'Love Not Hate!' The Trade Union Movement marches for Inclusion

Reading Trades Union Council leads the Procession 

On 16 February 2019, Reading Trades Union Council, supported by Unite the Union – and bolstered by masses of popular support – staged the ‘Love Not Hate’ march, ably coordinated by Nikki Dancey (GMB/RTUC).

Solidarity from Swindon Trades Council

Nikki Dancey (GMB/RTUC) - Lead
Coordinator of the Event

The event was a defiant response to the recent upsurge in far right hooliganism, fascist attacks and nationalist hijacking of the Brexit campaign. Examples of fascist aggression in the past year have been the Law and Freedom Foundation’s targeting of the Zainabiya Welfare Foundation in Tilehurst for intimidation (24 April), the assault of RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary, Steve Hedley, and others in the beer garden of the Westminster Arms pub, Central London, by the English Defence League following a counter-protest to a rally in support of Tommy Robinson and Donald Trump (14 July), the vandalism of the socialist bookshop, Bookmarks, in Central London by ‘Make Britain Great Again’ and UKIP members (4 August) and British nationalist Brexiteers’ daily words of intolerance towards EU citizens whom they want to ‘go home’ after 29 March this year.

Nada Al-Sanjari (NEU/RTUC) and Matt
Rodda MP (Labour, Reading East)

Billie Reynolds (Unison) and  Angie Burnish (DPAC)

The march and social in Reading on 16 February asserted – loud and clear – that for those of EU origin, Palestinian refugees and other international migrants, members of the LGBT+ community, people with physical and mental impairments, peace campaigners, environmentalists, women suffering under patriarchal institutions, trade unionists and socialists – you are welcome in Reading and the trade union movement is with you. And to the far right, we declared: ¡No pasarán!

John Gillman and Neil Adams (both Unite/RTUC)
with the Socialist Party contingent

Labour Councillor, Sarah Hacker (Unite) with her Pride Ambassador flag

Assembling in Market Place, the gathering of several hundred listened to an opening address by Nada Al-Sanjari (NEU), Vice-President of RTUC. Nada welcomed everyone and thanked all for attending, explaining the context of the event and describing the route of the march.

Labour Councillors, Ellie Emberson and John
Ennis fraternise with the assembled

Ray Parkes (Unite), John Partington (TSSA)
and Nada Al-Sanjari (NEU) of RTUC

Headed up by the banners of the Reading Trades Union Council and Swindon Trades Council, with flags flying from GMB and TSSA, the procession commenced at Buttermarket before proceeding along Broad Street, Oxford Road and Alfred Street.

Nada Al-Sanjari (NEU) welcomes the marchers

Assembling for the kick-off speech

At Chatham Place, Matt Rodda MP, Labour representative for Reading East, addressed the close of the march, focusing on Brexit and pledging his commitment to fight for an inclusive deal for EU citizens who choose to remain in post-Brexit Britain.

Following Matt’s address the processionists gathered in The Butler pub, Reading’s friendly refuge for the left, where tables were stocked by RTUC, Berkshire Antifascists and a solidarity bookstall from Bookmarks, attended by Antifa and RTUC volunteers. The landlord of The Butler laid out a buffet as the evening progressed, an address was made by Louise Raw, historian of the women’s labour movement, and music was performed by Nicole Johnson, Grant Sharkey, Boom Boom Raccoon and The Incendiaries.

  

Marching through Broad Street 

The convivial, comradely environment of The Butler lent itself to political discussion on such hot topics as the economic impact of Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the need to change government, and local government policy under austerity.

Matt Rodda MP (Labour, Reading East) closes the march

The close of the march - before reconvening in The Butler pub

Louise Raw addresses the post-march social

John Partington also brought the TSSA’s ‘Inclusive Rail’ campaign, encouraging people to script a poster suggesting how the railway can become more inclusive for members of the LGBT+ community, both as passengers and as employees in the industry. Matt Rodda MP, a member of Labour’s Shadow Transport Team, promoted station staffing as a security measure to support vulnerable groups; Helen Caney, Reading & District Labour Party’s secretary, advocated retaining guards on trains, again as a security measure; and Steve Geary of USDAW and RTUC called on management to back their staff when faced with abuse.

Grant Sharkey

The Incendiaries

Boom Boom Raccoon

Entertainment from Nicole Johnson

The event was a great success – its popular support on the ground mirrored by the silence of the local and regional media. Reading is energised – and RTUC looks forward to future actions around International Women’s Day, May Day – and supporting workers’ struggles and defending public services wherever they are attacked. ¡No pasarán!

John Partington (TSSA/RTUC) and Matt Rodda MP
(Labour, Reading East) promote LGBT+ rights
in TSSA's 'Inclusive Rail' campaign

Steve Geary (USDAW/RTUC)
promotes 'Inclusive Rail'

Helen Caney (Secretary, Reading & District
Labour Party) promotes 'Inclusive Rail'

RTUC joins the discussion on the Gender Pay Gap

On 15 February 2019, John Partington (TSSA) of the Reading Trades Unions Council joined a discussion of the gender pay gap at Oxford Playhouse. The event, 'Second at the Table', was organised by 472 Productions and featured a panel with Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, and Stephen Woolley, producer of the film, 'Made in Dagenham' (2010). Reading citizens will remember Anneliese as Reading East's unsuccessful Labour candidate in 2010 as well as the Southeast Region MEP from 2014 to 2017. The event preceded the performance of the stage musical of 'Made in Dagenham' at the same theatre.

Anneliese Dodds MP (centre) and Stephen Woolley (right)

Following the panelists' introductions, the compere (an Oxford University academic) began by asking Stephen if he felt entertainment could usefully engage people in politics. He replied that he thought it could, especially by raising consciousness of persons and events lost in the mists of time. Stephen explained that he grew up in North London in the 1960s, not many miles away from Dagenham, and yet he knew nothing at the time about the women sewing machinists' strike at the Ford plant in 1968 which led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970. With the exception of fringe newspapers, the media did not cover it. So when he learnt of the events at Ford's many years later, he knew the film had to be made. Getting the story out there has educated and energised new generations of workers. He did add, though, that the Donald Trump phenomenon presents a caveat to the power of the media. Trump has succeeded in the teeth of mass media opposition and open war with certain media outlets, demonstrating the neutered power of televisual and print media in a world of rapidly changing technology.

Anneliese suggested that the political activism of youth in recent years has brought a new excitement to politics. Women are engaging in the revived 'Reclaim the Night' movement and other shows of defiance towards those who would try to limit women's spaces, using creativity and activism at the grassroots and demonstrating another form of 'creative art' being used to politicise communities.

In terms of the gender pay gap, Anneliese noted the influence of automation in drawing women into traditionally male workplaces - where the culture of 'men's work' existed previously, women have asserted their right to partake. However, she also cited the fact that, where women enter industries in numbers for the first time, there is a trend of real-terms wage reductions. Women are still deemed as 'worth less' than men - whether that is because they take career breaks for childbearing or their promotion and performance reviewing suffers unconscious discrimination or for other reasons, the issue is complex.

John Partington (TSSA & RTUC) with Anneliese Dodds MP

While suggesting that flexible work patterns might assist women in fitting work around other responsibilities, Anneliese cautioned that the role of women as primary carers and often filling part-time roles left them vulnerable to continuing their dual responsibilities as mothers and workers without the same balance being expected of men. In answer to a question from the floor, she also worried about the insecurity flexibility brings with zero-hour contracts and the option often pursued of working several jobs 'flexibly' without the employment entitlements of a full-time employee such as overtime pay, a decent pension, special leave, etc.

John spoke about the notion of the 'on call' employee (formally and informally) and the cultural impact of 24/7 'availability'. He contrasted two types:

1) The senior manager in the railway industry, usually male, whose phone and emails are always on and who 'requires' to be available at all times. He's less likely to be available to perform the parenting/caring duties which his partner undertakes due to the importance of being 'available on call' at all times - even while he is not contracted for on-call duties. His substantial salary compensates for such availability - even when not actually called upon.

2) Contrast the NHS nurse, paid an insubstantial sum for working long and strenuous shifts, who takes on-call shifts - sometimes to bolster her (sometimes his) wages but also out of a commitment to service delivery. The financial incentive comes second to the commitment to patient care.

Wrapped up in these examples are questions of work/life balance, fair reward for services rendered and appropriate staffing levels - but also a gendered culture of prestige versus commitment in workplaces. While the other issues can be tackled mechanistically - the cultural barriers to equal opportunities and equal treatment at work have barely changed in the fifty years since the Dagenham strike. Trade unions are grappling with the issue - more so now that more than half of trade unionists are women - but the solution is complex.