be. Because just think: was this even a difficult choice for GMB? No, it\u2019s an easy choice for those shitheels. And, it\u2019s nothing new for a centrist Labour-affiliated union.<\/p>\n

As far back as 1944,\u00a0Marxists were moaning about how Labour\u2019s trade unions were effectively working for the bosses<\/a>. As George Padmore wrote back then:<\/p>\n

because the ideology of the ruling-class has permeated the Labour Movement and corrupted influential sections of the leadership\u2026Trade Union leaders have become\u2026 closely tied with Monopoly-Capitalists. And as a corollary of this, some of those Labour officials are now actively preaching capitalist control and planning, and at the same time helping Ministers of a Tory-disguised Government to make regulations against the fundamental interests of the working-class. In this way, the Corporate State is being gradually introduced.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ring any bells? That\u2019s exactly where we\u2019re at now. It\u2019s time for every decent trade unionist to drop the GMB Union quicker than Keir Starmer can gulp down a curry and a beer. These scabs don\u2019t stand up for workers. They represent no-one but themselves.<\/p>\n

13.5.22<\/strong><\/p>\n

_______<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

Data- driven platform workers plan big moves \u2013 Cailean Gallagher, bella caledonia<\/a><\/p>\n

The case for the Independent Workers Union: our right to organise – IWGB<\/a><\/p>\n

Trade Unions in the 21st<\/sup> century \u2013 Third Global Commune event<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article, written by Stephen Topple, exposes the GMB’s role in helping the bosses to undermine independent trade unions. \u00a0It was first posted on The Canary blog.   THE GMB UNION JUST SCABBED ON DELIVEROO WORKERS \u00a0 A notorious food delivery company has just signed a deal with an equally contentious trade union. It…<\/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":[1843,1852,1855,910],"tags":[9102],"class_list":["post-21580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-how-communists-organise","category-exploitation-and-emancipation","category-trade-unionism","tag-author-steve-topple"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/109632327694172281","error":""},"views":7575,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580","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=21580"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22940,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580\/revisions\/22940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}