While Covid threatens the jobs of millions, Unite is focused on factional divisions
Capital will stage a brutal demonstration of its power over labour when the furloughs and state protections of the Covid pandemic end. Across the west, but most particularly in the UK, employees’ ability to defend themselves will depend on whether they are in a trade union.
The new working class of young, female and ethnic minority workers in hotels, gyms, security guard huts, supermarkets, call centres, restaurants, shops and bars needs unions. Whatever pain is coming, precarious private sector workers will feel it the most. The labour movement must surely be concentrating its energies on helping radically insecure workers as the crisis approaches.
