On Saturday 25 January 2025 we held our first Troublemakers At Work AGM. It started with an excellent public discussion on “How do we invigorate and democratise our unions?”, then after a break members and delegates from affiliated organisations dealt with the formal business.
Ian Allinson presented a financial report from Troublemakers At Work Limited, which handles our finances. A member asked for further information about membership and affiliations, which Ian did not have to hand:
- We currently have 54 individual members who contribute £174 per month. After Stripe fees this provides an income of £158.58 per month.
- So far ten organisations have paid £450 in affiliation fees: Brent TUC, Brighton & Hove TUC, Cornwall TUC, Manchester TUC, NEU Waltham Forest District, RMT Bakerloo, Trafford TUC, Unite LE/00014 Hackney & Islington Community, Unite NW/100C2 Greater Manchester Community and Unite NW/389 Social Action.
The Team is keen to increase the number of affiliated labour movement organisations.
The Troublemakers Team provided reports on their work. As well as establishing Troublemakers as an ongoing organisation, the Team had:
- Organised the second public conference in October 2025.
- Organised the first AGM.
- Produced leaflets for arms workers about Gaza and about the right to strike, and a model motion on Minimum Service Levels.
- Arranged leafleting at a number of major labour movement conferences and events.
- Organised a series of online public meetings:
- 7 December 2023: Learning from the US strike wave
- 1 February 2024: How do we beat the Minimum Service Levels?
- 27 February 2024: Discuss a Troublemakers At Work 2024 conference
- 27 March 2024: Misogyny, abuse and democracy in our unions
- 26 June 2024: What next for the strike wave? Workplace struggle before and after the election
- 8 August 2024: Public sector pay: is this the best we can do?
- 17 December 2024: Strikes: Solidarity and lessons
- 4 Feb 2025: The struggle for the 4-day week
If you would like to volunteer to join the Team, please complete this form even if you verbally volunteered during the meeting, so that the Team are clear what you are volunteering to do and have your details.
There was a wide ranging discussion about plans and priorities. Concrete suggestions included:
- Hold a meeting about negotiations during disputes, including the ideas of open, big and transparent bargaining.
- Continue our work on sexism within the movement.
- Hold a meeting about how to survive the bureaucracy.
- Hand out Troublemakers leaflets at picket lines and other events. (A generic Troublemakers leaflet is available at troublemakersat.work/downloads/).
- It was agreed by 25 votes to 1 to go ahead with a Troublemakers At Work 2025 conference in Manchester on Saturday 26 July. Please save the date and volunteer to get involved in organising it if you can.
A motion to change our rules was defeated by 20 votes to 8.
A motion about approaches to industrial disputes was passed by 26 votes to 0 with 1 abstention, after the amendment had been defeated by 15 votes to 12 with 1 abstention. The motion passed reads:
Troublemakers At Work will encourage and support members to promote, within their workplaces and unions, approaches to industrial disputes aimed at helping workers win.
Whilst there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach, in general this will include:
- Sustained and escalating action, supported by strike pay, rather than sporadic 24-hour strikes
- Minimising the distance between workers involved in the dispute and the union bodies responsible for its direction, via strike committees
- Clear, concrete demands, determined democratically by the workers involved in the dispute
- Effective picketing, which aims to amplify the impact of the strike and turn round non-striking workers wherever possible
- Seeking opportunities to “politicise” disputes, for e.g., by organising public campaigning, demonstrations, etc., around demands for political or legislative changes implied by the demands of the dispute.
Troublemakers At Work will produce a briefing pack for members involved in disputes to explain these approaches.
It was agreed to elect three Coordinators, provided that at least one of them must be a woman. The following were elected, with the unions they are members of shown in brackets: Sally Heier (UCU), Ian Allinson (UNISON) and Stephen Beck (NEU).
The AGM elected six people to be nominated as members of Troublemakers At Work Limited.