They are Fighting for Workers’ Rights ... and Winning

www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Daily Dose]( The newsletter to fuel — and thrill — your mind. Read for deep dives into the unmissable ideas and topics shaping our world. Jul 26, 2022 Today Union leaders are often portrayed as disruptors willing to inconvenience the rest of society if their group’s demands aren’t met. And those who actually get the public relations right are often seen to have compromised on the core interests of workers. But a new breed of union leaders and activists is managing to build influence without giving up on feisty acts of protest, winning gains for workers in the process. In today’s Daily Dose, we look at three emerging leaders who are changing the very discourse around workers’ rights in modern democracies. — with reporting by Matthew Blackman in Cape Town, South Africa The Lynch-pin Training his guns Mick Lynch won’t let his critics[“twaddle.”]( His focus is on getting Britain’s rail workers a pay raise, job security and better working conditions. Lynch’s straight talk and thinly disguised contempt for politicians and the media have propelled the 60-year-old leader of the U.K.’s National Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) into the national limelight. He is leading the RMT in what is Britain’s biggest series of railway strikes in decades, with[more actions planned this week]( and into August. Already, the strikes have led to the promise of a[5% pay increase](, but workers want more. Now columnists are arguing that Lynch has become a[more effective spokesperson]( for the British working class than Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. The spark Born in a poor working-class area of London, Lynch left school at age 16 to become an electrician. He was then blacklisted for being part of a trade union movement and went to work for Eurostar rail, all the while rising within the RMT. Conservative Party politicians have attempted to portray him as a “[Union Baron](” who wants to hold Britain to ransom. Lynch has been accused of being “[a Marxist](,” “[a dinosaur](,” and [refusing to negotiate]( with the government. He has[responded to]( those claims by insisting that he is working for union members who have not had a pay raise in nearly three years, stating that they “need to get some dignity at work.” Hitting the airwaves Sky News’[Kay Burley]( was one of the first to suggest that Lynch might instigate violence, questioning whether the RMT picket line would resort to the violent tactics used by miners in the 1980s. “Well, does it look like the miners’ strike?” he responded, standing aside for the camera to reveal the people on the picket line talking amicably to passers-by. “You seem to have gone off into the world of the surreal,” he added with a look of disbelief. When[Piers Morgan]( discovered Lynch had a Facebook profile picture of “The Hood,” the villain from the British children’s TV program “Thunderbirds” (the resemblance is startling), Morgan thought it was a gotcha moment. Morgan asked why Lynch was comparing himself to an “evil criminal mastermind,” to which Lynch mockingly replied: “Yes, he is the most evil puppet made out of vinyl in the world. Is that where your journalism is these days? … I am a working class bloke who is leading a trade union dispute … don’t you want to talk about the issues?” Getting results Lynch’s movement hasn’t just won concessions on pay raises. It has also fundamentally changed the discourse in Britain around unions. Before the strikes,[one survey]( found that 37% of the U.K. backed walkouts and 45% were opposed to them. After Lynch’s appearances on TV and radio, the same survey found that 45% of people now supported the strikes and only 37% opposed them. “Mick Lynch cleaned up every single media picador who tried their luck today,” actor Hugh Laurie — famous for his withering put-downs in the TV series “House” —[tweeted]( after the first strike. Inspired by the RMT’s success,[postal workers, British Telecoms employees](, teachers and others have also gone on strike, seeking wages that keep pace with the soaring inflation. Anti-apartheid, anti-corruption ‘Fed up’ In 2018, Zingiswa Losi became the[first female president]( of the largest trade union federation in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). She was elected unopposed to lead a federation of more than 1.6 million members. COSATU played a pivotal role in the fall of apartheid and belongs to the “Tripartite Alliance” with the South African Communist Party and the ruling ANC. However, Losi has[recently warned]( the ANC that workers are “fed up,” and called for the[arrest of corrupt politicians](. Township to leadership Losi was born in 1975 in the impoverished [KwaZakhele township]( on the outskirts of Gqeberha. Her mother worked as a domestic worker and her father as a debt collector at a furniture shop. Losi served in the South African army before taking a job at a Ford motor plant, where she became a shop steward for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. She was elected second deputy president of COSATU in 2009. As[many in COSATU]( began to speak out against corruption during Jacob Zuma’s years as president of South Africa, Losi became the clear favorite to take over its leadership. No kid gloves Recently, Losi came out guns blazing on corruption. She claims that the police, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the judiciary are treating corrupt politicians with “[kid gloves](.” She went on to say, “the justice system must serve everyone including sending high-profile politicians to jail.” COSATU and Losi are now[reconsidering their alliance]( with the ANC. “Some members from our movement chose to steal everything. Now we have a choice — we can allow for the ANC to die or we can go to our ANC branches and ensure the elected cadres are not crooks.” She has warned in the past that COSATU will not unconditionally support the ANC. WATCH KARAMO on [The Carlos Watson Show](! Food fighter Fair wage She’ll throw the kitchen sink at injustice, if she needs to. Attorney and activist Saru Jayaraman won a major victory for Michigan workers last week when a petition sponsored by her organization of service industry workers, One Fair Wage, led the state’s Court of Appeals to[restore two laws]( that allow the minimum wage, minimum tips and paid leaves to be increased. The laws had been weakened by a Republican-led state legislature. “It is a victory for democracy and workers both,” said Jayaraman, of the court’s decisions, which will raise service sector minimum wages in the state to $12/hour. Red carpet It’s the latest in a series of wins for Jayaraman, a co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), which has helped restaurant workers successfully fight wage battles and sexual harassment cases. When[OZY first spoke]( to Jayaraman in 2018, she was preparing to walk the red carpet at the Golden Globe Awards with[Amy Poehler](, who was impressed by her work. A quick tip Jayaraman grew up in a working-class Chicano/Latino neighborhood in Southern California. Growing up, her “friends and their families were restaurant, custodial, construction workers,” she told OZY in 2018. “I saw a lot of injustice in the way that we were all treated and the low expectations that were set for us.” But her focus on restaurant workers[began after 9/11](, when she was asked to set up a relief center for the 13,000 workers who lost their jobs as a result of the tragedy. This endeavor grew into One Fair Wage, which works to advance ballot measures aimed at increasing service sector wages across the U.S. Slave wage Jayaraman argues in her 2021 book,[“One Fair Wage](,” that subminimum wage for tipped workers in the U.S. “is a distinct legacy of slavery.” After abolition in 1865, restaurant employers hired newly freed slaves. Taking advantage of their position, they did not pay them a wage but instead forced them “to rely entirely on tips.” This practice has essentially continued. Jayaraman also points out that 70% of tipped workers are women, who often face inappropriate customer behavior, including sexual harassment. As[Jayaraman reported](, sexual harassment increased in restaurants over the pandemic. But restaurant workers are also pushing back like never before, she wrote for The Guardian earlier this year. “There is so much hope,” she said. Community Corner What’s a fair minimum wage in the U.S., given today’s inflation rate and worker shortages? 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