Trade unions / The Spark: Unions shilling for Labour on Ukraine, gender and more

The first issue of our industrial news sheet examines recent cases of trade union leaderships failing their members and the wider working class.

Disputes / Birmingham bin workers smelling rats

Neither the council nor the unions seem in any hurry to bring this dispute to a conclusion. Workers are left wondering why.

Palestine / Heroic people of Gaza continue to resist murderous infamy

British workers must resolutely oppose the imperialist Labour party, which is complicit in, and the active perpetrator of, the Palestinian genocide.

Trade unions / RMT union launches new campaign to end outsourcing on the railways

It is not their inability to think logically but their dedication to profit-generation that leads our rulers to destroy public services.

Pay and conditions / Enable care workers strike against poverty pay in Scotland

Low pay has become such an issue in the care sector that up to 30 percent of vacancies are unfilled.

Social wage / People’s Assembly puts on show of fake outrage over ‘Tory Starmer’

Ever hopeful of rescuing their reputations and keeping a lid on working-class discontent, the fake left are at it again.

Industry / Scunthorpe steel debacle

If strategic industries are to be saved, their only salvation is full nationalisation and administration according to plan not profit.

Capitalist crisis / Starmer’s failing militarism

As the drive to war ramps up, the contradictions of decaying imperialism are on full display.

Health / A nurse’s view of the continuing sabotage of the NHS

Our health service is well advanced on the road to total privatisation.

Trade unions / Communist work in the trade unions

Our role is not to take over the bureaucracies but to bring a class-conscious understanding and programme to rank-and-file militants.

British politics / Develop the anti-imperialist core of the Palestine solidarity movement

Growing anti-zionist sentiment must be developed into a consistent, scientific and class-conscious opposition to imperialism as a whole.

Disputes / Birmingham’s gone bust! But why are workers told to pay?

No one has explained why some of the most hardworking and essential employees should bear the brunt of a crisis they had no hand in making.

Disputes / Birmingham bin workers expected to pay for council’s bankruptcy

Some binmen are being told to take an £8k pay cut after national austerity and local mismanagement combined to bankrupt the city.

Pay and conditions / Starmer ditches the promised ‘right to switch off’

Confirming what might have been anticipated about how sincere the Labour party was in its pre-election pledges to bring in a ‘New Deal for Workers’.

Lay-offs and closures / The Grangemouth scandal

Failure to mobilise against job cuts at Grangemouth reveals the fraudulent nature of Unite and SNP leaders.

Trade unions / TUC leader endorsing Ukraine war is a betrayal of British and Ukrainian workers

Further proof that the gang in charge of the official organisations of working-class resistance have been completely bought off.

Palestine / Gaza ceasefire: Palestinian resistance celebrates significant victory

While the war for liberation is far from over, the Israeli entity has been mortally wounded.

Trade unions / Divided we beg – Unite union demands expanded military production

The Labour aristocracy once again demonstrates its total subservience to British imperialism and its war machine.

British politics / The life and crimes of John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott

One more example of a working-class man who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.

Korea / Massive strikes called as crisis deepens in occupied Korea

Underpinning the scandals around corruption and authoritarianism is the US imperialists drive to restart the Korean war.

Trade unions / Greek dockworkers block ammunition shipment to Israel

Greek and Indian dockers have given a lead. Transport workers around the world need to follow this example and refuse to cooperate with zionist war crimes.

Industry / Starmer government pushing fresh sell-off to hedge fund vultures

The Labour party grovels to Wall Street and the City of London.

Education / Education union colluding with Labour against the workers

The NEU has thrown in the towel of struggle, betraying not only its own rank-and-file membership but also the wider interests of the working class.

Capitalist crisis / Labour means austerity, racism, repression and war

So where are the trade unions?

Social wage / Media blames workers for the corruption and fraud endemic to capitalist society

It is not ‘benefit cheats’ who are emptying Britain’s treasury but the unending subsidies to monopoly capital.

British politics / No votes for genocide-enablers or Nato warmongers!

We are calling on workers to help the campaigns of, and give their votes to, all candidates standing on an anti-genocide, anti-Nato and anti-Labour platform.

Palestine / Nakba 76 – talk by Dr Ranjeet Brar

Join us to show your solidarity with the people of Palestine and remember their long history of struggle.

Education / Join the students: No cooperation with genocide in Gaza! Free Palestine!

Britain’s students are leading the way. The rest of the working class is duty bound to follow their lead.

Trade unions / Gaza, inflation, Assange … Where are the trade unions?

While crime after crime is committed against the people, those who should be organising the resistance are doing nothing.

Civil liberties / Assange extradition: where are the unions?

As an innocent man is tortured for the crime of exposing the criminals, British workers should be organising meaningful action in defence of all our rights.

Trade unions / Dockworkers in India take a collective stand against Gaza genocide

Indian trade unionists lead the way in boycotting Israeli arms shipments.

Civil liberties / Latest twist on Assange’s extradition: cause for pessimism or optimism?

While an individualist view tends to despondence, there is a positive aspect to British imperialism’s blatant complicity in persecuting free speech.

Trade unions / Model motion: No cooperation with genocide in Palestine!

Trade unions must mobilise the organised power of the working class to force an end to British complicity in the zionists’ atrocities.

Cuba / Cuban health workers vow to face down the genocidal US blockade

Solidarity must move on from the charitable aid mentality and work for the destruction of the imperialist system.

Trade unions / TUC launches fake ‘campaign to defend the right to strike’

A campaign most workers are unaware of, aimed not at overturning anti-worker legislation but at garnering votes for the perfidious Labour party.

Industry / Grangemouth refinery workers’ jobs at risk

Why is Scotland’s main oil refining plant planning to become a mere import hub?

Pay and conditions / Scottish Water workers vote to strike

Bosses are trying to force the ‘modernisation’ of pay structures – ie, to enforce ever more draconian pay cuts on workers.

World / Joti Brar: How can workers learn the truth if everyone is too scared to tell it?

We must respect the workers enough to believe they are capable of learning and we must create opportunities for them to do so.

Trade unions / Arms factory blockaded as calls for practical solidarity with Palestine grow

Non-cooperation with zionist Israel is firmly on the agenda. ‘The time to act is now.’

Trade unions / Mass non-cooperation urgently needed to help end Gaza blitzkrieg

Workers have power to prevent Britain’s continued military, propaganda and logistical support for zionist massacres.

Disputes / Support pay restitution for doctors; defend the NHS!

The British government is holding both patients and staff to ransom.

Health / Are striking doctors really ‘greedy’ and ‘uncaring’?

An answer to ‘The Times view on health sector strikes: Uncaring profession’

Trade unions / Joti Brar: a personal account of anti-war struggle against the trade union bureaucracy

Why is it so hard to get anything meaningful done via the existing trade union mechanisms?

Ukraine / With depleted uranium, nuclear war is underway in Europe

Nato war crimes in Donbass don’t stop at DU; Donbass civilians are routinely targeted by cluster bombs and petal mines.

Trade unions / Who is behind the TUC motion asking British workers to support war crimes?

It’s not too late to reverse the disastrous decision taken by many union delegations and the bureaucratic leadership clique to support this criminal resolution.

Trade unions / Which way forward for the trade unions now?

It is time to break out of suffocating ‘unity’ with those who serve our class enemies.

Trade unions / Why do so many trade union struggles in Britain fail?

Teaching union NEU led its members into months of strike action, only to capitulate and accept a below-inflation pay rise. Why?

Korea / South Korea: the ‘Land of Morning Calm’ is working itself to death

Capitalist dystopia in action: behind the ‘economic miracle’, the daily grind keeps getting harder.

Health / An NHS nurse speaks out on pay, privatisation and demoralisation

The conditions that have led to a haemorrhaging of trained staff from the health service have not come about by accident and will take a serious fight to reverse.

Capitalist crisis / EVENT: Trade unionism and working-class leadership

Don’t sit on your hands; don’t fiddle while Rome burns! Your class needs you; the future of humanity needs you! Step forward and help make history!

Ukraine / Stop the War’s capitulation hides truth about Ukraine, stops workers organising

It is time we in Britain got off our knees and organised a mass movement of real opposition to the imperialist war drive.

Trade unions / Mick Lynch, Sharon Graham and the capitulating left

As the next election approaches, supposedly ‘radical’ trade unionists are lining up obediently behind Starmer and Labour, against the interests of their members.

Pay and conditions / Homeless charity workers on strike for decent wages

St Mungo’s staff have suffered a 30 percent real-terms pay cut in the last ten years.

Trade unions / Derby Silk Mill commemorations 2023: no communists allowed

How did the CPB appoint itself the gatekeeper of the British working-class movement?

British politics / Communist message to Silk Mill rally: Ditch the Labour party!

Don’t settle for social democracy when only scientific socialism has the answer!

France / Joti Brar: We are heartened and inspired by French workers’ fighting spirit

Unfortunately, even the most militant of Britain’s trade union leaders seem keen to end the strikes here as quickly as possible.

Trade unions / Model motion: No cooperation with the imperialist drive to war

Only the collective action of workers has the power to stop the war drive in its tracks. This demand must be taken up in every trade union at every level.

Trade unions / Model motion: Urgent measures needed to address the cost of living crisis

Why are workers being asked to pay the cost of a crisis that was not of their making? If capitalism cannot provide for its workforce, then capitalism must go.

Trade unions / Model motion: Defy the anti-trade union laws

Within the current legal framework, workers’ right to strike in Britain has been all but annulled. This situation must be reversed by means of collective action.

Trade unions / Model motion: Break the link with Labour

The essential precondition for a successful struggle for decent pay is that our unions must break their connection with the imperialist Labour party.

Trade unions / Defy the anti-trade union laws!

It is time we turned the struggle for decent wages into a struggle for socialism.

Trade unions / The real trade union barons

Having been absorbed into the fabric of the state machine, most trade union leaders now work not to aid but to suppress their members’ struggles.

France / The French working class fights on

Already there have been isolated instances of gendarmes refusing to obey orders. If the cotagion spreads, will the rest of Macron’s state machinery be more reliable?

British history / Twenty years later: the predatory imperialist war against Iraq

While the heroic resistance was defeating US and British imperialist forces, the British working class was effectively demobilised by its corrupted leadership.

Italy / British delegate in Italy: Our rulers are working to overturn Brexit

Workers across Europe share the goal of defeating both the EU imperialist bloc and the US-led Nato war machine.

Trade unions / NHS pay offer exposes the limitations of trade unionism

The NHS dispute has brought into sharp focus the inability of modern trade unions in Britain to advance working-class aims.

France / Strikes in France demonstrate the benefits and limits of trade union action

Why are French workers being forced to endlessly fight the same battles?

Trade unions / After the strikes, what then?

As union leaders look for the exit, their members’ anger is being directed towards yet another diversionary ‘vote Labour’ campaign.

France / French workers fight for their pension and retirement rights

Militant fighting spirit is on display in abundance in France. What is now needed is class-conscious leadership and vision.

Education / Support our teachers; save our schools!

It is not only their present ability to exist that Britain’s teachers are fighting for, but our children’s future.

Trade unions / TUC directs its members’ anger into more meaningless busywork

An email campaign to reverse anti-union laws? Really?

Capitalist crisis / Capitalists are causing inflation, not workers!

It’s time for the hoary old myth about wages causing inflation to be put to bed. Higher wages lead to lower profits, hence the bosses’ opposition.

Civil liberties / Minimum Service Bill is the latest salvo in the class war against workers

No cooperation with union-busting anti-strike laws! 

Colombia / Colombian president Gustavo Petro walking the tightrope of ‘total peace’

Will the new government be allowed to implement its social programmes to address the damage from decades of US-backed terrorism and war?

Divide and rule / Tribute to Comrade Avtar Jouhl

An indefatigable fighter against racism and imperialism, and for socialism, which he knew held the only solution to humanity’s problems.

Disputes / Support our nurses’ struggle for decent pay!

It is not our hard-pressed medical staff who are greedy, but the privateers who are pushing down their wages in the interests of profit.

Trade unions / Are Britain’s union bosses interested in helping their members fight back?

As the crisis deepens, the ruling class is looking far more determined than the unions, where lions continue to be led by loyal Labour donkeys.

Trade unions / Shameful capitulation of workers’ leadership in face of ‘mourning’ demands

With hunger, blackouts and war knocking urgently at workers’ doors, our demand should be: ‘Don’t mourn, organise.’

Capitalist crisis / Cost of living crisis: the fightback is under way

Growing militance among unionised workers and vigorous new campaigns to combat the effects of poverty and inflation signify a change in the workers’ mood.

Health / Dr Bob Gill: The demise of British primary healthcare

First they came for the cleaners, then they came for the caterers, then for the porters, the student nurses and the junior doctors. Now they’re coming for the GPs.

Disputes / Victory to the striking railworkers; defend the right to strike!

In fighting to save jobs and defend pay, railworkers are in the front line of a desperately-needed push-back against the onslaught of capital.

Pay and conditions / Sainsbury’s CEO in the money as workers feel the pinch

As conditions for the mass of workers get rapidly worse, the obscene inequalities of the system come into ever-sharper relief.

Disputes / Train strike: Britain could see the largest walk-out since the 1926 general strike

Meanwhile, the government is considering adding to anti-trade-union legislation to try to outlaw the action before it begins.

Canada / Solidarity with the Freedom Convoy of Canada

The arteries of the Canadian capital are clogged to the point where Canada’s whole rotten capitalist system is having a heart attack.

India / The Indian farmers’ magnificent victory

What lessons can workers everywhere learn from this historic struggle, and how is a decent future to be secured for India’s small farmers?

Health / Derisory pay offer covers further cuts as NHS privatisation reaches new heights

National clapping and a George Cross have left nurses empty handed as the new health chief helps US profiteers move in.

Disputes / Shrewsbury 24: Justice delayed is justice denied

Workers must start to organise themselves so as to be able to demand justice now – social justice for all.

Pay and conditions / Bringing Kaplan to book: time to get organised in the gig economy

A reminder that the whole reason for having trade unions is to fight the workers’ corner everywhere.

India / The largest strike the world has ever seen is taking place now in India

But you wouldn’t know it from Britain’s corporate media and Labour-affiliated trade union leaderships.

Industry / Government announces extra £16.5bn for military

Government promises spending will protect 10,000 jobs, but at what cost to the working class?

Economy / Bosses press on with sackings as crisis deepens

As the furlough support scheme comes to an end, the true depth of the economic crisis is becoming ever clearer.

Disputes / Drivers resist Goldstar intimidation

Union-busting haulier cowboys forcing extremely dangerous conditions onto workers.

Lay-offs and closures / P&O takes the money and runs

The shipping company is laying off a thousand workers on the very routes it is being paid public money to operate.

Lay-offs and closures / Imperial College sacking vital IT workers

University managers plan to axe more than half their IT staff, despite their heroic work in enabling vital pandemic research.

Pay and conditions / Conditions at Yodel: report by a worker

Workers in the logistics industry are being sweated at ever-more intense and unendurable rates.

Disputes / Covid couriers sacked for requesting PPE and social distancing

Workers responsible for transporting covid test samples from hospitals to labs are being victimised for requesting basic safety measures.

Pay and conditions / BA threatens to sack its entire workforce

After rinsing the furlough scheme, the airline is now insisting that its staff should accept huge pay cuts or be sacked.

Industry / ‘Back to work’ stampede – and may the devil take the hindmost

Reopening schools and workplaces without proper safety measures highlights the government’s true priorities.

Disputes / Wirral’s binmen to strike?

Outsourced waste collector Biffa is playing fast and loose with its workers’ pay.

Pay and conditions / Offshore oil workers under threat

Will trade unions now get off the back foot and start to mobilise their members into an active campaign of resistance?

Pay and conditions / Firefighters victory forces government retreat on public sector pensions

The FBU has won its case to get former pension rights restored, and the case has wide implications.

Industry / Car industry crisis pushes Peugeot-Fiat merger

Workers rightly fear for their jobs as another round of ‘cost-cutting’ looms.

France / French class war continuing as neither side looks ready to back down

Macron continues to push EU-backed pensions attack while unions have called for a general strike and total oil refinery blockade.

France / French strikes expand and deepen as more workers join the fray

A class war is underway in France and the workers show no sign of backing down. Victoire aux grévistes!

France / Support the French strikers!

France’s militant unions are joining forces with yellow vest activists in a serious challenge to Macron’s EU-backed assault on living standards.

France / France goes on strike: can Macron survive?

As militant trade unionists prepare to join yellow vests on the streets, the class struggle in France is moving into a new gear.

Disputes / Royal Mail: high court bans the strike

For how long will we accept the right of bosses’ courts to decide how workers’ organisations are run?

Working-class history / Avtar Jouhl: lifelong class fighter against racism

Comrade Avtar reflects on a life of struggle in the IWA and the trade unions from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Trade unions / Stifling criticism of Israel in the British trade-union movement

TUC votes in support of Palestine, but decision is ignored by the media, including those on the left.

Disputes / Royal Mail workers vote overwhelmingly to strike

Mail workers are ready to fight for their pay and conditions, but is their union prepared to back them?

Climate change / The TUC and climate change: don’t mention the wars

Unions tail-end middle-class eco protests and stoke illusions in ‘green’ capitalism.

Iran / Unions call on British government to send in the gunboats

What would Bob Crow have said to the ITF’s blindly acquiescing in the war games of our imperial masters?

Italy / Italian dockers obstruct Saudi’s criminal war on Yemen

Dockworkers in Genoa have given a vital lesson to workers everywhere in how to harness our collective strength.

Lay-offs and closures / Interserve: another outsourcing giant hits the wall

In the pursuit of monopoly profits, another building corporation turned ‘public service provider’ has gone bust – and the public will be picking up the tab.

Disputes / Brum bin strike concludes with a payout

A new deal was concluded in March to appease workers’ anger at secret payouts to GMB members during the 2017 strike.

Disputes / Deliveroo strikes spread

Increasing numbers of workers in the gig economy are fighting for basic rights at work.

Disputes / South Western railworkers win battle to keep the guard on the train

Safe and affordable public transport for all. Support our rail workers!

Disputes / Deliveroo strike in Bristol: gig economy workers fight back

Resistance to the poverty pay and union-busting tactics of so many zero-hour and gig economy employers is gathering momentum.

Disputes / Refuse, resist! Brum rubbish collectors ready to strike as council talks fail

Brummie binmen are days away from an all-out strike, clashing once again with a Labour council that has rewarded scabs and blacklisted strikers.

Pay and conditions / Support the workers against Condor and the ships of shame!

Defend Brexit and fight for better working conditions for all.

Disputes / Cammell Laird strike suspended for now

Workers’ resistance has led to a stay of execution at the Merseyside shipyard.

Lay-offs and closures / Cammell Laird shipyard strikes

Overproduction is hitting industry after industry, proving once more that capitalism cannot solve the problems of the masses.

Disputes / Birmingham: Two-faced council breaks promises to binmen and residents

Birmingham’s militant binmen deserve our full support as their dispute looks set to break out again this Christmas.

British politics / Venezuela solidarity falling short

British workers have the power to give real solidarity to Venezuela, which is in the front line of the struggle against the imperialist enemy.

Pay and conditions / University of Manchester support staff to strike against pension attacks

Cleaners, caterers, security and admin staff are fighting to defend their right to a dignified retirement.

Disputes / Support the Glasgow women’s strike for equal pay

But beware the Labour wolf in sheep's clothing!

Disputes / FE lecturers ballot over derisory pay offer

It is not the job of workers to square the accounts of their employers.

Pay and conditions / Bosses’ pay soars

While Labour business rep worries over ‘undermining public trust in business’!

Disputes / Support the fast food strikers!

Fast food workers across Britain are organising to demand decent pay and conditions.

Pay and conditions / University of London workers strike a blow against the outsourcing racket

A simple demand for a basic rights is causing consternation in the camp of the class enemy.

Disputes / Support Birmingham’s homecare workers

Before Labour councillors privatise the service completely.

Disputes / West Midlands firefighters threat of strike causes employer to retreat?

Long live workers’ militant unity.

Disputes / French rail workers lead the fight to defend pay and conditions

Macron's government hopes to use divide-and-rule tactics to break the resistance of the French working class.

Trade unions / Universities union leader Sally Hunt sidesteps members’ censure motion

Trade union 'democracy' in action.

Industry / GKN takeover brings mayhem to thousands of working-class lives

Unelected shareholders and executives continue to make decisions affecting thousands of families, revealing the true nature of the capitalist system.

Disputes / University workers sold down the river

With friends like the University and College Union leadership, who needs enemies?

France / France fights back against Thatcherite ‘reforms’

French workers have only to see what has been done to the British working class in recent decades to understand the ramifications of their present fight.

Leaflets / Hands off lecturers’ pensions

A decent pension for all workers is a right, not a privilege.

Trade unions / Postal union caves in on pensions

The CWU's failure to stand up to the marketisation of pensions will affect more than just postal workers.

Disputes / Support the McWorkers: class against class!

Organisation is a vital weapon in the fight for our rights.

Disputes / Crossrail electricians walk out

Blacklisting Balfour Beatty manager dismisses union members in an attept to avert strike action.

Disputes / Migrant workers in London: We are not the dirt we clean

New unions are championing London's invisible workforce.

Disputes / Rail strikes multiplying

The government and rail operators are continuing to force unsafe driver only operation onto staff and passengers.

Trade unions / Super Puma helicopter still flying despite multiple fatal crashes

The government continues to prioritise private profit over public safety.

Cote d’Ivoire / Draconian response to customs officers’ strike in Cote d’Ivoire

Behind Ouattara’s comprador regime lies the not-so-hidden hand of French and US imperialism.

Trade unions / Aslef’s ‘shabby deal’

Rail bosses use divide and rule tactics to weaken resistance to safety-cutting measures.

Disputes / Editorial: Message to Birmingham’s bin workers

Disputes / Birmingham’s binmen conclude their strike … for now

A ‘new’ deal has been offered that appears to make some concessions, but which demands more work for the same money.

Trade unions / Derek Robinson: the passing of a working-class hero

A staunch and fearless union leader, one of an increasingly rare breed.

Industry / Industry matters: Fighting the trade war harder

Disputes / Binmen on strike in Birmingham

More council cuts = more rats! Birmingham’s refuse workers are mounting strong resistance to the latest austerity plans of the city’s Labour-led council.

Trade unions / The fight-back of the low-paid

‘Precarious’ workers are doing it for themselves.

Health / Cloak and dagger: the operation to kill the NHS

The campaign to destroy the NHS is reaching its final stages: how did we get here and what can we do?

British politics / Birmingham council in financial crisis

A strike by binmen and other workers is inevitable.

Palestine / What more can we do for Palestine?

“In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.”

British politics / How the scabs were ditched, and other dirty laundry of 1989-90

The latest release of cabinet papers gives us a further insight into the secret doings of our ruling class.

Disputes / Shrewsbury 24: Amnesty International shows its true colours

Even forty years later, the ‘human rights’ champions are still not prepared to tell the full story of their collusion with Labour in keeping Des Warren locked up.

France / Strike wave hits France

Workers are vigorously opposing their government’s attempt to rip up the French labour code.

Lay-offs and closures / Tata: the vultures circle

While the capitalist crisis continues to destroy workers' lives, our union leaders are still trying to push us down the blind alley of support for British imperialism.

Trade unions / Blacklisters cough up but justice still denied

Construction monopolies pay out token amounts to their victims in the hope of avoiding further exposure in the courts and media.

Pay and conditions / Union-busting at Topshop

Retail giant's outsourced cleaners protest against victimisation of activists.

Trade unions / Unite says no to Brexit

Britain's biggest trade union backs monopoly capital's view on the imperialist exploiters' club.

Health / Sudden death of the ‘weekend effect’

One of the key planks in the government's propaganda offensive against junior doctors has been exposed as a total nonsense.

Industry / Industry matters: TUC touts for the EU

Industry / Industry matters: pay ‘rises’ belied by decline in real wages

Trade unions / Industry matters: Blacklisting rampant

There is increasing evidence that the practice of blacklisting has never gone away – and has been quietly condoned by governments of all parties.

Theatre / Shrewsbury 24: United We Stand review

Culture, education and entertainment are brilliantly combined in Neil Gore's moving and insightful play.

Ukraine / Anglo-US imperialism ratchets up its bellicose stand against Russia

As inter-imperialist contradictions sharpen, some trade unionists are already campaigning for a defence of the imperialist fatherland.

Working-class history / Downton Abbey, the Jolly George and Stop the War

Please, if we ask you nicely, will you? Pretty please?

Working-class history / Book review: Striking a Light, the Bryant and May Matchwomen

Louise Raw reveals the connection of these militant young East End strikers to new unionism, socialism and Irish republicanism.

Working-class history / The matchgirls’ strike of 1888

A landmark victory in working-class history, with much relevance to the many workers today who are once more unorganised and unrepresented by any union.