Leicestershire Industrial Workers of the World

Get organised!

If you want to organise a union in your workplace or industry, you are in the right place.

IWW volunteers would be happy to talk with you about strategies for improving your working conditions. The IWW can also provide you assistance if you and your co-workers decide to organize a union with the IWW.

The best place to start is to get in touch with us. Before the first contact, it would be helpful (though not necessary) to know a few things about your workplace:

1) How many workers are there?
2) What are the different types of jobs at your company?
How many workers are there in each department?
3) Does your store/company have other shops or distribution
lines in the area?
4) What percentage of your co-workers would initially be excited
about a union? How many would be neutral or opposed?
Do you think your co-workers at work need to know more
about unions?

Here is some advice in the short term. You will want to keep any union talk, and general conversations about wages, benefits, hours, etc, out of the ears of management.

You will want to be a model employee because you do not want to give management any reason to fire you. Your job is worth defending and improving.

Start a workplace diary, noting positive and negative comments from supervisors and managers. Keep notes from meetings, schedule changes, etc. Make sure you note when, where, why, etc. Save company memos and pay stubs, ANYTHING that you think will help your case.

Lastly, it is legal to talk about union organising and you have a legal right to organise to improve your working conditions.

But you should know that some of the most seemingly friendly companies have waged the most vicious union busting drives. The goal of keeping the campaign out of the ears of management is to do as much organizing as possible before your campaign goes public.

Already in a union?

Well, alternatively you can use the IWW as a means of bringing together the most active and militant rank and file workers in your workplace, particular industry, or locality. Many of our members are dual card carriers - in other words, they are members of both a reformist TUC union and the IWW.

Get in touch with us for more info on the benefits of becoming a dual card member of the IWW.