This is a movement that can win, says Momentum's Becky Boumelha.
The following is a speech from Tuesday’s precarious worker march in London.
I remember standing, two years ago, on the SOAS steps. We were listening to workers from the Justice for Cleaners Campaign demand an end to their exploitation and to be brought in house and employed directly by the university.
We stood then in solidarity, as we do now, against all practices used to systematically undermine the rights of workers.
Today, we march against the attempts by tech giants of the gig economy, such as Uber, to cast their workers as self employed.
Behind their slick PR and shiny technology, Uber, Deliveroo and other gig economy companies are geared towards extracting profit by denying workers the minimum wage, holiday pay and other basic rights.
New technology must be harnessed for the benefit of workers – not used at our expense to generate obscene profits for employers.
But we must not forget that the ongoing attack on basic workers rights is not merely the result of new technology.
It is jobs that have been around for centuries – in teaching, caring and hospitality – that have seen the quickest growth in insecure work conditions.
It is a result of the choices of this government and the coalition that preceded it, in putting profit before people and refusing to crack down on shady business models that exploit workers.
The TUC now estimates that one in nine British workers are stuck in precarious employment, with half a million in bogus-self employment and nothing to stop bosses using agency workers to undercut permanent staff.
We must fight this in the workplace, we must fight this in the streets, and we must fight this in the halls of Westminster.
I stood here two years ago, shoulder to shoulder with the striking SOAS Cleaners.
Two years later, through their strength, courage and persistence, the cleaners have won their fight to be brought in house. They have shown us that no matter what the barriers, the workers united will not be defeated.
Becky Boumelha is a member of Momentum’s national coordinating group.
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