Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organising at Work

By Ian Allinson and Colin Revolting

The Covid, climate and cost of living crises all hang heavy in the air. It's more obvious than ever that we need radical social and political change. But in the vacuum left by defeated labour movements, where should we begin? For longtime workplace activist Ian Allinson, the answer is clear: organising at work is essential to rebuild working-class power.

The premise is simple: organising builds confidence, capacity and collective power - and with power we can win change. Workers Can Win is an essential, practical guide for rank-and-file workers and union activists. Drawing on more than 20 years of organising experience, Allinson combines practical techniques with an analysis of the theory and politics of organising and unions.

The book offers insight into tried and tested methods for effective organising. It deals with tactics and strategies, and addresses some of the roots of conflict, common problems with unions and the resistance of management to worker organising. As a 101 guide to workplace organising with politically radical horizons, Workers Can Win is destined to become an essential tool for workplace struggles in the years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Release date: Oct 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9780745347837

Ian Allinson

Ian Allinson has been a workplace activist since 1991, working for a private sector employer which didn’t recognise a union for most workers, and where he led a number of strikes including the first national strike in the IT industry. He served ten years on the national Executive Committees of Amicus and Unite, and was a candidate for Unite General Secretary in 2017. He is currently industrial action coordinator on the executive committee of Manchester TUC, where he was previously President. 

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Workers Can Win

‘Just at the time when workers are mobilising to tackle the economic and climate crises we all face, this invaluable handbook comes along to provide an essential guide to winning.’

—John McDonnell MP

‘A must read for every trade union activist.’

—Lyn-Marie O’Hara, Glasgow equal pay striker

‘Workers have needed a practical, positive, accessible guide to organising in Britain for a long time and Ian, using his vast experience in the area has created just that. It will be a valuable resource for union representatives and organisers wanting to grow their branch and union!’

—Sarah Woolley, General Secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union

‘In the age of climate breakdown, militant worker organising is as urgent as ever. Workers and environmentalists share a common enemy in the capitalist class and Allinson gives us all a powerful guide of how to effectively organise for social change from our workplaces. If you’re wondering what you can do in the fight for climate justice then read Workers Can Win, join your union, and get organising.’

—Chris Saltmarsh, co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal and author of Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice

‘Drawing on years of experience, Unite activist Ian Allinson has written an organising handbook that will be invaluable for rank-and-file organisers and trade union professionals alike. Allinson offers timely, concrete analysis and advice that will be an aid to activists across the trade union movement in today’s difficult work environment.’

—Kim Moody, author and founder of Labor Notes

‘Workplaces are key sites of struggle against the hostile environment for migrants, and so to tackle these injustices against migrants we need strong unions. Workers Can Win is a readable, practical guide for organising at work and building the power we need to fight back against oppression.’

—Ida Jarsve, co-founder, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants

‘This book is just brilliant. It is not only packed full of invaluable advice and practical tips for anybody organising in the workplace, but it is also hopeful. Crucially, it offers an accessible political analysis of why it is so important for working-class people to build power in the workplace and beyond, demystifying the process as it goes.’

—Laura Pidcock, National Secretary of The People’s Assembly

‘A vital resource for anyone serious about taking part in trade union work at any level, and also extremely useful for anyone working for positive change in their community.’

—Brendan Montague, editor, The Ecologist

Wildcat: Workers’ Movements and Global Capitalism

Series Editors:

Immanuel Ness (City University of New York)

Peter Cole (Western Illinois University)

Raquel Varela (Instituto de História Contemporânea [IHC]

of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon New University) Tim Pringle (SOAS, University of London)

Also available:

The Cost of Free Shipping:

Amazon in the Global Economy

Edited by Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese

Choke Points:

Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain

Edited by Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Immanuel Ness

Power Despite Precarity:

Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education

Joe Berry and Helena Worthen

Dying for an iPhone:

Apple, Foxconn and the Lives of China’s Workers

Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai

Just Work?:

Migrant Workers’ Struggles Today

Edited by Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo

Wobblies of the World:

A Global History of the IWW

Edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer

Arise:

Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence

Jane Holgate

El Golpe:

US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico

Rob McKenzie with Patrick Dunne

Augmented Exploitation:

Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Work

Edited by Phoebe V. Moore and Jamie Woodcock

Organizing Insurgency:

Workers’ Movements in the Global South

Immanuel Ness

Southern Insurgency:

The Coming of the Global Working Class

Immanuel Ness

Amakomiti:

Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements

Trevor Ngwane

Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle:

Strategies, Tactics, Objectives

Edited by Robert Ovetz

The Spirit of Marikana:

The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa

Luke Sinwell with Siphiwe Mbatha

Solidarity:

Latin America and the US Left in the Era of Human Rights

Steve Striffler

Working the Phones:

Control and Resistance in Call Centres

Jamie Woodcock

Illustration

First published 2022 by Pluto Press

New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA

and Pluto Press Inc.

1930 Village Center Circle, Ste. 3-384, Las Vegas, NV 89134

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © Ian Allinson 2022

The right of Ian Allinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN   978 0 7453 4782 0   Hardback

ISBN   978 0 7453 4781 3   Paperback

ISBN   978 0 7453 4784 4   PDF

ISBN   978 0 7453 4783 7   EPUB

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.

Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England

Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America

Contents

Table and figures

Series preface

Acknowledgements

Glossary

1Introduction

2Why organise at work?

3Starting out

4Servicing, advocacy, mobilising and organising

5Choosing and communicating about issues

6How to organise

7Using your rights

8Planning action

9Industrial and direct action

10 Management mischief

11 Dealing with your union

12 Overcoming difficulties and limitations

Postscript

Notes

Bibliography of sources and further reading

About the authors

Index

Table and figures

TABLE

5.1 Semantic drill examples

FIGURES

2.1 UK employee union membership and non-membership by sector 1995–2020

5.1 The organising cycle

5.2 Anti-union boss competition leaflet

6.1 One workgroup in a charting template

6.2 Social charting

6.3 A distribution checklist by group or area

7.1 The hierarchy of controls for safety

8.1 Survey form for Power Structure Analysis

10.1 Chicago Teachers Union bargaining team preparing, 2016.

Photo: @CTULocal1 on Twitter

Series preface

Workers’ movements are a common and recurring feature in contemporary capitalism. The same militancy that inspired the mass labour movements of the twentieth century continues to define worker struggles that proliferate throughout the world today.

For more than a century, labour unions have mobilised to represent the political-economic interests of workers by uncovering the abuses of capitalism, establishing wage standards, improving oppressive working conditions, and bargaining with employers and the state. Since the 1970s, organised labour has declined in size and influence as the global power and influence of capital has expanded dramatically. The world over, existing unions are in a condition of fracture and turbulence in response to neoliberalism, financialisation, and the reappearance of rapacious forms of imperialism. New and modernised unions are adapting to conditions and creating class-conscious workers’ movement rooted in militancy and solidarity. Ironically, while the power of organised labour contracts, working-class militancy and resistance persists and is growing in the Global South.

Wildcat publishes ambitious and innovative works on the history and political economy of workers’ movements and is a forum for debate on pivotal movements and labour struggles. The series applies a broad definition of the labour movement to include workers in and out of unions, and seeks works that examine proletarianisation and class formation; mass production; gender, affective and reproductive labour; imperialism and workers; syndicalism and independent unions, and labour and Leftist social and political movements.

Acknowledgements

This book would have been impossible without my former workmates and countless other activists, organisers and writers I have learned from or whose stories I have used. The late Colin Barker encouraged me to write, and my confidence to do so owes a lot to my tutors at Keele University, and to Unite and the TUC, whose education bursaries contributed towards my study costs.

My wife Isabel gave me huge encouragement and support as well as comments on the draft. Nick Cimini was a constant help and support throughout the process. The socialist group rs21 not only encouraged me but allowed me to use some of my time working for the organisation for writing the book. I am grateful to all those who gave comments and suggestions including Adam Herriott, Brendan Montague, Danny Budzak, Dave Allinson, Dave Lyddon, David Renton, Gareth Dale, Hazel Croft, Hilda Palmer, Kate Bradley, Katy Fox-Hodess, Kim Moody, Lynne Hodge, Matt Whaley, Sadie Fulton, Stephen Mustchin, Stu Melvin, Raymond Morell, Sue Bond, Vik Chechi-Ribeiro and Willie Howard, and to Nick Evans for helping me edit the draft. Thanks to Adam Bell, David Shulman and the team at Pluto for turning my manuscript into a book. This book is the product of a collective effort, but some who contributed will undoubtedly disagree with aspects of it, and responsibility for any errors lies with me.

Glossary

1

Introduction

There are fundamentally two reasons to organise at work: to change things related to your job, and to change everything else. Organising is about building workers’ capacity to take effective collective action and win change. It is the only realistic way for most of us to have any real influence over our work – a huge aspect of our lives. It’s not just