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Season 2 episode 2 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we interview Henry Chango Lopez from the Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain.

“In our union, the cleaner gets the same as the general secretary, in terms of being paid an hour...We pay £3 more than the London Living Wage, for instance, and the cleaner is paid the same”

- Henry

Show notes, links

IWGB website, Twitter and Instagram.

A few extra links:

A podcast from Pluto Press where Henry is interviewed alongside two authors on labour, Eve Livingston and Jane Hardy

Solidarity Squad -- a new scheme from IWGB where friends and allies can provide material support for IWGB branches

List of IWGB branches: Charity Workers, Cleaners and Facilities, Couriers and Logistics, Cycling instructors, Foster care workers, Game workers, Nannies and au pairs, Security and receptionists, United private hire drivers, Universities of London, Yoga teachers. And there’s a general members branch if none of these apply to you!

Transcript

ALI

This is Resist + Renew,

KATHERINE

the UK based podcast about social movements,

SAMI

what we're fighting for, why and how it all happens.

ALI

The hosts of the show are

KATHERINE

Me, Kat.

SAMI

Me, Sami,

ALI

and me, Ali.

SAMI

I'm recording this now, baby!

ALI

Shit, it's a podcast!

ALI

Okay, welcome back to the Resist and Renew podcast. Today we are going to be talking to Henry Chango Lopez, who is from the IWGB. So a little bit about Henry and the IWGB. Henry is the General Secretary of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain. The IWGB is a union that represents and supports some of the most marginalised workers in Britain. The union focuses on outsourcing, the gig economy, and other areas where precarity, low pay and exploitation are the norm. Henry has been closely involved with the union since the early days and previously worked as an outsourced porter at the University of London, where he was involved in high profile campaigns.

Henry has years of experience in organising, listening to the experiences of workers in precarious positions, and advising them and what avenues are open to them.

Thanks so much for joining us, Henry.

HENRY

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

ALI

Great to have you here. We'd love to just get started by getting a bit of your understanding as to like what is the current political context that you're organising in right now? How do you see the situation, I guess, for workers right now in Britain?

Yeah, I mean, the situation at the moment is, is very difficult for workers, especially in regards to what has been happening during the pandemic, with with employers taking advantage of the pandemic, in order to worsen the condition of workers. And before the pandemic started, we already were fighting the pandemic as a union, which is exploitation in the, in the UK.

And this obviously has made the situation worse because workers have gone through a very difficult situation in our union. We represent low paid workers, migrant workers, workers without workers' rights, and also workers who are in a difficult situation, and have been put in a difficult situation during the pandemic.

Because of the sectors that they work in, the sectors that we organise as a union, like cleaners, like security guards, like couriers, private hire drivers, foster carers and other workers that we represent as a union.

And most of them are, have gone through very difficult situations in terms of health and safety. For instance, during COVID, we have had to even take the government to court in order to improve the health and safety in the UK. And we've been successful in that regard.

But yeah, we've been basically challenging many employers who have been over exploited workers.

ALI