THE NUMBER of UK strike actions is growing!
A Public and Commercial Services union representative sacked by the National Gallery was likely to have been unfairly dismissed for her union activities, a tribunal has found.
Candy Udwin, suspended in February on the eve of the first strike over privatisation and sacked last month, had shared information with her full time union official about the cost of the gallery using a private company. At an interim employment tribunal hearing yesterday a judge found it was likely a full tribunal will rule this was legitimate in her role as a union rep and that it was unreasonable for the gallery to categorise it as ‘gross misconduct’.
Despite the ruling the gallery refused to reinstate Candy so the tribunal made a ‘continuation of employment’ order, meaning she will receive full pay and benefits from the date of dismissal pending the full hearing in October. The union will pursue the case to a full tribunal if necessary but says Candy should be reinstated immediately. The union has also called on the incoming gallery director Gabriele Finaldi and chair of trustees Hannah Rothschild to meet its officials urgently to resolve the dispute.
The union’s members are took their 35th day of strike action on Thursday over plans to privatise all visitor services. Staff held protests all day outside the gallery in Trafalgar Square, London. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn joined pickets and spoke at a strike rally there at 1pm. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘This is great news for Candy who has faced months of anguish and uncertainty about her future. The gallery should now see sense and reinstate Candy immediately, and its new management team must meet us urgently to resolve this dispute that is threatening the reputation of this great cultural institution.’
Yesterday the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was protesting outside Dixons Carphone’s logistics and distribution centre in Wednesbury in a bid to persuade the company to reconsider its decision to close the site. The closure, announced as part of a reorganisation at the highly profitable company, would mean up to 500 job losses in an area of high unemployment. Last week local MP Adrian Bailey grilled David Cameron on the issue at Prime Minister’s Question Time in Westminster, urging the PM – who has recently sought to rebrand the Tories as ‘the new party of the workers’ – to intervene to prevent an estimated £8 million blow to a struggling local economy.
Tellingly, the PM refused to do so. CWU general secretary, Dave Ward, said ‘So much for so-called “compassionate Conservatism” – especially since David Cameron’s refusal to align himself with Dixons Carphone employees whose wish to “Keep Wednesbury Working” came on the very day that the company’s Tory donor CEO was celebrating an increase in sales that these 500 workers facing redundancy would have helped contribute to. Both the Prime Minister and Dixons Carphone should quickly rethink their priorities when it comes to these workers in Wednesbury.’
While the company claims that job losses are not inevitable because it is offering redeployment opportunities to its Newark site, where the work is relocating, the CWU believes the offer amounts to nothing more than a public relations charade. For the company to say that people can keep their jobs is laughable,’ stresses CWU Birmingham, Black Country & Worcester branch secretary Vicki Cornelius. It’s simply not realistic for people to uproot their families and lives to move 90 miles away for a job that only pays about £17,000 a year.’
CWU deputy general secretary (telecoms) Andy Kerr concludes: ‘Only a couple of weeks ago David Cameron and his party were proclaiming they are the new party of the workers, but the first chance they had to prove this they chose not to intervene on behalf of the 500 working people in Wednesbury who simply wish to keep on working. Instead David Cameron has chosen to side with a company whose boss donated to his party.’
Workers at Rolls-Royce have meanwhile voted for the first time to set up an industrial action fund to defend UK jobs at the company, it was announced on Thursday 11 June. The unprecedented move by Rolls-Royce workers who are members of Unite, saw 84 per cent vote in favour of paying an extra £1 a month on their union subs to form the fund, on a turnout of 71 per cent.
The war chest is expected to grow to £150,000 a year and comes amid warnings of industrial action over Rolls-Royce’s continued failure to offer guarantees over compulsory redundancies. The highly skilled workforce is angry that despite securing a record $9.2 billion order from Emirates Airlines, Rolls-Royce is ploughing on with plans to cut 2,600 jobs from its aerospace division, which could see compulsory redundancies at a number of sites in the UK as early as next month.
Unite represents approximately 12,000 members working for Rolls Royce in Derby, Bristol, Hucknall, Barnoldswick, Ansty, Inchinnan, East Kilbride, Sunderland and Birmingham. Commenting, Unite national officer Ian Waddell said: ‘Rolls-Royce should be in no doubt that our members will not tolerate compulsory redundancies in the UK, whether through workload reductions, management reviews, outsourcing or offshoring. The fund will be used to support members at specific sites involved in industrial action to oppose these sorts of job losses. Our members have shown great loyalty in building up Rolls-Royce, but are feeling increasingly betrayed by the company’s continued refusal to give assurances on jobs and guarantees over redundancies.
‘Given the company’s order book and profit levels, they see the planned job losses and decisions to move work elsewhere as nothing less than the export of UK manufacturing jobs. Members have shown that they are prepared to put their money where their mouth is to support industrial action. It’s time that Rolls-Royce gives a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies to avoid the possibility of industrial action.’
l Lorne Stewart cleaners and maintenance staff on Merseyrail stations have gone on strike over sackings. RMT cleaners and maintenance staff working on Merseyrail stations for contractor Lorne Stewart went on strike on Friday (June 12) in support of two long-standing colleagues and union activists sacked on trumped-up charges.
The two, with some 70 years’ service between them, were dismissed for allegedly claiming pay for hours not worked, despite the lack of any credible evidence to support the charge. The sacked cleaners are the latest in a long list of victims of disciplinary action aimed almost exclusively at RMT members in what the union believes is a crude attempt to weaken and marginalise the union. Particular targets have been workers who retain cherished British Rail ‘Blue Book’ working conditions, regarded as too expensive by the employer.
RMT members voted for strike action to defend their colleagues in the face of management intimidation that included RMT members being taken aside individually by two managers and being ‘advised’ to vote against taking action. RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: ‘Despite blatant intimidation our members have stood up for their sacked colleagues and given a clear message to Lorne Stewart that these sackings are unfair and unacceptable. It is time for Lorne Stewart to step back from the brink, recognise the anger of our members over these sackings and re-instate two loyal workers who have done nothing wrong.’
