JJ workers: the fight goes on

The sacked JJ workers have returned to work, but their fight is not over. Liz Knight reports.

The JJ strikers first returned to work on 26th February, to be told by the boss that, in spite of the Industrial Tribunal ruling in their favour, there was to be no union recognition, and he could make them work from 5am till midnight if he wished. The workers walked out again.

The TGWU District Official referred the issue back to the Tribunal, which recommended involving ACAS. JJ boss Mustafa Kamil was told to reinstate the workers or face further proceedings. The workers were instructed to sign work contracts based on their conditions at the time of the sackings last October. In fact Kamil's solicitor had drafted contracts incorporating the worst practices previously operated at the firm, e.g. no overtime pay and pay differentials particularly penalising some of the workers most active in the dispute.

The TGWU could have challenged Kamil's interpretation, but went along with ACAS in telling the workers to sign.

The workers then met and drew up their own demands, starting with formal recognition of the union, and including holiday pay, overtime pay, and minimum Health and Safety regulations. The TGWU District Official told the workers to accept Kamil's contract full stop. The paragraphs acknowledging a certain degree of union recognition and grievance and disciplinary procedures came within the ACAS code of practice. Sick pay is a legal requirement. All these provisions were in the contract because the Tribunal had so ruled. Nothing not ruled by the Tribunal could be added. The subsequent ACAS decisions had only elaborated on union recognition: Kamil had to accept the union's right to represent the workers and negotiate on their behalf, allowing the workers to elect shop stewards. The question of formal union recognition has been left to "future discussion".

The workers are being forced to return to work under conditions which, apart from union recognition gains, are in some ways worse than before. It was those intolerable and degrading conditions and low pay which provoked their struggle.

They joined the union to resist such things. They were sacked and then beaten up on the picket line by the boss's thugs. Together with the Support Group, they reduced Kamil's business by 30% and sank his reputation across London. They were fighting to win.

For the TGWU bureaucracy, the whole dispute is a different story. They wanted more members but weren't concerned about why the workers had joined. Their single concern was the reinstatement of the workers on the basis of union recognition. They did not make the dispute official. Legally there are no grounds for a dispute between employer and workers if the workers are not already in the union, and if the union is not already recognised by the employer. This means that strikes for union recognition are always illegal. That was why for the TGWU officials the JJ workers' fight was never a strike or even a dispute, just a "protest". They religiously followed the letter and spirit of anti-union laws. They took little or no part in the fightback organised by the workers and the Support Group; and now they are part of the machinery which has snatched a partial defeat from the jaws of victory.

With a fighting union, the workers could have won decisively. Objectively, they had already won: Kamil was desperate to settle. The workers could have refused any settlement except reinstatement on their own terms. But the court ruling, which seemed like a victory, has actually been used with the agreement of the TGWU (and the stamp of ACAS) to rob the workers of their only weapons - their solidarity and ability to damage Kamil's business materially.

But all is not lost. The workers have retained their fighting spirit. Although not all are accepting reinstatement, their decisions have been made collectively. All remain committed to mutual solidarity and to the continuing fight at JJ's and elsewhere for union recognition and humane working conditions. They have full back pay, and the right to union organisation at the work-place where the boss vowed it could never happen.

For nearly five months, the JJ workers, Turkish, Greek and Russian, have fought a titanic struggle against all the odds. They are still acting in solidarity with other workers - in particular with north and east London textile workers and the Liverpool dockers. Like the Hillingdon women cleaners, the JJ workers have lifted the lid on the super-exploitation of thousands of workers in Britain today. They have inspired workers at Jenny's Textiles in Tottenham where one hundred workers went on strike for union recognition - and won within 24 hours.

Along with the textile workers and in particular the local branch of the TGWU, the JJ workers and the Support Group remain at the forefront of the unionisation campaign in north and east London. Help is needed to these flames of solidarity into bush fires!

For information from the JJ workers' Support Group and from the North/East London Textile Branch TGWU, contact: Unwaged Centre, 72 West Green Road, Tottenham N15 5NS (0181 802 9804). The Support Group meets every Wednesday, 7.30 pm at the Unwaged Centre - all welcome.

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