The Class War In Construction

Building workers used to be some of the most militant workers in Ireland. In the 1960s building workers won us the right to the weekend. Bosses would have you work all day every day if they could. Workers went on strike and won the right to time off.

30 years of exploitation and abuse has led to massive anger in the industry. Workers are overworked and pissed off. But anger needs a constructive outlet or workers just end up drowning frustrations in a pint glass at the weekends and moaning about the bosses.

Gus MacDonald is a roofer. He says one of the biggest issues on sites are recruitment and retention of skills. The average age in construction in Ireland is 42 - it’s an ageing workforce. In fact, roughly 40% of all workers in the industry are 45 to 64.

Many workers don’t even make it to retirement. Bodies give in under the wear and tear of the job. Workers end up worn out and used up by the bosses. Falls are the leading cause of injury and death for construction workers. Workers are most likely to fall from scaffolding, ladders, and roofs.

Bosses put pressure on workers to work faster and this can lead to shortcuts being taken and workers being put in danger. The second-most common cause of death in construction is when something strikes a worker, such as a vehicle, machine, or falling object.

“Caught-by” accidents can happen anywhere - the injured victim getting caught, crushed, squeezed, pinched, or compressed between two or more objects. This is more likely when workers are tired and attention lapses for a split second.

Contact with live wires is the most common reason for electrocution-related deaths in the construction industry. Live wires can occur in circuit breakers, control panels, light fixtures, transformers, and underground cabling.

There were 9 fatalities on sites in 2021 and for most of that year we were in lockdown. The highest rate of worker deaths is in construction. But it’s the general wear and tear of the job that sees workers dying before retirement.

Only 1 in 5 building workers over 55 will make it to retirement. That’s a shocking statistic that should set alarm bells ringing, but no one outside the workers and their families pays attention. The bosses and the political establishment don’t give a damn. You think you’d get well rewarded for giving over your body?

The 2.8% wage rise offered by the Sectoral Employment Order in late 2021 was pathetic. Inflation was 5.5% by the start of 2022. Wages went up 23% in the 8 years from 2012 to 2020 while house prices increased 77% in the same period.

The 2.8% SEO was an insult. Workers took industrial action in the past when the SEO was threatened with a decrease. But the unions are too cosy with the construction cartels now. Craft workers were on €20.52 an hour at the end of 2021, CAT A workers on €19.92, CAT B on €18.47 and new entrants on just €14.53.

Building workers are key to solving the housing crisis. The Irish state employs 41,000 nurses and 64,000 teachers so why not have a state construction firm? There are around 120,000 construction workers - 50% of what’s needed to keep up with housing and other construction demands.

But that need for workers means that workers should exploit that demand to get much better wages and conditions. While workers sit and wait, the Construction Industry Federation are always scheming.

From the nearly 1,900 lobbyists registered in Ireland, many lobby on behalf of the construction industry and property developers, keen to see the Irish property market expand. They bring politicians to expensive dinners and get the policies that suit them.

Workers’ bodies fall apart from years of labour and the politicians are being wined and dined by the bosses to make sure that situation doesn’t change. We should be trying to upset that cosy consensus.

Meanwhile the Trade Union Federation courts a friendly relationship with the bosses, undermining the ability of a grassroots fight, causing demoralisation. There’s a real cynicism about unions on the sites because so many workers have negative experiences with the unions and many, many workers have zero experience of trade unionism at all.

Trade union membership on the sites has collapsed and 100,000 workers in general ditched trade union membership from 1995 to 2005, with decline continuing since then. We’re facing a situation where nearly 90% of workers won’t be organised. That’s a field day for the bosses.

Bogus self-employment is a massive issue with workers employed by sub-contractors or forced to register themselves as sub-contractors. Some workers have been told to leave sites unless they were willing to declare themselves self-employed.

It was resistance to this false categorisation of workers that got Rhattigan workers blacklisted by the bosses. Bogus self-employment comes with loss of entitlements and is connected to the precarious employment rampant on sites.

All couriers in Ireland are deemed to be self-employed, while roughly 23% of construction workers are. Bogus self-employment — which sees workers denied social insurance contributions and sick pay by their actual employers — is costing the State a minimum f €1 billion per year in lost tax revenue.

There’d be no pension crisis for workers if the government would collect that cash from employers. But the industry lobbyists are doing their job, aren’t they? Bogus self-employment is used by greedy employers who want to drive down wages, shift risk on to workers, degrade regulation of the industry. They undermine workers’ rights and undermine unions.

As the Connect union reported:

“But a worker, with only the normal tools of the trade, who doesn’t hire or manage other workers, and who works where, when and how their boss tells them, should always be counted as an employee. But, workers like this can be engaged as a sub-contractor.”

Then they can be treated as self-employed for purposes of workers’ rights, tax and PSRI. Worse, they can be treated as labour-only sub-contractors, or as sole traders – in effect as companies in their own right.”

“Workers like these can be taken on or laid off with no notice. They can be laid off for bad weather or materials shortages. They are not covered by the National Minimum Wage (important for the low skilled), or by National Collective Employment Agreements. They have no rights to holidays or holiday pay, occupational pension schemes or other normal benefits of employment.”

This is Ireland in the 21st century. Many workers wouldn’t even imagine that other workers could be treated this way. The low levels of unionisation in the industry allow the bosses to walk all over workers. But even where unions do cover workers they just don’t fight back.

A 2006 High Court case saw five ESB meter readers ruled to be direct employees but the government refused to act on that ruling and eliminate bogus self-employment on sites. Where’s the pressure on them to act?

The unions haven’t even organised a protest on the issue within the rules of the Industrial Relations Act, never mind breaking the Act to defend workers. The government and bosses get away with what we let them get away with.

Workers working in Ireland but employed in another state, crews who come down from the North, or over from Romania for example, can be paid according to rates in their home country, undermining national wage rates. This is EU law and it’s a bosses’ law that drives down our wages.

A Latvian construction company, Laval un Partneri, was awarded a public tender in Sweden to renovate a school near Stockholm. The Riga-based company posted workers from Latvia to work on the building site in Sweden.

Laval brought proceedings in the Swedish courts for a declaration that Swedish trade union action was unlawful because they’d signed an agreement with Latvian unions. The EU court held that failure to take account of the collective agreement reached between the boss and the Latvian trade union amounted to discrimination against both organisations.

Unions were interfering with the “freedom” of the market “community”. The European Trade Union Confederation said it was “very disappointed by the European Court of Justice ruling”. The court said that the right to strike is a “fundamental right”, but not as fundamental as the right of businesses to supply cross-border services!

So there are fundamental rights and fundamental rights - two tiers of rights depending on if you’re a boss or a worker.

Years ago, workers at Irish Ferries launched occupations, strikes and protests to stop similar wage division - but those workers were unionised and could force their union to act. The union leaders could not stand against the tide of anger.

“Self-employment” peaked at about 38% of all construction employment around 2010, but the use of the self-employed with no paid employees as a proportion of all self-employed grew rapidly in the slump – to about 75%.

The shift to bogus self-employment isn’t just about driving wages down - it destroys solidarity. When you move workers around all the time, but also make them bid against each other for contracts as if they are competing individual “companies”, solidarity goes.

Precarious work takes many different forms and is characterised by in-work poverty as well as the insecurity related to the nature of many types of employment contracts (part-time work, temporary contracts, agency contracts, bogus self-employment etc.). Often, loads of different types of precariousness apply to an individual worker.

It destroys the basis of class solidarity by trying to turn workers into rivals. And the bosses laugh all the way to the bank. Turnover at Sisk grew by 19% to just under €1.4 billion in 2019 alone, while profit before interest and tax increased 9.9% to €31.1 million.

Shareholders’ funds increased to €85.4 million - all on the backs of your labour. For the year ending 31st December 2020 they had a turnover of just under €1.5 billion and profit before tax of €23.3 million.

While the unions call for opposition to bogus self-employment, they don’t take real action and some of the suggestions like “registering yourself as an actual contractor” are not going to create the kind of direct employment, working class solidarity and fightback we need to win.

The Connect union document on bogus self-employment is full of pessimism about neoliberalism and talks about “the weakness of socialist parties” and unions in the face of neoliberalism.

But they don’t mean real socialist parties the way Connolly meant socialist - they mean parties like the pathetic Irish Labour Party. They’ve no faith in workers and see the decline of Labour style parties as reason to get depressed.

They also want to negotiate a retreat and accept the neoliberal assault on workers. Even when they want to fight their pessimism means they don’t know how to do it anymore. This leaves the bosses free to use divide and conquer tactics against workers.

A 2015 report by the Migrant Rights Centre showed 44% of migrant workers received less than the minimum wage, almost half had no contract and two thirds were required to work extra hours without pay.

Racist wage policies by the bosses are an attack on all workers because they use the lower paid workers to drive down the wages all. The bosses also use bogus self-employment to impose zero or low hours on workers.

New legislation on zero-hour contracts and precarious work came into force on 4th of March 2019. The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 placed an information requirement on the boss to furnish employees with a written statement of five core terms of employment within five actual days (not business days) from the start of employment with them.

But who will enforce this right if the boss won’t play ball? The state has very few workplace inspectors and who’s going to help lads take a case against a boss if they don’t give you your terms in writing? The law doesn’t consider how weighted towards the boss any site is.

It’s not that easy to raise a problem and complain unless you know you’ve a load of other workers at your back and you know the letter of the law and can hold the boss to it. Most workers aren’t informed of their rights and accept the word of the boss.

The legislation bans “zero hour” contracts – contracts must be for a “certain number of hours” greater than zero. But the bastards added loopholes by adding “save in limited circumstances” which include “genuine casual work where there is no mutuality of obligation” and “emergency circumstances” or “short-term relief work to cover routine absences”.

So, the ban on zero-hour contracts wasn’t actually a full ban on and a “certain number of hours” could see you getting notice at the start of a week that you’re only working two or three days and you’ve no legal comeback.

How can you plan your life week to week, never mind pay rent or qualify for a mortgage? The boss could still use precarious work schedules to discipline workers or punish you for stepping out of line. They could use loads of excuses to cover themselves.

The worker is entitled to a minimum payment of 25% of their “contracted hours” or 15 hours, whichever is less, calculated at three times the national minimum hourly rate. The minimum payments requirement did not apply where workers are placed on temporary lay-off or short -time, in “exceptional” or in “emergency” circumstances.

Workers may be awarded compensation of a maximum of four weeks’ remuneration under the amended Terms of Employment (Information) Act and up to two years’ remuneration under the amended Organisation of Working Time Act.

Separately, bosses may be exposed to a fine of up to €5,000 or a term of imprisonment of up to 12 months for non-compliance with the new information requirements. But how many bosses have been thrown in the slammer for ripping workers off? Take a guess!

Construction workers have become part of the precarious ‘gig’ economy with a shift from direct employment particularly in the “wet trades” — bricklaying, floor and wall tiling, painting, plastering.

Precarious work and the lack of direct employment also impacts on the apprenticeship crisis. Contractors and sub-contractors aren’t taking on that many apprentices. As we already mentioned, construction is an ageing workforce.

We need 10,000 new apprenticeships a year but only 3,000 were registered in 2020. We need 115 plasterer apprentices but only 15 registered in 2021, and no floor and wall tiling apprentices have registered since 2012. Not one.

You’d think this would be a national scandal considering the amount of house building we need - but no, not in Ireland. Only 29% of companies participating in the CIF survey currently employ apprentices. The most commonly- employed apprentices are in carpentry and joinery followed by electrical and plumbing.

86% of Ireland’s building companies have an inadequate supply of qualified tradespeople yet bosses refuse to even consider forking out better pay and conditions to attract apprentices into the industry. The Construction Industry Federation complain:

“Closing this gap will need to be a collaborative effort with the State. Significant investment in the education, training and apprenticeship system is required if we are to expand the capacity of the industry to deliver infrastructure and resolve the housing crisis, whilst also equipping the next generation with construction skills”.

While the need for the state to step in and provide more training is undeniable -the bosses want subsidised labour so they can maintain high profit rates while the taxpayer picks up the tab for new workers. Their need for profit is the barrier.

Opposition TDs attacked the Government in 2021 for “hiding the full extent of the crisis in the apprenticeship system” after it was revealed that over 67% of all apprentices (13,440) were on a waiting list to access off-site training.

This leaves apprentices trapped on apprentice wages for much longer, forcing many to jump ship. In 2005, almost 600 people took up apprenticeships to become a bricklayer – in 2021 that figure was just 63.

The state of work on sites is a massive turn-off for young workers. This is despite the fact that apprentices themselves report that they are happy about their decision to enter their trade - most of them doing it under the recommendation of a family member. But getting them in the door is the problem.

The “Expert Group on Future Skills Needs” projected the number of new entrants needed each year in the construction industry to meet the country’s needs. The 2020 study found we needed at least 115 new entrant plasterers each year, yet in 2021 only 15 people registered for a plasterer apprenticeship.

After the 2008 crash many bosses turned away from direct employment, contributing to the apprenticeship crisis. This was all about pushing profits back up. The bosses are quick enough to criticise workers when we end up on welfare, but they always have their hands out for state cash.

Even the sub-contractors these companies employ have moved away from direct employment and are engaged in sub-contracting too. A survey found that there were 5 times more people in the wet trades sub-contracted than directly employed.

The move to precarious work, poor contracts and bogus self-employment is all part and parcel of the neoliberal attack on workers. The government is reluctant to do anything that would hit the bosses in their pockets. And the landlords in the Dáil aren’t too concerned about our lack of homes.

We’ve a crazy situation where you can spend your days building houses but not be able to afford one. Many building workers have to travel to work miles from where they live. This adds hours and hours to every working day - days which are tough enough as is.

Wages grew by just 9% in the 8 years leading up to 2021 but house prices increased by a massive 68% in the exact same timeframe.

As well as sub-contracting agency work is another way to discipline and control workers. An agency worker (or temporary agency worker) is a person who has an agreement with an agency to work for another person.

You’re sent to a site without being regarded as directly employed. For the purposes of most employment law, those who pay your wages are considered to be your actual employer. As builder Gus McDonald says:

(The agencies) “make up the lion’s share of direct employment and it creates and sustains precarious employment. Workers are never in a job long enough to get the benefits and any who raise any issue are just let go!”

Agency work is basically “labour leasing” - the agency is renting you out. Agency work on a large scale is a relatively new phenomenon. It arises because capitalism wants cheap labour. Employers believe that agency working contributes to “flexibility” in the labour market.

By “flexibility” they mean workers have to bend over backwards for the bosses while they devalue our labour. The agencies are incentivised to compete to offer the cheapest and most compliant workers for hire.

Who’s actually your boss? The agency or the job that leases the worker? Well, the law says it’s whoever pays you. But it’s not always that simple. Case law and Labour Court rulings in Ireland show that the question can be complicated.

This was illustrated in a case in the Labour Court in January 2004 concerning a registered general nurse who was recruited via an employment agency to work part-time with Diageo Global Supply in Dublin.

The nurse provided cover for other nurses during sick leave, absences and holidays, and was called into work as she was required. Her union claimed that Diageo was in breach of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act, 2001 by treating her in an unfair manner when she was selected for a reduction to her hours of work and a change in her pattern of attendance, because of her part-time status.

Diageo maintained that the claimant was not an employee of the company, but of the agency, because the agency paid the nurse’s wages and the definition of ‘employer’ in Section 3 of the Act includes reference to the employer being the person ‘liable to pay the wages’.

They said that the only contract that existed was that between the company and the agency. The claim of unfair treatment, they claimed, should rest with the agency. The nurse argued that she had never entered into any contractual arrangements with the agency and that it had merely acted as the “paying agent” for Diageo.

She further contended that she worked under the direction and control of Diageo and was, therefore, its employee. The company tried to wash its hands of the case but in the end the Court concluded its investigation by agreeing with the nurse.

But often the courts are weighted towards decisions that favour bosses and protections for workers shoudn’t be left up to the individual interpretation of some posh judge. They’re having a bad day, so you lose your case? That’s not workers’ rights.

It’s problematic that the Trade Union Federation (TUF) are so cosy with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and don’t really challenge all this. When Covid hit they did a joint press conference. Why the hell were the union reps doing a press conference with the bosses when members were about to be hit hard by lockdown and closures?

They did it over and over. On the 9th of March 2021 Jean Winters of the CIF, David Lee Collen Construction, Brendan O’Sullivan of BATU, Brian McAvinue of Connect and John Regan from SIPTU all posed in hard hats for a group photo for the press.

Jean Winters, CIF Director of Industrial Relations said: “The Protocol demonstrates the commitment of both sides to continue our collaboration to protect construction workers and their families…” Collaboration is right, but not in the way she used it!

Too many shared meals with our exploiters just means our union bosses get fat while we’re supposed to be happy with the occasional scrap here and there. The price of this collaboration is far too high. Just look at any site and you’ll see why.

Tom Parlon led the construction bosses’ union, the CIF, for 16 years. He was due to step down in 2023. Parlon, a former Progressive Democrats TD and Minister, and once head of the Irish Farmers’ Association, is a sly ruling class operator.

Before becoming a TD Parlon couldn’t make up his mind whether to stand for Fine Gael or the Progressive Democrats - he wasn’t sure which brand of anti-worker politics was his cuppa. After his stint in politics he headed up the CIF on an annual salary of €250,000.

He’s rabidly anti-union - in July 2009, in an interview with Pat Kenny, he called striking electricians “lunatics!” But he ended up with egg on his face. By 12th July 2009, Parlon and the Electrical Contractors Association had agreed to pay the striking electricians a pay increase of 4.9%, rather than a pay cut of 10% which he had publicly demanded.

Fighting pays. It’s the only way to put manners on the bosses and recover unionisation rates. Parlon was the perfect ruling class rogue to represent the building bosses because of his former role in politics. They like to keep the political establishment in their pocket and he had all the right connections.

These people aren’t our “partners” and lobbying by the big builders and developers is one of the key reasons we workers are caught in a housing crisis. As builder Gus McDonald explains:

“Unite and Opatsi are moving in the right direction. The TUF aren’t.” The bigger unions sign up to deals with the bosses “in return for union cooperation they get a guarantee full union membership on a single site.”

But the cost is too high. The peace clauses of such deals keep workers penned in like sheep and restrain any fight - the kind of fight that could actually deliver growing unions and a boss class on the retreat.

It’s no wonder there are so many rogue employers in the industry. It’s simple. Rogue bosses only exist as long as the union movement allows them to exist and refuses to slap them down.

Construction in Ireland is full of names you’d recognise from the bust - the builders, developers and bosses in the industry have always had a direct connection to the Irish state.

From Priory Hall, the Leinster pyrite defects, the pyrite and mica defective block scandal, fire safety and other structural defects in apartments and duplexes and dodgy home extensions, homeowners have been left questioning how these homes were allowed to be built in the first place.

First place to look is at the brown envelope brigade in the Dáil who get wined and dined by the likes of Tom Parlon and his mates. An investigation was launched in 2004 into how families of deceased construction workers were being denied almost €65,000 in benefits because employers were not paying pension contributions.

Of the 30 workers who lost their lives on construction sites between January 2002 and July 2003, only 8 were covered by the pension scheme, leaving their families in the lurch. This issue alone should have been reason for national protests and strikes.

The leadership of the TUF unions are very much in the pockets of employers as they are over-reliant on fees gathered on agreed sites. They have effectively allowed themselves to be captured and without these guaranteed fees they would be under serious financial strain.

There is also a fear of the law among officials that does not exist among the employers. This leads to half-hearted protests and is feeding the negative perception of unions held by workers. Ask anyone what they think of the unions and 99% of the time you’ll hear swearing.

At present workers don’t distinguish between the differing approaches of each union, this, coupled with a lack of active membership, has allowed sites to reach the point we now find ourselves in. Workers need grassroots members to take back control of their unions. But that’s a long process when people often want easy answers to the problems workers face on site.

The TUF has thousands of members that in many cases don’t even know which union they are in. We need to educate them as to the power they hold. Help promote members within each union engaged in pushing back against the leadership with the aim of removing them.

BATU was a good example - where members battled to elect more militant representatives onto the committee while the old guard battled to block the democratic votes of members by claiming the AGM had already happened online, when in fact it hadn’t.

Some in the BATU leadership were waiting to amalgamate with SIPTU and get a cushy job over in Liberty Hall - when they should have got back to campaigning trade unionism that listens to members’ concerns.

There’s a civil war in many unions between those who want a cosy relationship with the bosses and those who want a return to class struggle trade unionism. In the bigger unions the fight is very difficult because of the weight of the bureaucracy and the lack of democracy.

We need to break the relationship between TUF and CIF. This can be done by driving a wedge between them. If the TUF can’t be relied upon to uphold their end of agreements with bosses then their position will become untenable – meaning the employers will sever the links and go it alone.

That means starting to protest and fight in a way that forces the union leaders to act. As Gus Mc Donald says: “We need to identify and act upon issues capable of driving up union membership and that will only be possible if workers/members drive campaigns capable of forcing the union’s hand.”

Looking at the state of play it might be easy to be pessimistic about how we can get class struggle trade unionism going in construction. But remember it was building workers that kicked off in the 1960s and won us the right to a weekend.

There has to be a multi-pronged approach because we can’t just ask workers to join unions when cynicism about the unions is often justified. We have to get across to other workers that there’s a fight to win our unions back to a grassroots strategy focused on fighting the bosses - not climbing into the boss’s pocket.

The massive demand for labour at the moment gives workers a bargaining advantage. They want our labour right now. This should be the time to fight for more.

Over in Britain right now there’s a recovery in organising on sites because of the changed approach of Unite - who are now under the direction of a more left wing leadership under Sharon Graham.

It submitted a claim for a 10% wage rise across the board to the Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC), which sets the pay level for around 500,000 construction workers. It argued that the increase was necessary to meet higher living costs and attract more workers.

Compare that to the ridiculous below-inflation offer workers here got. Unite national officer for construction Jerry Swain said:

“For this industry to succeed and attract new entrants then their pay rates must reflect workers’ skills and living costs. Unless radical changes are made to the CIJC agreement, it will become increasingly irrelevant in the industry. The first step is to agree meaningful pay rates.”

In August 2021 Unite hit union busting construction bosses who were denying union activists access to workers on sites. The union accused the “joint-venture” company Skanska-Costain-Strabag (SCS) of flouting an agreement and not allowing Unite meaningful access to a site in Euston, central London.

SCS staff at other HS2 sites have been denied overtime rates, paid holidays and insurance cover for death and serious injuries, Unite charged, adding: “We don’t need to ask what they have to hide because we know.”

The demonstration was the start of a long-term campaign to stop the union-busting activities of companies such as Skanska and Costain, which are renowned for blacklisting union members. They were going to hit the company until they let them in.

“I have been elected to do what it says on the trade union tin – fight for jobs, pay and conditions. Now is the time to build strong, effective trade unionism at every workplace” said new Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.

Her shop stewards won 43 pay deals worth £25m for 12,000 workers, with many gaining inflation-busting wage hikes. In 75% of the cases, the disputes were won when Unite members either voted for strike action or strikes forced employers to offer improved pay deals.

Most were won by strikes and in those cases that weren’t the bosses could see what had happened to other bosses who were hit by strikes. Organising workers to use their real power wins.

You can’t just rely on left wing leaders in our unions to do the work for us - we need grassroots control over the unions. But Unite’s in Britain shows what can be done if a union adopts a class struggle attitude.

The Limerick Building Workers’ Group of Unions called for an all-out national strike in 1999 after negotiations with the local branch of the Construction Industry Federation to end an unofficial dispute broke down.

600 workers in the building trades held a march through the city in protest against “being forced to work for sub-contractors” on major sites.

One of the largest construction sites in the country emptied in January 2000 after unofficial strike action by over 700 construction workers. They walked off the Xerox Technology Park in Dundalk. The workers were members of the TEEU union - the action was unofficial but forced talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The workers were protesting over not getting a bonus payment due. They organised the whole 700 to just walk off the job - breaking the 1990 Industrial Relations Act - forcing their union and the boss to sit down and talk about the payment of the bonus.

200 building workers blocked Merrion Square East as they chanted slogans outside Government Buildings in February 2004 protesting against the lack of pension schemes for workers. In February 2006 40 construction workers, picketing a work site at UCD, were involved in a clash with cops.

From Rhattigan workers to the electricians in 2009 workers in construction have fought again and again, despite sabotage from their own union leaders. If we could harness that power and focus it to force the unions to fight, then no boss could stand in the way.

The key is the formation of rank-and-file groups in all the unions covering the industry. This needs to be married with the willingness to fight. Workers are nervous about fighting and someone needs to give a lead. Those organic leaders need to be linked up.

If workers act as one, then it’s harder for the boss to victimise anyone. They need our labour, especially now with a demand for workers, a huge shortage of apprentices and rampant inflation. Now is the time to fight.

It starts by organising your workplace and linking up with grassroots militants and socialists across the country who want to get the unions fighting. It’s going to be hard work. But we don’t have any other choice.