HOW to organise workers in sectors with low union density is the biggest dilemma facing the trade union movement. Most workers — almost 78 per cent of the British workforce — are not in unions.

Not only does this deny most workers a voice at work, it has serious political ramifications. 

Politicians of all stripes would have to deal more seriously with union concerns if the labour movement encompassed most of the workforce. Our industrial power to influence policy would be far greater. 

And we would be better equipped to confront the rise of the far right in some communities if unions spoke for and looked like the workforce as a whole. Wednesday’s TUC anti-racism conference heard from an Argentinian trade unionist who warned the division between a more unionised formal economy and a larger, non-unionised informal economy, dominated by bogus self-employment, had been used to great effect by far-right President Javier Milei, who was able to convince many casualised workers that the trade unions did not speak for them.

So it was fitting that the final session of the conference was given over to the highest-profile effort in recent years to extend unions’ reach into unorganised sectors — the GMB-led battle to organise Amazon.

In July, GMB narrowly lost a recognition ballot at Amazon’s huge Coventry warehouse, but the struggle is far from over, as we heard in an inspirational briefing from Midlands regional organiser Ferdousara Uddin and Amazon worker Louveza Iqbal.

The union’s national race organiser Tyehimba Nosakhere, introducing the session, cautioned against seeing July’s result as a definitive defeat. “When you take on a giant, you’ve got to be ready: you’re there for the long run. They have giant wallets!”

The point is reinforced by Uddin, who began by asking the room who thought Amazon was a multibillion-dollar company. Most hands went up. Wrong: “Amazon’s market value in the summer topped $2 trillion” (£1.6trn).

Amazon is not just a global company, it has a global workforce, even in one “fulfilment centre” in Coventry. “I wish I could say how many ethnicities there are in that workforce — people from east Africa, every part of Asia, eastern Europe, Spain, Brazil… every corner of the world.”

When Uddin joined the campaign, she recalls organisers handing out English-language leaflets on the benefits of joining a union. But language was not the only communication barrier when it comes to such a diverse workforce.

“If I’m coming from east Africa, or India, where you have a good chance of getting beaten up by the police for striking, the chances of me wanting to take strike action are going to be zilch,” she points out.

Union organisers could — and did — leaflet at warehouse gates for years without making any real progress in recruitment. 

It was not a waste of time, because when impetus for organisation emerged from workers themselves, GMB organisers were present and familiar: but Uddin emphasises that “the fight started when workers wanted to have the fight.” 

From outside, attention has been focused on GMB’s attempts to get recognition at the site, involving applications to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). This summer it fell just 16 votes short of such recognition.

Amazon’s tactics to defeat these bids may be familiar to Morning Star readers: “When we put our first CAC application in April 2023, there were 1,300 workers at the fulfilment centre, and we had about 800 of them as members.

“Within four weeks, the workforce went to 1,800 from 1,300.” Amazon’s ability to suddenly recruit large numbers of staff who could as easily be let go was twice used to dilute union density at key moments: when it came to the second CAC application this year, by the time of the ballot a workforce of just over 2,000 had soared to 3,000. “Amazon BHX4 [the Coventry site’s designation] has never been at that capacity in their six years of opening!”

For many workers, their visas are dependent on their jobs, their jobs are often on temporary contracts, and they have dependent families too. It is easy for an employer to intimidate such workers even without direct threats. 

The rumour mill in a giant workplace like that was an effective conveyor of deniable misinformation: Iqbal recalls hearing all kinds of things on the shop floor, that Amazon was ready to give workers who voted against recognition permanent contracts, that they might receive a lump sum of money.

And these rumours were not entirely untrue either. Uddin points out that after GMB withdrew the first CAC application, Amazon gave 300 workers permanent status, this having been a key demand of the workers’ campaign. The union hadn’t won recognition, but its battle had delivered serious benefits for hundreds of workers regardless.

And while there was no lump sum for voting No, Iqbal does recall Amazon suddenly handing out £2.50 food vouchers for its canteen on strike days. “You have workers there who are so poor they do a 10-hour shift without eating,” she says. It was a serious incentive not to go out on strike, but could be dismissed as coincidence rather than a direct bribe: when she raised it with the site’s general manager, he claimed he hadn’t even known about the voucher offer.

All this does point to the fact that the union is in there, and workers’ organisation is a serious concern to the company. Uddin cautions against seeing the failure to secure recognition as evidence the campaign has failed. 

“You don’t need a marriage certificate to be in a relationship,” she points out. While a recognition agreement would set out dos and don’ts for workers, “at the moment they’re doing what they want, they’re fighting their toaster campaigns, picking their own fights and Amazon are scratching their heads.”

Responding to an audience question on whether recognition agreements can actually negatively affect union activity, Uddin stresses that the Coventry campaign is part of a global struggle by Amazon workers, and recognition at one site gives workers at others confidence to organise. It also provides greater protection for workers taking industrial action. GMB is currently fighting the dismissals of workers sacked on technicalities after taking strike action.

As Iqbal points out, if recognition were not so important, Amazon would not have fought so hard to stop it. Staff were called to “information sessions” at which white managers would speak against unions for 45 minutes; the fact that English is a second language for many of the workers meant confusion over the precise benefits and risks of joining a union discouraged membership. “Me and other reps would have to go to those meetings and challenge them and argue, which put a target on our backs.” 

She stepped up because, living with her family and not having the pressure of sending money abroad or visa worries, she realised through speaking to other workers how scared many were of speaking out or challenging managers who treated them badly. “I had to be the voice of the people who were too scared to voice their opinions and put my neck on the line,” she says, because the consequences for her personally if she was disciplined or dismissed would not be as life-changing.

Managers, many from ethnic minorities, were brought in from other sites, so a management she characterises as 70-80 per cent white at the centre suddenly had managers who could speak to workers in their own languages, and these had one-on-one conversations to convince workers joining a union was not in their interests. The anti-union campaign was intense, with anti-union messages blared from wall-mounted TVs, depicted on posters and on leaflets placed on tables in the canteen.

Yet workers’ need for a collective voice is demonstrated by all the familiar horror stories about Amazon warehouses. Workers are micromanaged, monitored constantly on the pace of their work, asked what they’ve been up to if they take five minutes on a loo break. Iqbal recalls being in the toilet and a manager entering, looking around. “Are you looking for someone?” she asked. “Oh, I heard there were a lot of people in here,” came the answer: such snooping to check whether workers are chatting rather than working is routine, she says.

Management certainly felt defeating recognition was a victory: “the day the results were shared, the managers gathered together, not with the associates [workers], had a pizza party… they ordered so many pizzas! We just stood there watching them, they were all eating pizzas almost like rubbing it in our faces.”

Since recognition was seen off, the black and Asian managers brought in have disappeared back to other sites, the treatment of workers has gradually got harsher again. If they catch people “idling,” they get “adapts,” negative warnings that stay on your file for six months: three and you’re into a formal meeting with a manager.

But GMB reps are not giving up, though Uddin acknowledges membership has fallen from its peak. Reps are present explaining workers’ rights to them, accompanying them to disciplinaries, challenging wrong or unlawful behaviour by the company. “That’s what we’re doing now. We’re making sure people don’t get abused in the meetings, or just fired, which happens quite a lot.

“Amazon is good at taking advantage of people’s vulnerabilities. Me and the other reps’ main goal is to call that behaviour out, not allow people to be exploited.”

She and Uddin are clear that organising Amazon is a work in progress. “We wanted to give you a raw picture of the reality of the situation, of the effort that’s gone in — and of the effort that is still going in to this, even now.”