With the election of a hard-right Tory government promising new restrictions on the right to strike, it is more urgent than ever that the entire labour movement unites to resist anti-union laws.
Free Our Unions was initiated by The Clarion magazine and Lambeth Unison. It is now backed by dozens of unions branches, committees, and local Labour Parties. Four national trade unions – IWGB, FBU, RMT, and PCS – have supported the campaign via their Annual General Meetings and/or National Executive Committees. It was initially established to promote and amplify policies passed at Labour Party conferences calling for the abolition of all anti-union laws, not only the most recent, and to demand Labour fight for this policy in opposition and commit to enacting it in government. (For more background to the campaign, click here.)
Free Our Unions now plans renewed campaigning against the Tories’ proposed new laws, and is calling for united and coordinated activity between existing campaign groups currently active on these issues.
Solidarity with education workers in Ontario
Education workers in Ontario, Canada, are facing down repressive anti-union laws imposed by the province’s right-wing government.
Help us raise funds to organise against Tory anti-strike laws
Free Our Unions is organising action to stop new anti-union laws – and for a coordinated national campaign against this threat and against existing anti-union laws, led by our unions.
Labour and climate activists protest against anti-union laws
Around 80 activists from a range of campaign groups and unions protested outside the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 10 October, as part of an action called by Free Our Unions and Earth Strike UK’s Empower the Unions initiative.
Free Our Unions fringe at TUC congress – Tuesday 18 October, 6pm
We’re holding a fringe meeting at the rescheduled TUC congress in Brighton. The meeting will take place at 6pm in the Friends Meeting House (Ship Street, BN1 1AF).
Protest on 10 October: Stop Truss’s new anti-union laws!
5:30, Monday 10 October
Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET.
Free Our Unions fringe meeting at Labour Party conference: 26 September, 7:30pm
Free Our Unions is hosting a fringe meeting at the upcoming Labour Party conference. The meeting will take place from 7:30-9pm at The Liverpool pub, 14 James St, Liverpool L2 7PQ.
The call must go out: organise against new anti-strike threats
The following article, written by Free Our Unions co-organiser Daniel Randall, was published in Scottish Left Review, and can be read online here.
POSTPONED: Free Our Unions fringe meeting at TUC Congress: Tuesday 13 September, 6pm
Following the postponement of TUC congress, we have postponed our planned fringe meeting.
Next organising meeting: 7pm, 7 September
Free Our Unions will meet regularly throughout August and September to discuss and plan activity to resist threats of new anti-union laws, and build campaigning against existing ones.
New briefing on threatened new anti-strike laws
We’ve produced a briefing for trade union activists on Liz Truss’s plans for new anti-strike laws. Please download, print, and circulate in your workplace. The briefing is also available in booklet form here.
Grant Shapps’ 16-point plan to restrict strikes
Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced a 16-point plan to further restrict strikes.
New video: a two-minute guide to Liz Truss’s anti-strike plans
We’ve produced this short video to give you a two-minute guide to prospective prime minister Liz Truss’s plans for new anti-strike laws.
MODEL MOTION: Organise against Truss’s anti-strike threats
We encourage supporters to pass this model motion in their union branches.
Starmer vs. workers’ struggle
By a Free Our Unions supporter With good reason, hundreds of thousands of labour movement activists feel contempt for Keir Starmer and little inclination to treat his pronouncements seriously. Nonetheless, it is an unfortunate fact that Starmer leads the only substantial political party based on the UK’s labour movement. When he uses pro-worker rhetoric –Continue reading “Starmer vs. workers’ struggle”
Free Our Unions 