Unite

The Executive Council of Unite has backed the proposal from incumbent general secretary Len McCluskey to make constitutional changes to allow for an election for the post to be held “as soon as possible”, rather than in 2015 as planned. A statement from United Left (a political grouping within of which McCluskey is a member and in which Workers’ Liberty is also involved) issued prior to the EC decision salutes McCluskey’s various achievements while in office, including civilising the internal regime of the union and pioneering industrial strategies that have won various disputes. They also...

Tesco drivers' strike Lorry drivers at a Tesco distribution centre in Doncaster, south Yorkshire, have struck against a management plan that could cost 183 jobs. The workers, who are employed by haulage firm Eddie Stobart Ltd., recently rejected a management offer to increase their redundancy pay. Unite officer Adrian Jones said that the offer "was designed to get them out the door and not to maintain employment." For more info, see the drivers' campaign page on Facebook here . Postal workers' boycott threat The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced plans to hold a consultative...

London bus drivers strike Drivers on Arriva North bus services in north London struck on Thursday 29 November, demanding a 2.5 percent pay increase. The workers, who are members of Unite, have faced a two-year pay freeze, despite DB Group, which owns Arriva, making nearly £700 million pre-tax profit in the year to 30 June 2012. According to Transport for London, the strike caused “severe disruption”. Pret union organiser awaits appeal outcome Andrej Stopa, a Pret A Manger worker sacked for organising a union in his store, will learn the outcome of his appeal against dismissal on Friday 7...

A union rep at the Ford Transit Van plant in Southampton spoke to Solidarity . Our position is to oppose the closure. There was never any kind of discussion around it – it was just announced. We want to fight to stop it. The mood in the plant is strange. Everyone’s very up and down, and there a lot of ongoing discussions and meetings so we don’t know the full details of what management is planning. Some of the workers employed by the contractors are talking about balloting for industrial action, but that’ll be around the demand for equal severance packages rather than against the closure. That...

In 2010-2011, Southampton council workers fought a bitter strike campaign to defeat the Tory plans for massive pay cuts and other attacks on terms and conditions. The campaign ultimately succeeded in kicking the Tories out of office, and winning a “phased reversal” of the pay cuts from the new Labour administration. But now council workers face new cuts and service closures. Solidarity spoke to Mike Tucker, Southampton District Unison Branch Secretary, about the potential for a fightback. He was speaking in a personal capacity. We do not agree with his views on the rebel councillors, or on the...

Nearly a month after the announcement that Ford was axing 1,500 jobs (closing its Southampton Transit Van plant, and cutting jobs at the Dagenham stamping plant which supplies it), there are still no details of a high-profile, public campaign against the closure from Ford unions. Shop stewards, conveners and union officials have been conducting negotiations with management. Unions are in a difficult position, particularly as Ford is attempting to bribe workers by offering handsome severance packages; but they must go on the offensive to stand any chance of saving jobs. In a context of job cuts...

20,000 workers marched to protest job losses at a Ford plant in Genk, Belgium, on Sunday 11 November. 4,300 workers face losing their jobs, and workers at the plant had previously responded to the announcement by blockading the factory gates. Sunday’s demonstration saw the campaign turn out to the wider community, as well as mobilising Ford workers from plants in Germany. A delegation from Belgium had visited Ford’s European headquarters in Cologne, where they held a demonstration of around 100 workers. Although the demands of the union leaderships behind Sunday’s demonstration are timid, a...

Electrical construction workers and other trade unionists staged an occupation of the lobby of the Office of Rail Regulation in Holborn, central London, on the morning of Friday 2 November, as sparks continued their battle against blacklisting and anti-union victimisation. The Office of Rail Regulation oversees health and safety standards on railway sites, and only recently hosted a conference which applauded the role of union health and safety reps in the workplace. They are a publicly-funded regulator, and sparks were demanding that they take account for the outrageous anti-union...

Coventry car workers staged a brief sit-in strike after their bosses announced 156 redundancies. The workers at the Manganese Bronze factory, which manufactures the famous London "black cabs", began the sit-in after administrator PriceWaterhouseCooper (PWC) was called in because of a failure to find new funding for the company. According to Unite, which organises the workers, PWC had told them there were "significant interested parties" that might fund the company, only for the management to then announce lay-offs. The redundancies will come into effect immediately. 99 of the 156 are head...

Workers at the St Pancras Station outlet of chain sandwich shop Pret A Manger are facing intimidation and victimisation for organising a trade union in the store. A group of workers began organising in August 2012, around a series of ongoing grievances including non-payment, late notification of shift changes, bullying by managers, and being rostered fewer hours than their stated contracts. A petition around these demands was signed by nearly half of all staff working in the store. Almost straight away, key organisers found themselves victimised. One worker was given a disciplinary hearing for...