Museum workers start historic strike in Liverpool

Coventry Amazon workers held picket lines 

Museum workers picket in Liverpool Photo Credit: PCSLiverpoolMuseums

Tuesday 20 February 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2893

Some 217 PCS union members working at the National Museums Liverpool (NML) kicked off eight weeks of strikes last Saturday. The dispute is over the failure of NML to pay the £1,500 cost of living payment agreed as part of the PCS pay dispute settlement last year. A lively picket that swelled to 80 began at the World Museum in William Brown Street.

Tracey Hylton of the PCS NEC addressed the strikers and Audrey White of the Merseyside Pensioners Association described it as the “happiest picket line I have ever attended”. At 10am strikers discovered that management was attempting to open another site at the Museum of Liverpool Life at the Pier Head so the picket relocated. The other five sites—the Walker, Lady Lever and Tate Northern Art Galleries and the Maritime and International Slavery Museums— remained closed.

Both the International Slavery Museum and the Maritime Museum have planned redevelopment projects costing £58 million. Some of this could easily be used to resolve the dispute. PCS Livepool Museums said, “The problem is, the secret to our museums isn’t the priceless objects. “It’s the priceless staff. About time you invested in them.”

The Museum of Liverpool stated it was open for its usual hours last Sunday. PCS responded by identifying that it was “opened with the slimmest numbers of staff” as most were picketing. The union added, “Good scousers don’t cross picket lines.”
Picketing is every day between 8am and 11am until 14 April but may move between sites depending on which management try to open. Send messages of support to PCS@ liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Dave Owens

Coventry Amazon workers unfulfilled

Hundreds of Amazon workers joined big picket lines outside the BHX4 fulfilment centre in Coventry on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week. Around 400 striking GMB union members held up workers going into the Coventry Amazon depot for more than half an hour. They tried to convince them not to cross the picket line.

Amazon worker Darren Westwood tweeted last Tuesday, “Amazon BHX4 is out again. “As Amazon boss Jeff Bezos sells £1.6 million worth of Amazon stock, we are asking for £15 an hour. Every worker should be getting this as a minimum.”

On the second day of the three day strike, workers chanted, “No work today,” and, “What do we want? —£15.” And workers continued to join the union on the picket lines. Since the summer of 2022, over 1,000 have joined the GMB at BHX4.

The company’s internal online bulletin board is bombarded with messages from workers supporting the union with links to join, usually deleted by admins within minutes. Management is doing everything to try to break the strikes—such as bringing in new starters. But many of these new starters joined the GMB— and are now among the most enthusiastic pickets.

Amazon is also trying to convince workers that they would be better off not joining the union. Amazon managers sent an email claiming, “Union recognition may mean that BHX4 employees will not automatically see pay increases offered at other sites.” Management is trying to bribe workers to cross the picket line with a pathetic offer of a £2.50 voucher to spend in the canteen.

That’s barely enough for a coffee. The company pretends to ignore the union, but pay has increased from £10.15 to £12.50, already a rise of 23 percent. Workers at other Amazon fulfilment centres also need to join the action. Last month, workers at the newly-opened Minworth site near Birmingham went on strike for the first time.

Andy Petti