S3E4 Strikes: What have trade unions ever done for me? - with Mick Whelan

Hey listeners! We've launched a Patreon. If you want to support us for a small monthly fee, head to patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast What words come to mind when you hear the word 'strikes'? Delays, cancellations, chaos? With 'misery for ordinary people!' brandished across our headlines, it’s easy to see strikes as a general nuisance. But this week's episode of Media Storm looks beyond the everyday grumblings of train delays and travel chaos, to ask the question “what have trade unions ever done for me?” Spoiler alert - quite a lot it seems. Focussing on three key areas of union achievements - health & safety rights, wage increases, and equal pay - we speak to strikers standing on the shoulders of the first trade unionists. Hear from a Bristol midwife struggling with poor conditions who felt balloting for industrial action was the only answer, the then 23-year-old leader if the 2017 McStrike (who got the date tattooed on her arm!), and one of the warriors that won Glasgow women back almost three quarters of a billion pounds of stolen wages. In the studio, we have General-Secretary of the ASLEF union Mick Whelan - who is no stranger to tough media rounds, to dissect the myths and latest headlines about strikes, unions, and workers - and tell us whether he really did schedule a rail strike over Eurovision... Speakers: Ewan Gibbs @ewangibbs Sophie Inman @midwives_rcm @MidwivesRCM Rhea Wolfson @rheawolfson Shen Batmaz Mick Whelan @ASLEFunion Sources: Scottish coal mining death rates eprints.gla.ac.uk/210374/7/210374.pdf Working class journalists pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/journalists-class-backgrounds/ Royal College of Midwives rcm.org.uk Glasgow council equal pay dispute gmbscotland.org.uk/assets/media/documents/unionline/ULS-News-October-2018.pdf The McStrike waronwant.org/our-work/mcstrike Get in touch: Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediastormpod or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mediastormpod or Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mediastormpod like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MediaStormPod send us an email mediastormpodcast@gmail.com check out our website https://mediastormpodcast.com Your hosts are @helenawadia and @mathildamall. Music by Samfire @soundofsamfire. Media Storm was launched by the house of The Guilty Feminist and is part of the Acast Creator Network. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/media-storm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices