BY ALAN JONES ATE PROTEST
Regional officer Gloria Sindall said the workers at Barts Health NHS Trust, employed by Serco, have seen their real living standards drop year on year.
“Serco made over £80m in profit last year but managers are refusing to share these earnings fairly and protect the living standards of the workers,” she said.
Two of the longest running strikes have involved Unite members at BA and at the atomic weapons establishment (AWE), which both started last year over separate disputes about pay and pensions.
Unite is fiercely fighting BA on behalf of its members in the so-called Mixed Fleet, who say they are on poverty pay rates, while AWE workers have seen their final salary pension scheme close despite copper bottomed pledges in the early 1990s by the then Tory government, over their terms and conditions once they transferred to the private sector.
Regional officer Bob Middleton has overseen a number of ballots among hundreds of workers spread across AWE sites –
and revealed that new members join every time there is a new vote.
“Unite invests the majority of its energies into solving disputes before there are strikes, and 95 per cent of the time we succeed,” said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.
“However, as pay depression has continued, workers are understandably getting fed up, in both the public and the private sector, and want to be heard.
“It’s an insult to this nation’s traditions of justice and fairness that the Conservatives have done their utmost to portray trade unions and their members as ‘the enemy within’, introducing regressive anti-worker laws to stop people defending themselves. That is not progress, it’s giving bad bosses a free ride,” he added.
Workers who ride on London’s Woolwich Ferry won a famous victory after challenging a bullying culture by taking industrial action and showing some good old-fashioned solidarity.
A manager was dismissed and a fair settlement agreed for a female employee who suffered sexual harassment.
“By taking collective action and standing firm since this dispute started last winter,Unite has demonstrated that unions can achieve great victories in the workplace on behalf of their members and that bosses don’t have carte blanche to engage in unacceptable behaviour,” explains Unite regional officer Onay Kasab.
Another victory was claimed for workers at car giant BMW after a revised pension offer was accepted.
Unite national officer Fred Hanna said, “BMW initially thought it could railroad its pension changes through with transitional payments of just £7,000. It’s testament to the resolve of Unite members and their solidarity that the carmaker was forced to more than triple these payments and give additional guarantees.” Unite is proving that taking industrial action can help the drive upwards for decent pay and conditions.
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13 uniteWORKS Summer 2017
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The legislation is actually pushing us into conflict and is having a polarising effect
Howard Beckett Unite AGS
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