Sparks of Resistance

At the moment, the construction industry is launching a massive attack on electricians. The eight major construction firms have decided to back out of the Joint Industry Board (JIB) agreements, which regulated the hourly rates for electricians. It is concretely possible that the current hourly rate of £16.25 might be dropped to as low as £10.50, which means a massive decrease in living standards for electricians! This is certainly motivated by no other reason than to squeeze more and more money out of the workers. Construction firms in Britain have been fed some major deals, such as the Olympics Infrastructure in London or the Town Hall renovation in Manchester, which itself is worth   100 million pounds. But it seems that the thirst of the capitalists for profit can never be satisfied.

The conditions of employment in the construction industry are already highly uneven. Wage rates often differ on the basis of slight differences between some of the jobs done. The bosses have already come up with a scheme to replace the JIB agreement where electricians will be paid £10.50 for installing conduit, £12 for wiring and £14 for terminating. Other differences exist between British and immigrant workers. This clearly fulfils no other purpose than to divide the workforce and make it easier to attack groups of workers on site. But as we know, an injury to one is still an injury to all!

In addition to this latest attack, the construction industry has a nasty history of blacklisting workers who dare to show their discontent over the prevailing conditions. There are 3,500 blacklisted electricians, some for being ‘overly concerned about health and safety’. Semi-legal companies exist solely to profit from the selling of names and details of workers with a history of standing up for themselves to the employers. Many such electricians have been unable to attain work for decades . This is just another little episode in the bosses struggle against the workers.

The union bureaucrats have made clear that they themselves are not up for this fight. Unite’s officials have started to negotiate with the bosses in the wings. Of course the electricians on the sites whose livelihoods are endangered are not supposed to have their say in it. The best Unite came up with was having a recruitment drive and then a ballot for strike action after the 7th of December, the date when the electricians have to have their new contracts signed by. Of course this is complete nonsense and gives a huge advantage to the bosses.

Now, the electricians have started discussing wildcat strike action, and rightly so. If the workers don’t surrender to the bosses and the union bureaucrats but take on the fightback themselves using strike action, which really hurts the companies, they will be much more likely to succeed, or at least show the bosses that there is no more free lunch at the workers’ expense. In the current climate of constant attacks on workers, it is crucial that both public and private sector workers, both under the same threat of capitalist misery, link their struggles. The bosses fear the united working class and the union bureaucrats do their best to maintain disunity in the workers’ ranks. But in the end the working class is stronger than all its enemies and can overcome all obstacles on its way to a brighter, socialist future.