Leaked document exposes bosses’ plan to subvert union strike ballot

From Press Release by a shop steward:

Secret documents leaked by a trade union show how firms are planning to fight planned industrial action at industrial sites across Britain.

The Engineering Construction Industry Association has drawn up a list of moves in which construction and engineering employers can take against members of Unite and GMB, who are preparing to strike over a 5.5 per cent pay claim.

The leaked documents quote the ECIA’s employment relations manager, Simon Bailey, advising firms not to allow some mass meetings to take place.

“Don’t give names and addresses of your workforce to full time officers of the unions and shop stewards. Don’t allow full time officer’s access to your workforce, unless their intentions for the visit are made clear and they are not related to the ballot.

“Don’t allow your shop stewards time off to organise the ballot or promote a vote in support of industrial action.”

Instead, the association tells firms to stress “the depressed state of the industry and the economy in general.”

“Industrial action could be harmful to the long term prospects of the UK engineering construction industry and its workforce. It is therefore in the employers’ interests not to act in a way which aids and abets the unions to run a successful ballot…

“The employers have nothing to hide or feel guilty about.”

A shop steward, who led the demonstrations at the Lindsey Oil Refinery earlier this year, and is a key official in the current dispute, is calling for Mr Bailey to be fired. “The employers are deliberately trying to undermine the ability of the unions to represent the workforce, which is frankly scandalous.

“This is a sick and cynical attempt to frighten a proud workforce into submission. It is further evidence of anti-union sentiment from the employer’s organisation which represents firms, who have a history of anti-union activities.

“It seeks to undermine the wages and conditions of people who have in many cases devoted their lives to the industry, and whose families have suffered some of the worst aspects of the recession.”

The shop steward says management intimidation is likely to motivate workers to take industrial action, rather than have the intended effect.

The ECIA document also says that Employers should: “maintain current conditions of work and only make significant contentious changes if there is a health and safety requirement to do so or the changes were consulted upon or agreed before the announcement about the ballot. Aggravating your workforce with other matters will only raise tension at this time and make them more likely to support industrial action.”