About Brunel IWW

Brunel IWW was set up in April 2011 after a UCU strike in March had seen three maintenance workers refuse to cross the picket line. This was remarkable as despite it being a UCU strike, and despite none of the maintenance workers being unionised, they still refused to go in to work. This despite threats from their managers. Ironically many academics were quite happy to cross their own picket line to deliver that ‘crucial’ lecture or finish that vital grant application, article etc. Oh dear oh dear. There was one IWW member on the picket line that day and out of a conversation with the maintenance workers came the idea for setting up a local branch. It soon transpired that the maintenance workers were former TUC union members (I won’t shame the union by naming them) who left because they were disaffected with their union. We decided to organise monthly meetings to see where we could go and to try to do some organising amongst the non-unionised and disaffected.

The monthly meetings were held in the chaplaincy who were very supportive and offered us a free space for a year. Gradually we attracted a few new members and over a period of time we began to organise ourselves. By September we had also attracted the interest of a number of cleaners of different nationalities who were alleging abuse and bullying at the hands of their managers. In November the cleaners protested against their treatment and eventually won many of the things that they wanted through their courageous direct action. They were ably supported by many people locally and nationally, with international support coming in from as far away as journalists in Argentina. This linked in with the broader success within the IWW of cleaners groups in London winning victories for higher wages. We will now be building on this to push for a London living wage on campus. An account of the cleaners struggle can be found on the very wonderful Libcom web site: http://libcom.org/forums/announcements/brunel-universityocs-cleaners-struggle-call-support-23112011

In the coming year we will be organising an event for students that will focus on how to survive and organise in their own workplaces, we will run a monthly newsletter focusing on different groups of workers in the university, and we will look to raise our game on campus by chartering our own branch and campaigning on issues such as low pay, insecure workers on short-term contracts, and so on.