Forecourt fuel supplies threatened as ballot of BP
Sainsbury's drivers opens
16 November 2009
Unite the union has today (Monday) announced that it is to
ballot BP tanker drivers who deliver fuel to the forecourts of
Sainsbury's supermarkets.
The 240 drivers, around 200 of them Unite members, work on the
BP Logistics Contract delivering fuel to the retailers' garages
across the UK. Unite says that Sainsbury's decision to put the
contract out to new contractors, with the fuel supply operated by
Green Energy with the labour supply contracted out to two further
companies, the Transport Development Group (TDG) and Turners, will
dismantle long-standing negotiating structures and attack the
union's ability to represent its members. It is also concerned that
up to one tenth of the workforce would be dismissed from their
jobs.
The ballot will open tomorrow (Tuesday, 17th November). Ahead of
this, Unite is warning that the continual refusal of Sainsbury's
and the new contractors, the TDG and Turners, to work with the
union on a way forward means a dispute in the coming weeks is a
near certainty.
Ron Webb, Unite's national officer for the logistics sector,
said: "This union has been working day and night to try to get
these companies to talk about a way forward. Their failure to reach
agreement now means that we now have no other option but to ballot
because our members are not prepared to see their union forced out
and their terms and conditions attacked. The drivers want the
security of knowing that their union can sit down on their behalf
and negotiate directly with their employers, and we are determined
to protect this for them.
"This is about respecting the drivers' union and our members'
terms and conditions. We are in no doubt that unless this is an
unwarranted attack on the drivers' union is abandoned, with all
parties agreeing a way forward, there will be a major dispute.
"The existing negotiating arrangements have served all parties
very well so there is absolutely no sense in dismantling them. To
do so is to sow the seeds of industrial unrest and risk supplies of
fuel to Sainsbury's. We urge both the contractors and Sainsbury's
to see sense and get back round the table quickly."
Unite says that it wants Sainsbury's to adopt the bargaining
arrangements Shell uses on its split contracts, which is to retain
a single negotiating structure. This means that when changes to
terms and conditions are proposed by one employer, they go to all
employers working on the contract. This ensures that parity of pay
and terms is maintained between drivers.
The union is also concerned that the new contract will also
threaten up to 25 jobs, most likely from depots at Hamble,
Sunderland and Grangemouth, as drivers are asked to work on a
different distribution network.
The ballot will close on Tuesday, December 1st.
ENDS
For further information, please contact Pauline Doyle on 07976
832 861.
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