Using Flower Power to Organise at Work

The story of a union representative.

The union representative told a story about one of their members who had reached the final stage of the company sickness monitoring procedure. There was no denying that the woman had a poor sick record but her absences were due to ongoing hospital treatment following a workplace injury two years earlier. Despite the rep quoting employment law, the managers were not impressed. The worker had gone over the trigger levels and it looked certain that she would be dismissed under the capability procedure.

The final stage hearing was to take place on Friday. The rep spent Wednesday and Thursday going round to all the co-workers, explaining what was happening and asking if they would put in a pound to buy a card. The rep bought a bunch of flowers and an oversized ‘Get Well Soon’ card, the kind of the thing that your love struck teenage son buys his first girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.

On Friday, five minutes before the hearing was to take place, all of the workers turned up outside the HR office. There were hugs all round as the sick woman was presented with the giant card and flowers, with the managers who were hearing the case forced to wait in the corridor until the impromptu ceremony was over. The meeting finally started five minutes late. The manager’s opening remarks were “OK, we get your point.” The appeal was granted and the member was referred to occupational health, with reasonable adjustments to her job implemented a few weeks later.

You know all the co-workers who had signed the card or put in their pound told the story to whoever would listen about how they had saved the worker’s job. Not the rep but them – the workers. Now that is what union organising is all about. 

World Cup sponsors must pressurise FIFA to act on Qatar abuses

The eight big sponsors Adidas, Gazprom, Hyundai, Kia, McDonalds, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Visa are amongst the companies we should all write too and ensure we assert our pressure on FIFA.

In Qatar 4,000 workers are estimated to die by 2022 – an absolutely shocking fact.

This is just an estimate as there will probably be a lot more as only Nepal and India record the number of deaths.

Corruption and heat seem to be the focus for this World Cup – yet we see thousands of people die with little coverage from the media as many endure the horrendous treatment as their rights are violated.

In Qatar the Kafala system exists where workers seek sponsorship to work however this all to often means passports are retained by employers, contracts torn up, the need for employers to sign exit visas and a block on workers so they can’t change jobs even when abuse is taking place.

Treatment of migrant workers is not only in the building industry but also in infrastructure, domestic workers and the service industry.

Women suffer greatly, those in detention centres are enduring appalling conditions and mistreatment. Those in employment, especially in private homes doing domestic work are open to terrible conditions including psychological, physical and sexual abuse.

The ITUC say that there is forced labour being used by contractors providing services to university campuses in Doha city. More UK universities are opening in the Gulf States, so the issues for us as workers are our potential members if they worked in UK.

Fellow workers are abused and dying – with appalling working conditions and human rights violations. Workers need to know their rights.

Qatar must abolish Kafala, and allow migrant workers to join trade unions

UNISON has just supported Anti Slavery International through UNISON International Development Fund to work with partners in India to give pre-departure advice to migrant workers hoping to travel to Qatar and other Middle East countries.

We all know about the FIFA corruption scandal but must ensure the spotlight is not only on who bribed who – lives are more important than money so we need to hear our own footballing bodies to speak out in support of workers’ rights – that are far too silent.

Please support the Playfair Qatar campaign and write to the sponsors expressing your concerns.