Union Action Halts Electricians De-Skilling Plans

Unite the union have welcomed confirmation by contractors Balfour Beatty and N.G. Bailey that they remain committed to the existing Joint Industry Board (JIB) agreement and the training of fully qualified electricians. 

The union said it had raised concerns about de-skilling earlier this year after it emerged that the two companies working on the Somerset Hinkley Point C project were seeking to introduce  training standards for a new position of 'electrical support operative'.  The union warned that the new role amounted to de-skilling of electricians and had not been discussed with Unite. The proposals led to widespread protests  by Unite electricians across the UK. Jerry Swain, Unite national officer for construction said: "Unite would oppose any efforts to weaken the skills set and training of electricians.

This is not the first occasion where there has been efforts to introduce dilutees into the electrical contracting industry and to undercut the wages of skilled electricians. During pay negotiations in 1997-1999, between the AEEU and Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), the employers demanded the introduction of a new semi-skilled electrical grade of 'Skilled Mechanical Assembler' (SMA), despite JIB policy stating that only qualified electricians should carry out electrical contracting work.

In  2011 eight of the largest M&E contractors decided to withdraw from the JIB and unilaterally set up new terms and conditions for the industry called the 'Building Engineering Services National Agreement' (BESNA).  The new agreement would have allowed unqualified workers to carry out work currently done by skilled and qualified electricians and cut the JIB rate from £16.25 p.h. to £10.00 p., a 35% pay cut under BESNA.

***********************************************************

Hinkley Point: Deskilling Dispute & Dodgy Training

by Brian Bamford

ON THE 1st, March this year Construction News reported on the deskilling dispute at Hinkley Point in Sommerset, that the creation of two training standards at the nuclear plant would according to the Unite union ‘undermine’ the role of electricians.

There is an industrial conflict which is ongoing at the Hinkley Point C plant after it was discovered that two training standards had been introduced by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of electricians, without Unite, the UK’s construction union, input or agreement.

The matter has been raised directly with the client of the French company EDF, who have reacted to Unite’s concerns. All training in this area has been postponed until the problem is resolved.

Dilutees & Sub-standard Training

The disputed training standards relate to cabling and containment work, which is ‘bread and butter’ work for electricians on new build construction projects.

Unite was alerted to the substandard training standards at an early stage. There are no electricians working at Hinkley Point C, currently undertaking cabling and containment work, as this phase of the project is yet to start.

Owing to the rapid intervention of Unite, the training of any worker or apprentice at Hinkley has not been disrupted as no one has begun to be trained on the ECTIB’s defective training standards.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has said “The undermining of the role of electrician has been attempted for more than 30 years, most recently in 2011/12 when eight of the major mechanical and electrical (M&E) construction companies promoted the use of non-electrical personnel to carry out skilled electrical tasks under the so called BESNA agreement.

“Unite defeated the BESNA agreement then and we will defeat this latest attempt to deskill electricians.

“Our message to the industry is clear. Unite and its electrical membership will oppose any and all efforts to weaken the skill set of the trade which will undermine the industry by introducing non-skilled operatives.

“Any deskilling of electricians would result in a race to the bottom and would be highly damaging to industrial relations across the sector.”

From the last week in March there have been weekly pickets outside Balfour Beatty’s offices in Bromborough, on the Wirral. Balfour Beatty has been contracted with EDF on the Somerset nuclear power plant. And another implicated contractor NG Bailey, has had its offices in Salford picketed on Fridays, and its sites at Manchester University and Manchester Town Hall have faced demonstrations by local activist electricians from the Manchester Contracing branch of Unite.

An Unholy Alliance of cheap-jack training

EDF and its partners are building the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The firms there have introduced new installer grades that undercut industry terms and conditions.

The bosses’ MEH Alliance at Hinkley Point C is a consortium made up of Altrad, Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear and Doosan Babcock. It is calling the new rate-busting grades Electrical Support Operatives (ESO) and Engineering Construction Operative.

Their grand plan is to run short courses for electricians on how to install containment or cabling. There are 9,000 km of cable and 404 km of containment to install on the Hinkley project.

Hinkley Point C is due to open in June 2026—a year late and so far at a cost of £23 billion, some £5 billion over budget.

In February,Simon Basketter in the Socialist Worker wrote:

'Unite has enthusiastically supported the building of the nuclear plant. While it was proud to sign up to an agreement for apprentices which appears to have been broken, it also seems to have sleepwalked into the creation of ESOs.

'The dispute has echoes of the electricians’ Besna dispute in 2011. Originally eight companies had planned to impose a new agreement and grade on workers to undercut wages and organisation.

'That [dispute] saw an escalating campaign of direct action on construction sites. Electricians protested, occupied and struck unofficially for six months.'

The contracting electricians will have to be on the ball to fight off this assault on standards in the industry.

**************************************************************

Blacklisting is still going on in 2012.

GLASGOW electrician, Stewart Hume, is being victimised because of his trade union activities during the recent BESNA dispute. Stewart was one of the leading UNITE rank and file activists in the country whilst working for Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) at the Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Training Centre and Ineos Grangemouth Oil Refinery.
In a blatant act of victimisation Stewart was transferred away from Grangemouth during the second Unite ballot for strike action and has now been made 'redundant' at a time when Balfour Beatty are taking on new starters across Scotland and employing agency labour at his previous Grangemouth contract in complete disregard of the construction industry nationally negotiated agreements. He has also watched other operatives on redundancy notice have their notices recinded. Stewart is the ONLY electrician employed by BBES to be made redundant in the entire country. He also appears to be the only person to actually come out of a redundancy appeal meeting with a worse Redundancy Matrix score than what he went in with!
Stewart said:
'I'm disappointed that after 16 years service with the company that they have used my opposition to BESNA against me. I did what was right, the threat of de-skilling our industry was something that I wasn't prepared to stand by and allow to happen due to the fact that my dad, who was a skilled operative, was electrocuted and killed 28 years ago. Accidents can happen to anyone, however my concern was that the industry would be filled with inexperienced operatives making things more dangerous for us all. I'm now extremely concerned that with the recent information regarding Balfour Beatty's involvement with the Consulting Association blacklisting scandal, that my future employment in the industry could be affected as I could be on a present day "Blacklist". If this is the case, companies who are still using such practices should remember that it's not just the individual they are blacklisting, it's their whole family! I have a 21 month old daughter and a partner, who has been totally supportive throughout the whole situation, to look after and provide for.'

The site based managers have admitted to Stewart that they have plenty of work left for him but it's clear Balfour Beatty Human Resources Department want to get rid of him at all costs. The Director of Human Resources at Balfour Beatty Engineering Services is Gerry Harvey - a proven blacklister of trade unionists after being exposed in court, the Westminster parliament and media for his active participation during the Consulting Association scandal.

At the Scottish Affairs Select Committee in Westminster parliament today, Gail Cartmail, UNITE Assistant General Secretary, said that Gerry Harvey has 'form for blacklisting' and she was 'absolutely convinced' that blacklisting was still ongoing and 'spying is the standard operating procedure' at BBES.

Full video footage of the oral evidence (starts at 1hour 50mins) http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=11332

At a recent demonstration outside BBES headquarters in Glasgow Jim Sheridan MP said:
'It is a long time since the days when trade unions and trade unionists were seen as the enemy within. You don't have to get into blacklisting. You don't have to get into undermining terms and conditions of employment that have been negotiated over the years peacefully. How much profit do they want to make before they stop attacking people at the workplace?'

His closing message to Balfour Beatty was:  'If you're gonna keep blacklisting people - then we're coming after you.'

Eddie Current (leader of the sparks rank & file) has said:
'Its simple. If Balfour Beatty don't reinstate Stewart Hume by 10th September then we'll consider that a declaration of war. Every Balfour Beatty project in the country will be a legitimate target. The only person to blame for this situation is Gerry Harvey. If the company had an ounce of decency, it would be that blacklisting wretch they would be sacking.'

REINSTATE STEWART HUME

Protest at Balfour Beatty in Glasgow

Protest call against Balfour Beatty:

At 10am on Friday 24th August at Balfour Beatty Engineering Services HQ, Lumina Building, 40 Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow, G52 4RU

The protest is being called jointly by: Blacklist Support Group and UNITE Scottish Sparks Rank & File:

Balfour Beatty is one of the worst of all the blacklisting firms with six Enforcement Orders against the company by the Information Commissioners Office because of their role in the Consulting Association scandal.  Gerry Harvey - Director of Human Resources for Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited - is a proven blacklister having been identified in parliament and in court. Balfour Beatty is continuing to victimise workers who raise concerns about safety issues including: Jonathan Carr from Birmingham and Alan Dransfield from the South West.  Balfour Beatty were also the lead firm attempting to drive down wages and de-skill the electrical contracting industry during the recent BESNA dispute. Electricians in Scotland involved in the dispute have been targeted by Balfour Beatty for redundancy (when no other workers were made redundant on the entire site).

Francie Graham and Steuart Merchant represent blacklisted workers in the attached press cuttings. Spread the word – let’s make this a big one.

http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWz0O5JzGbU&feature=plcp

http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhtysi-w7eY&feature=g-upl

From Wiltshire Woman to Park Cakes, Oldham

Review of 'Trade Union Solidarity' - Spring Issue - 20-page A4 size jounal: Price £1: Inquires and subs. to ring Glen Burrows on 01278 450562

THE first issue of T.U. Solidarity appeared last Autumn at the time of the Manchester Tory Party Conference, with a picture of a woman from Wiltshire on the front cover, and the current issue has a lass from Birmingham, Becca Kirkpatrick, aged 28, a pugilist and female Jock McAvoy no less, illustrating the back cover.  Any magazine in the unions or on the Left these days, it seems, must consciously display a commitment to multiculturalism and gender balance.  In Solidarity magazine we have a range of photos of picket lines, because the editors have a policy of promoting the rank and file workers at the expense of the union officers.  Unfortunately, many ordinary workers don't appreciate this:  such as the woman I know at Park Cakes who turned Solidarity down flat when they approached her for an interview, because she was too frightened:  she told me that she didn't care about the Agency workers plight so long as the jobs of the permanent staff were safe. 

English workers are often shy when it comes to talking to the media, they also often distrust those who they see as 'troublemakers' on the shopfloor or in political parties.  These people crave a quiet life.  Thus, Solidarity had to get Julie Summersgill, the convenor of the Bakery, Food & Allied Union (BFAWU) at the Oldham factory of Park Cakes to give them an interview.

As luck has it, there are rank and file campaigns such as the Unite Rank & File Construction Workers, that contain activists who are less media shy.  Besides the article 'Rumble the Crumble: fighting the two-tier workforce at Park cakes' there is an article on the successful struggle against the attempt to impose new BESNA contracts in the building trade, which would have meant pay cuts for the workers.  The journal has a column interview with blacklisted electrician, Steve Kelly.

There are a few northern trade union branches and Trades' Councils  listed among the supporters of the Solidarity magazine, but the overwhelming majority are from down South, with a disproportionate number in the South West.  There is a noticeable lack of support in the North West, and this may indicate that Alex McFadden - the influential North West representative of the TUC JCC - is hostile to Solidarity. 

There's a northern interview with Brian Taylor of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) at Capita India Mill, now a call centre in Darwen, Lancashire, where 80 workers went on strike in Autumn 2011 against a below inflation imposed pay rise.  We learn that Darwen and Blackburn belong to one of the most deprived areas in the country.  Brian Taylor tells us that only a minority of the 200 workforce are in the union, and of the pressure of the 70-second call targets, just as at Park cakes the workers fear that card-carrying union members will be victimised, and, he says, workers often join the union 'under the cloak of darkness'. 

The publication has no leader comment or editorial, so there is none of the preaching and party-lines one gets in other left-wing journals and sheets.  In this sense Solidarity is refreshingly free from people telling us what to think.  Hence, the journal is not a publication that treats its readers as cultural dopes:  its for mature workers not young students.  The contact editors are Dave Chapple in the South West, Shelia Cohen in London and Becca Kilpatrick in Birmingham:  if we were living in France we would describe these people as radical syndicalists; that is people who prioritise the trade union struggle for rights at work in preference to party politics and winning elections.  The trouble with British politics is that there are too many schoolmasters running the show, and it creates a form of politics that most ordinary English people either despise or can't relate to.  The language in Solidarity is straight-forward and clear, nowt fancy, it is shorn of slogans  Becca Kirkpatrick, the boxer, also refreshingly pays homage to 'agression (as) one of our vital tools (as trade unionists)' and thankfully, she is not proclaiming that dreadfully fashionable PC term 'assertiveness' in the workplace.

SITEWORKER: Bosses Sabotaged Talks

JIB talks sabotaged by employers


First they offer a paltry 1.5% and then they try and pick our negotiating team!

Earlier this week the Unite negotiating team with stewards and Rank and File members headed to Scotland to sit down and maybe start talks on ‘a new deal’.

But the cheeky b*****ds objected to one of our team, well we could have said we object to all your team, but we are reasonable people. Anyway fair play to Unite, they stood their ground and the talks never went ahead. SEE BOTTOM OF THIS UPDATE FOR A REPORT

The next meeting is due to be held in London in early May, what will happen remains to be seen.............. so watch this space.

Please think about protesting in your areas similar to london over agencies even if it’s just a few people leafleting a site, it really winds them up! We can provide leaflets if you need some please email us on siteworkers@virginmedia.com

The great agency rip off is not going away, in fact it’s getting worse. The 12 week rule is being ignored where you are meant to be taken on direct with same terms and conditions as company workers.

So next week’s demonstration/protest is very important. Tuesday 1st May at 6.45 at ‘The Shard’ London Bridge Station, Mace site entrance in the bus terminus.

This will be on ‘International Workers Day’ so let’s try and make it a big one. Please support this demo which we intend to repeat every week until further notice.

URGENT Information:One of our best stewards has been suspended from Ratcliffe on trumped up charges of bullying. We all know who the real bullies are and it’s not Unite stewards.

'An injury to one is an injury to all'.  We will keep you informed how that goes but we may be calling on your support soon we must stick together at times like this.

* Please find the article By Pete Murray Union News [25th April] On the JIB talks debacle.

‘Sparks pay talks suspended as employers refuse to talk to Rank and File reps’

UnionNews has learned that the first in-depth talks since the end of the so-called BESNA dispute last February have been suspended after the employers refused to negotiate with elected rank and file sparks representatives.

It is understood employers objected to the participation of a long-standing union activist who is known to have been blacklisted.

Unite targeted BESNA clients such as supermarkets in the campaign against pay cuts)

It comes as Unite officials have been attempting to negotiate an improvement on what is described as a ‘paltry’ 1.5% pay increase offered to construction electricians and other trades by one of the industry organisations.

Negotiators have so far rejected the offer, saying it would amount to a 15-month pay freeze for members.

Following the success of the seven month campaign against proposed cuts to pay, skills and safety levels by seven major construction industry employers, activists and Unite’s leadership insisted that rank-and-file reps should be part of the formal negotiating team in wide-ranging talks aimed at setting long-term agreements across the construction sector.

A frequent demand during the course of the dispute was that issues such as blacklisting, ‘bogus self-employment’ and the increasing use of agency workers and sub-contracting should be at the forefront of negotiations about the future of the construction industry.

In the face of forecasts of a fall in production of up to 3% across the sector this year, employers have continued to press for changes to working practices as well as cost-cutting.

The sector continues to account for some 7% of the UK’s overall economy, but has contracted by more than £20bn since the recession hit in 2008, according to industry figures.

Sources say talks on pay and other changes had reached a ‘crucial stage’ when the employers raised objections to the composition of the Unite delegation.

A further meeting is scheduled for early next week between Unite officials and executives from the construction companies.

Unite is insisting it will not accept any attempt by the employers to decide who makes up the delegation.

'These are elected branch officers and reps,' one official told UnionNews.

'They [the employers] have never objected before and we will not allow them to break up our team now.'

For more info please visit: Electricians Against The World http ://www . jibelectrician . blogspot . com/

Get in touch with us by Email siteworkers@virginmedia.com

Northern Voices says: DEFEND RAY SMITH

THE success against the dirty seven and BESNA, was the work of the rank & file members in the building trade! We can now start to rebuild the UNITE union and get rid of the blacklist, end deskilling, enforce Rule 17 and end agency working.

Yet, now one of the formost fighters for these things Ray Smith, Newcastle Central Branch of Unite the Union, and passionate trade union activist in the North East of England, is threatened by his own union because he got his branch to give the Rank & File campaigners and construction workers against BESNA and the Blacklist facilities for meetings and transport to London: also he aided the production of leaflets and assisted thwe protest.

The Rank & File campaign and Northern Voices is 'shocked to learn that Ray Smith is under investigation under the Unite union's Rule 27 and Rule 5.'


The Petition for Ray Smith:

We (the Rank & File Campaign and Northern Voices) say to Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, that: 'You have rightly gone on the record to condemn the politically motivated witch-hunts that have taken place in other unions. We think that there is no place in our union for such things either. That is why we call on you to drop the investigation against Ray Smith. Let us work together to build our union and let us have a union that is big enough and strong enough to accept that although we might at times disagree; that we are all on the same side against the bosses and the Tories.'