Building organisation at Barnoldswick

Submitted by AWL on 16 November, 2021 - 7:08
Barnoldswick picket

Workers at the Rolls Royce site in Barnoldswick have voted to accept a new offer from the company in their dispute over staffing at the site. Ross Quinn, a Unite officer involved in the dispute, spoke to Solidarity.


The key concession in the settlement is the extension of the no-compulsory-redundancies guarantee to five years. That’s a three-year extension on what was on the table previously. The deal also includes an agreement for a company furlough scheme for up to 70 workers, which is a kind of baseline insurance policy if work streams dry up in future. But that’s not something either party would want to use, and will be holding the company to its commitments on ensuring minimum staffing levels and securing new work streams.

The deal does unfortunately include a 1.8% reduction in the basic rate of pay, but that’s something we hope to address via renewed campaigning in the very near future.

There are two bargaining units at the site, “works”, which is the shop floor staff, and “staff”, which is engineers and supervisory grades. Works have voted to accepted the settlement unanimously, 100%. Amongst staff it was a 66% majority to accept.

The campaign has been led by the shop stewards, with a high degree of involvement from the rank-and-file membership. At every stage, there’s been regular communication — from WhatsApp groups, to newsletters, to regular mass meetings where dispute strategy and the various offers from the employers were discussed. There were regular report-backs from all negotiations. The negotiating team has included different people at different times, including myself as an officer, other national officers from Unite, as well as national Unite convenors from Rolls Royce, and the Barnoldswick shop stewards themselves. The shop stewards are extremely well organised, and their role has been key. The site convenor is on full-time release, but the other shop stewards aren’t, so they’re there on the shop floor, day in day out. Having them at the centre of the campaign was vital for building the campaign on the ground, and ensuring the voice of the workforce was being heard.

When we put management’s previous offer, which only had a two-year no-compulsory-redundancies guarantee, management thought the tide was flowing their way. Our most recent set of industrial action ballots were, although still high, slightly down on previous results — around 80% amongst works, and 60% amongst staff. Management thought confidence and determination was ebbing, and they were putting it about that they believed workers trusted management over the union. But because of the organised core of shop stewards and the work they were doing on the ground, and the discussions we were having in mass meetings, we knew the reality was different. That offer was rejected by 100%, and that was a real turning point. That rejection showed management there was a lot of fight left in the workforce, and that forced the move from two to five years in the deal.

In every mass meeting we’ve had, we’ve spoken about the issue of transition to sustainable production. This is part of what’s becoming a wider push in Unite, with workers at other Rolls Royce sites and at GKN starting to develop plans for alternative production based on transition to zero-carbon. The company has its plans and strategy for what it wants to do; we’re putting our own agenda forward as a workforce and a trade union.

Rolls Royce’s use of a global supply chain has a massive impact on its progress towards its net-zero target, as different parts have to be transported around the world to be assembled. Increasing local jobs is a more rational and climate friendly way of organising production.

The campaign has definitely had a positive impact on union organisation at the site overall. In the staff bargaining unit, we’ve had new reps coming through as a result of the dispute. And I’ve had members say to me that, despite being long-standing members in a relatively well-organised site, they didn’t really “get” what trade unionism was until this dispute and the strikes.

The action they’ve taken, and all the campaigning alongside it — the active, vibrant pickets; the car rallies; the international solidarity we organised; the social media campaigning we did... it gave them a totally different perspective on trade unionism. They now see it as something active, combative, and assertive.

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