Trade unions

The law judges this on a case-by-case basis.

We'd like you to strike
when it doesn't disrupt us
when it won't interrupt us
going about our daily life

We'd like you to strike
when it won't cause strife
when no-one will notice
Please don't misquote us

Of course we support you
we don't want to thwart you
just asking for some consideration
Don't get ideas above your station

These are the opening speeches from this event, held on Zoom on Tuesday 22 March 2022.

Sarah Woolley (General Secretary, Bakers’, Food and Allied Workers’ Union): Welcome to the joint RMT and Free Our Unions TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference fringe meeting.

Walk down locked and empty streets alone,
arrive for start of shift, it's bear-the-brunt time
to serve some others' families not your own
Going from the home front to the frontline

Frozen pay, now tiny, ice-cold 'offers', 
red-bordered bills alert approaching deadline
The firing line ignites key workers' coffers
Going from the frontline to the breadline

We've put our products' prices up,
that's what we chose to do
The power firms are doing it,
so we can do it too

We're going to charge a fair chunk more
to everyone who buys
If they won't pay our higher rates,
we'll cut off our supplies

We need the extra income for
the bigger bills we get
And that's how we will justify
the tariffs that we set

Heat less, eat less, fry less, buy less, waste less, taste less, nosh less, wash less, bath less, laugh less, phone less, own less, chance less, dance less, rave less, save less, drink less, think less, smoke less, be broke less, shout less, go out less, keep less, sleep less, groom less, consume less, pay less, holiday less, need less, breed less, give less, live less …

after Gershwin's song from Porgy and Bess

---

Summertime 

and the cost of livin' ain't easy

Bills are jumpin'

and prices are high

Oh, the bosses are rich

and the workers are strugglin'

But hush, little baby

don't you cry

One of these mornin's,

you're going to wake up strikin'

'The Eleventh Commandment' at a flash rally in support of RMT rail strikes, Brighton, 25 June 2022.