Construction Workers Demonstrations continue at Ratcliffe Power Station
Construction workers, members of the country’s largest trade union, Unite, will be staging a protest outside Ratcliffe power station between 6am and 8.30am tomorrow (Wednesday, 1 February) in an on-going dispute over proposals to make up to 30 per cent pay cuts as rogue employers are de-skill the industry.
Workers at Ratcliffe power station in Nottinghamshire will be demonstrating as its major contractor, Spie Matthew Hall is part of a group of breakaway construction companies, which are imposing semi-skilled grades onto the mechanical and electrical sector.
Unite regional officer, Steve Syson, said: “Our members are extremely angry at these proposed changes which are not only an attack on long standing and highly regarded industry agreements, but a serious attack on thousands of construction workers livelihoods.
Video: Construction worker “Sparks” demonstrations in London and Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station
Great video by Reel News demo:
Also there is a Sparks/Siteworker demonstration on Wednesday 19th October at 7am, outside Blackfriars station. It is to protest against Balfour Beatty Engineering Services who are cutting workers wages by 35% and terminating 1700 jobs.
Solidarity with Juan Carlos Piedra!
People who support migrant cleaners’ struggles in London may well know of Juan Carlos Piedra, an Ecuadorian worker victimised at University College London because of his trade union activism. He has also been active in the solidarity efforts behind UBS bank cleaners in the City of London.
Juan Carlos has been called to an interim hearing for his Employment Tribunal with LCC Services on Tuesday 25th May from 10 am.
The Flying Bike Picket! Saturday 22 May – support the BA workers & the Right to Strike!
From Workers’ Climate Action:
On Saturday 22 May, Workers’ Climate Action will be organising a critical mass bike ride in solidarity with the BA cabin crew workers’ struggle and in defence of the right to strike.
UPDATE
British Airways bosses have once again secured a high court injunction against the strike on the basis of a technicality with the balloting process. This represents a further attack on working-class democracy and civil liberties in general; workers who voted overwhelmingly to strike are having their right to do so taken away from them and are expected to simply accept, without any option to protest or dissent, contractual changes in which they had no say whatsoever.
Judges have ruled that the BA strike, recently banned by the High Court on a balloting technicality (see here), can go ahead (see the BBC website and the Guardian website for more).
BA strike – a complete load of ballots
At last, someone’s come up with a clean, decisive system for holding elections. The way it works is everyone has a vote, and then the management of British Airways and a judge decide the result. They’ve tried this method with the ballot for a strike amongst cabin crews, who voted 7,482 to 1,789 in favour. So the courts ruled that this didn’t count because the Unite union didn’t mention, in some of its announcements, that 11 ballot papers had been spoilt.
There has been the odd critic of this ruling, such as the President of North Korea who said, “Oh that’s going TOO far”, but you can see BA’s point. Because there may have been many union members who were only prepared to support the strike as long as the number of spoilt ballot papers wasn’t a prime number. Imagine how cheated they’d have felt if they’d lost three days’ pay, assuming the number of spoilt papers was 12 or something divisible by seven and then they’d found out the shocking truth when it was too late.
Britain’s “New Politics”: The Clameron Government
After 5 days of selling themselves to the highest bidder, the Liberal Democrats have gone to bed with Cameron’s Conservatives. Liberal Democrats across the federal executive and parliamentary group are quietly grinning that finally after almost 70 years they are back in government.
Cameron: You'll be taking John Prescott's old job
Peter Mandelson predicted “[People who] vote Lib Dem, they are making it easier for the Tories to get in”. It isn’t often I agree with Mandelson but he was spot on, those who voted for one public schoolboy, got another one free as Prime Minister. Welcome to Clegg’s definition of “New Politics”.
Defend Abdul Omer
Abdul Omer Mohsin, Unite convenor for London Sovereign, lost his appeal against dismissal on Tuesday. The Unite official who represented Omer at his appeal took the company’s case apart. Its obvious that Abdul Omer has been sacked for being an effective union convenor.
Drivers at Sovereign had the worst pay and conditions in London. That has changed, and the bosses are anxious to stop any further gains.
Why I went on strike
Originally posted on Facebook
Hello, let me introduce myself, I am a forty-two year old mother who has been employed by British Airways for fifteen years. I have read a lot in the media over the last year about how spoilt and overpaid BA cabin crew are, similar comments even come from my own family who have read these reports and got sucked in and believed all the simple rhetoric. I had kept quiet, silenced by fear of my bulling management but now I want to exercise my right to reply – this is my voice.
Let us start with my salary – £28,000, not bad I hear you say. I agree. A little more than the national average and that’s what I think I am worth. About average, no better and no worse. I am at the top of my pay scale and will receive no more increments. When I joined BA my starting salary was £9,000. During my time at BA I have received increments for my loyalty and experience. No different from other employees who work for BT, Police Force Personal Secretaries and Journalists to name just a few. However our argument with BA has never been about money. It is about protecting our working patterns, the product we deliver onboard and the brand that means British Airways to our passengers. We would all agree to a pay cut if it protected the things that are important to us and important to you.
Like anyone else our working conditions are governed by law and in some instances we receive better terms than required by law. An example of this would be if we worked away for six days – the law would entitle us to two days off but we get three. Do you think this is deserved? Why not? Do you work to law? Did you know that you are only entitled to 20 minutes break during your eight-hour day at work? Is this all you get? No, you wouldn’t think much of an employer if they didn’t give you a one-hour lunch break. I don’t suppose many would want to work for a company like that. Good for you. I am glad that your employer respects your needs and gives you more than the law requires. No employer should work to the law. That is just there to protect you.
Thoughts from the BA Cabin Crew Strike Picket Line
From The Third Estate
Yesterday I went down again to the Heathrow picket lines, to see how the strike is developing, and also to check out the new community garden squatted by Sipson residents and activists.
Last time I didn’t write about my journey down there. (Quick tangent: a crack-of-dawn piccadilly line farce complete with hundreds of tourists, Japanese cameras, garbled German, a replacement bus and a fortuitous chat with a CWU rep on his way to Belfast.)
This time, I arrived at the far more civilised time of midday. As I got out at Hatton Cross station, there was the same picket line with its mandatory 14 picketers. Even though this had been designated by Unite as ‘family day’ (yesterday was ‘International Solidarity Day’) there was still a limited number of supporters, this time the lone child on the side of the motorway with her Unite flag, cheering at honking cars, seemed a dismal response to such an awesomely effective strike.
![Recommend [justinthelibsoc]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/arkayne-media/img/badge/logo-recommend-badge-medium.png){kind=icon}
The hypocrisy of Len McCluskey
Union leader slams Ed Miliband but who put him there in the first place?
Credit: Manchester Evening News
By Jerry Hicks
Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has launched a stinging attack on the Labour leader Ed Miliband claiming that he is “leading Labour to destruction”. McCluskey lambasts the Labour leader for “failing to support millions of low paid trade unionists” and thereby “disenfranchising the party’s [Labour] core support”.
Read more