S3E4 Strikes: What have trade unions ever done for me? - with Mick Whelan

Media Storm

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What words come to mind when you hear the word 'strikes'? Delays, cancellations, chaos? With 'misery for ordinary people!' brandished across our headlines, it’s easy to see strikes as a general nuisance. But this week's episode of Media Storm looks beyond the everyday grumblings of train delays and travel chaos, to ask the question “what have trade unions ever done for me?”

Spoiler alert - quite a lot it seems.

Focussing on three key areas of union achievements - health & safety rights, wage increases, and equal pay - we speak to strikers standing on the shoulders of the first trade unionists. Hear from a Bristol midwife struggling with poor conditions who felt balloting for industrial action was the only answer, the then 23-year-old leader if the 2017 McStrike (who got the date tattooed on her arm!), and one of the warriors that won Glasgow women back almost three quarters of a billion pounds of stolen wages.

In the studio, we have General-Secretary of the ASLEF union Mick Whelan - who is no stranger to tough media rounds, to dissect the myths and latest headlines about strikes, unions, and workers - and tell us whether he really did schedule a rail strike over Eurovision...

Speakers:

• Ewan Gibbs @ewangibbs
• Sophie Inman @midwives_rcm @MidwivesRCM
• Rhea Wolfson @rheawolfson
• Shen Batmaz
• Mick Whelan @ASLEFunion

Sources:

• Scottish coal mining death rates eprints.gla.ac.uk/210374/7/210374.pdf
• Working class journalists pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/journalists-class-backgrounds/
• Royal College of Midwives rcm.org.uk
• Glasgow council equal pay dispute gmbscotland.org.uk/assets/media/documents/unionline/ULS-News-October-2018.pdf
• The McStrike waronwant.org/our-work/mcstrike

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Your hosts are @helenawadia and @mathildamall. Music by Samfire @soundofsamfire.

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