It is encouraging to see the private sector fight back against the savage attack on their living conditions. A combined fight back of both public and private sector industries is one route to success. This article is from Union-News.co.uk
Sparks in “unprecedented” action over pay, apprenticeships
by Pete Murray - 7th December 2011, 18.36 GMT
Electricians in the construction sector have taken part in what organisers describe as “the biggest unofficial strike in decades”. The series of mass walk-outs followed a decision by the construction giant, Balfour Beatty to initiate a legal challenge to last month’s strike ballot conducted by Unite which returned an 81% majority in favour of industrial action against threatened “sign or be sacked” contracts which had been due to come into force today. Hundreds of sparks and supporters blockaded Balfour Beatty sites in London, Hartlepool, Hull, the Conoco Phillips refinery at Immingham in Lincolnshire, Cardiff, Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester. Sparks at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland voted at a mass meeting earlier this week to join more than one hundred colleagues who protested outside the company’s head office in Hillington, Renfrewshire. They later blockaded the entrance to a Strathclyde Fire Brigade training centre under construction by Balfour Beatty. More than a dozen sparks walked off the job to join protesters who later occupied one of the site offices.
Today’s protest in Cardiff marks the first action of its kind in Wales. In Manchester, electricians occupied a city council meeting and demanded to know why councillors had awarded a construction contract for the town hall and library to NG Bailey – one of the seven employers which Unite says is trying to impose a 35% pay cut and enforce de-skilling on the industry. Ian Black, Unite shop steward at Grangemouth told UnionNews: “The agreements at the centre of this dispute have worked well for forty years and we don’t see any reason for change. “This is an attack on our wages and employment, but it’s also about apprenticeships. It’s about the future, about young people getting a proper four-year apprenticeship. It’s not just about money, not just about ourselves. It’s about the young men and women coming into our industry.” Rank and file organisers of today’s protests – which mark an escalation in their four month campaign against the so-called BESNA contracts – feel increasingly the momentum is with them, not the employers.
At Balfour Beatty’s Blackfriars site, 300 workers and students persuaded 20 workers not to go in, despite police pushing aside campaigning workers to allow Balfour employees to enter the site unhindered. Campaigners did manage to shut down a lorry entrance leading to the canceling of orders for the day. One spark from Southend who only wanted to be named as “Keith” told workers blockading the site: “You [Balfour] can’t make 55 million pounds and then expect people like me to take a 35 percent pay cut.
SOLIDARITY.
In one scuffle, a police officer grabbed the only black protester present at the demonstration. Other activists tried to free him but officers took the man named by a friend as “Josh” away to a van and confirmed he was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Cries of “racist boot boys” and “I’d rather be a picket than a scab” reverberated around the area, as protesters promised to return this evening. Rank and file sources say no sparks, cable pullers or scaffolders came on site for the night shift. Spirits were boosted by the presence of a large number of senior lay Unite officials at the Blackfriars protest, which was also attended by the Labour MP John McDonnell and RMT general secretary Bob Crow.
Unite is contacting all members at Balfour Beatty in preparation for re-balloting employees in the coming days. The union is also preparing to ballot for industrial action at two more of the group of seven companies seeking to break away from the current JIB agreements, which cover pay, skill and safety levels. Senior officials believe Balfour Beatty’s management is looking for a “face-saving exit” from the dispute. Unite is calling for the employers to take part in talks at ACAS to try to stop escalating industrial action and civil disobedience in the new year.
Watch our film report of today’s events here:
No comments:
Post a Comment