Workers at Goodlord, a tech company providing tenant referencing services to letting agents, have been striking against attempts by their employer to impose worse contracts. Goodlord has now dismissed the workers who were continuing to resist the imposition of the contracts, using “fire and rehire” tactics. Their union, Unite, says the workers have effectively been sacked for going on strike, and that it will pursue legal action. Athena Parnell, a former Goodlord worker involved in the strikes, spoke to Solidarity about the dispute.
The fight began at the end of October 2020 when our employer offered us permanent contracts. We were on fixed-term contracts at that time, and had been asking to be made permanent. So in theory it should have been an improvement. But the terms of the new contracts were much worse than our existing terms, including a pay cut of around 25%, around £6,000 per year.
The bosses’ justification for this was that, as we were working from home in the pandemic, and not travelling into the office, we could make do with lower pay. This was especially galling given that, prior to the pandemic, they’d always consistently opposed homeworking and insisted our jobs couldn’t be done from home.
The work we do is around doing referencing and background checks on potential tenants on behalf of letting agents. Checking people’s ID and credit ratings to see if they are “acceptable” tenants is not exactly “moral” work, but workers don’t always have an absolute choice about what work we have to take. Prior to this attack on our terms, none of us were members of a union. Very few of us even knew much about trade unionism in a formal sense. But we were very tight-knit as a group of workers, and there had been some unofficial workplace organisation and activity in the past. In August 2020, we’d got together to send a letter to management to ask them discuss moving us onto permanent contracts. They had simply refused.
When they announced the new contracts in October, we again organised collectively and sent another letter, signed by 85-90% of people in the department, asking for a discussion about the contracts. Again, management refused. That was when we started discussing formalising our organisation by unionising. We reached out to Unite, immediately very helpful and supportive.
We’ve learnt so much since, about what trade unionism is and how it works, and how workers can organise. I’m a firm believer in trade unionism and workplace organisation now.
As soon as we joined Unite, we began the process of balloting for industrial action. We were initially quite cautious about that, as none of us had ever been involved in strikes before. But Unite were extremely good at reassuring and galvanising us. Once we balloted, the company said they’d make us an offer by 22 February to resolve the dispute. But the company didn’t offer an acceptable resolution, and wasn’t negotiating in good faith, so we decided to go on strike.
Going on strike was a big step, but we weren’t afraid. Being in a union gave us confidence. We felt that it was a choice being striking, and doing nothing. We weren’t prepared to give up, and taking action made us feel empowered.
There is a lack of understanding amongst young people about unions and striking. We’re fed propaganda against strikes. But organising at work is where we have power; it’s one of the only places where we do. That power has to be used, especially as we’re seeing workplace exploitation intensify.
Our strikes were later escalated to all-out, indefinite action. As the dispute has gone on, some people, including myself, have left. Workers who refused to accept the worse permanent contracts were given extensions to our fixed-term contracts and then let go, which is why we’ve talked about our dispute as being against a form of the same “fire and rehire” tactics bosses have used in many other workplaces. Even though I no longer work for the company, I’m still involved in supporting the campaign. There have been negotiations at Acas, but the employer hasn’t moved from its position.
We’ve seen 13 weeks of strikes so far. There’s had to be a re-ballot, due to restrictive anti-union laws. We need to step up the fight against those laws too, which must be scrapped. We are seeing management intimidation and threats increase.
We’ve been holding physical picket lines, which will continue as demonstrations. There’s also a strike fund. Donations are essential as the workers have now been dismissed, it’s important the workers don’t give up. People can also use platforms such as TrustPilot and other review sites to express their opposition to Goodlord’s treatment of its workers.
My message to other workers, especially in non-unionised workplaces, who want to win change — either to stop and attack from the boss or to win improvements — is that we must stand together and act collectively. The people who own companies, who own property, who have money... they won’t give us rights and power, no matter how articulately we ask for it on an individual basis. The idea that if we work hard, we will be rewarded is simply not true. When things improve, it’s always via collective organisation and collective action.
Within any workplace there will always be pressure from above to cut costs and increase profits. We must counter that with pressure from below.
• More, and strike fund, here
