Trade unions

Westminster’s democracy is crumbling. Trade unionists must lead the charge to fix it
Nancy Platts writes that the workers' movement needs to challenge unaccountable power.

Fast food workers stand up for themselves and #McStrike – we’re loving it!
McDonald's workers are striking for the first time ever in Britain, reports Michael Calderbank

Utopia: Work less play more
A shorter working week would benefit everyone, writes Madeleine Ellis-Petersen

What if the workers were in control?
Hilary Wainwright reflects on an attempt by British workers to produce a democratically determined alternative plan for their industry

Davey Hopper: union man
Huw Beynon reflects on the life of his friend and comrade Davey Hopper, the tough and imaginative Durham miners’ leader, who died in July

The battle behind the blacklisting victory
John Millington writes on how blacklisted workers won – and where the campaign is going next

Greek dock workers feel betrayed by Syriza’s broken promises
Dock workers in Greece are striking against further privatisations as Syriza's popularity tumbles, writes Will Horner

Jeremy Hardy thinks… about Trident
'Nuclear weapons cannot be seen purely as a source of jobs'

Bang on target: a brief union history of arms conversion
Whatever follows the Labour elections, some policies must not return to the backburner - the time has come to look at arms conversion again. Phil Asquith starts from the beginning

Beating the blacklist
Dave Smith spoke to Ewa Jasiewicz about his fight against the corporate blacklists that keep union activists out of a job

Biting the hand that refuses to feed
Care workers in Doncaster have taken up the cudgels against privatisation in Ed Miliband’s backyard. Dave Honeybone reports

Labourstart Global Solidarity Conference opens this Friday in Berlin
Trade unionists from across the globe to meet to share ideas and strategies and to build transnational links

Beating the blacklisters
A police raid exposing the scale of worker surveillance within the construction industry galvanised workers to take action. Ewa Jasiewicz speaks to those organising against the blacklisters.

Persuading the unpersuaded – Frances O’Grady interview
As Frances O’Grady prepares to give the first speech by a woman TUC general secretary to its annual Congress, Red Pepper spoke to her about the challenges facing the trade union movement today

Winning at Walmart
The OUR Walmart campaign has been shaking up labour organising in the US. As they prepared for their current strike, Alex Wood spent a month with the people behind a new kind of fightback

The Brighton pay dispute: the union view
GMB union organiser Rob Macey puts the workers' side of the argument

The pay dispute at Brighton council: a Green view
Davy Jones, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown, gives his view of a dispute that has caused huge debate among Green Party members in the city and across the country

Debate: Is the ‘co-op council’ really co-operating with cuts?
Local Labour councillor Edward Davie says Red Pepper’s recent article on Lambeth’s ‘co-operative council’ was disappointing. Below, council trade unionist Jon Rogers responds

Blue-collar casuals and the spread of precarity
Union organiser Ewa Jasiewicz looks at the increasing precarity of migrant and agency workers – and how they are fighting back

Community organising – a new part of the union
Richard Goulding looks at how Unite’s community union membership is working. Below, community activists and others respond

Review: Revolutionary Communist at Work
Revolutionary Communist at Work: A Political Biography of Bert Ramelson, by Roger Seifert and Tom Sibley, reviewed by Mary Davis

N30 and after: was that it? A debate on the public sector strikes
Gregor Gall analyses the 30 November strikes. With a response by Heather Wakefield

Mythbuster: The truth about the unions
As the Tories and their pals in the press ratchet up the anti-strike rhetoric, Red Pepper knocks down some of the myths they throw at the unions

The assault on public services – how can the unions fight back?
Canadian trade unionists Michael Hurley and Sam Gindin propose new strategies for a labour movement facing new challenges

Refounding the politics of labour
Ed Miliband's speech had little to say on the unions. Hilary Wainwright urges the Labour leader to embrace a newly political trade unionism

New life in the unions?
Red Pepper interviews union leaders Len McCluskey of Unite and Mark Serwotka of PCS

Developing trade unionism in the crisis
Unions must rise to the challenge of the cuts by empowering local branches and developing wider civil society resistance says Huw Beynon

Coalitions of the winning
Amanda Tattersall explores how community organisations and unions can work together

What it would take to beat austerity
Strikes and other action must be controlled by workers themselves argues Tom Denning

Jayaben Desai: Waking the generals
Amrit Wilson shares memories of Grunwick strike leader Jayaben Desai