THIS weekend, we celebrate a year of the Organise Now project, launched by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, Strike Map and Notes from Below at last year’s World Transformed festival.

Impressed by comrades in the US, we wanted to emulate the incredible success of the Emergency Workplace Organising Committee (EWOC), which has helped organise thousands of workers in sectors where unions have been non-existent for generations.

Organise Now is a response to the crises in work, pay and living standards. As a movement, we have to face the reality that, according to the government’s own data, 200,000 left the union movement in 2022 — 129,000 of them women in the private sector.

This means that most workers today are not, and have never been, members of a trade union. There are many sectors with no active unions, while in other sectors union membership has become less active or effective, and there are some workplaces where unions are a new idea for much of the workforce.

We need active strategies to overcome the decline in trade union membership — strategies that are not just centred on recruitment for recruitment’s sake, but that build power for workers and collectively help workers win better pay, conditions and dignity at work. That is why, after one year of the project, I am urging the whole labour movement to back Organise Now.

Built by workers for workers, Organise Now’s peer-to-peer approach has proven to be an effective strategy for rebuilding and growing our movement. By filling in a simple online form, workers can access the skills and experiences of other workers from across different sectors, to support them to improve their working lives and build power.

After they sign up, worker’s details are entered into our database and we then match them up with a coach in their sector to provide coaching via phone or in person.     

As well as providing support for workers through a large group of volunteers, Organise Now has been an active part of days of action, like the Baristas United campaign in November, which saw over 30 organising teams across the country speaking to coffee shop workers about unionising.

Organise Now has also organised its own “guerilla” May Day campaign, enabling groups of volunteers to target shops and restaurants, talking to staff about the benefits of joining and organising a union at work.

Our activities and successes have attracted attention from across our movement, and we were delighted in December when the Aslef union became a formal supporter.

General secretary Mick Whelan explains: “We believe no worker should be left behind. All workers need to be organised in fighting unions, and we must grow our movement during this period of increased industrial disputes. We urge the whole labour movement to join us in supporting Organise Now.”
 
We have not just recruited new national supporters, but hundreds of volunteers from across the trade union movement. Imogen Woods, one of our volunteers, describes why: “I volunteered for Organise Now because workers organising in their own workplaces is the best way to build working-class power, change working conditions and challenge injustice — but workers sometimes need support and mentorship to do that.”
 
Despite still being young, we have been able to deliver quick wins for workers from all over the economy. Lee, a recycling worker, describes his experience, “I’m glad I found Organise Now — the help and support has been very welcome and beneficial.

“The coach gave me valuable tips and advice which I have implemented to good effect at my workplace. The best thing is, the support is ongoing and has given me the confidence to tackle the issues that exist.”
 
As of September 2023, the project had attracted the most worker sign-ups from the hospitality sector (21 per cent), followed by health and social care (15 per cent), education (14 per cent), retail (11 per cent) and the charity sector (11 per cent).

Tess, a charity worker who contacted Organise Now, explains how the project has helped her: “The call was really helpful and exactly what I needed. Afterwards, I felt more confident and positive about the next steps and less worried about our anxious/reluctant management team. I was clearer about the issues and benefits of working towards a recognition agreement.”
 
By delivering engaging workshops around developing workers’ confidence, Organise Now has been actively helping support workers not in unions to form them and get active. To help this work we have built resources with our volunteers, including our Get Organised Now guide, which has been used by younger people in helping them activate unions at work.

Nehaal Bajwa, vice-president of liberation and equality at the National Union of Students, explains how the project helps to grow our movement among younger people: “Organise Now delivers a uniquely powerful support that links together experienced trade union activists, who have led effective campaigns, with workers who need the confidence and support to organise effective unions at work. That is why we back this exciting project on behalf of students and apprentices.”

We have been living through an incredibly exciting period, with local and national strikes back on the agenda, and as a result, we are seeing big wins for workers and renewed militancy in unions. These combine to offer a rare opportunity to start organising in new parts of the economy.
    
That is why Organise Now matters in the current moment. We want to take that energy into new workplaces but also connect to the wider union movement. This is about giving workers the confidence and resources to fight, but also for existing organisers to learn from and be inspired by these new struggles.

If, as a movement, we could collectively resource and support Organise Now, we believe we could reach a scale that rivals, if not succeeds the work of EWOC in the US. We believe we can, through this project, see no worker left behind.

As we move forward into our second year, we hope that we can continue to attract new national supporters, from unions to campaign groups. We will continue to scale up our project to not just stop the decline of our movement but to grow it in every sector.

There are many ways that people can support and get involved in Organise Now: become a supporting organisation, volunteer for the project, share our worker's sign-up form and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — visit Organisenow.org.uk for details.