Unite announces strike re-ballot in Balfour Beatty
12 January 2012
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has today (Thursday 12 January)
announced its plan to re-ballot members employed at Balfour Beatty
Engineering Services (BBES) for strike action over the employer-led
attacks on the skills and pay of workers in the sector.
Potential strike action could hit some of the UK’s key
infrastructure projects, including power stations and Crossrail as
disgruntled electricians, plumbers and heating and ventilating
engineers down tools.
The new strike ballot, which opens on Thursday 19 January,
follows Balfour Beatty’s move to impose contractual changes on
around 1,600 workers in BBES which will see the majority of skilled
workers’ pay cut by one third.
Unite national officer Bernard McAulay said: “Skilled craftsmen
are angry that BBES is leading the attack on their jobs.
“Over the past six months we have seen huge unrest in
construction sites all over the country because of this move.
Unless BBES and its cohorts reconsider the way they are forcing
through change there could be harmful strikes across the
country.
“Good industrial relations involves negotiating change in a
constructive way, instead BBES is imposing an employer’s charter on
an unwilling workforce.”
The company has told Unite that if its staff refuse to sign up
to the new inferior contracts they will sack them and replace them
with agency labour. The ballot closes on Wednesday 1 February.
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, along with six other
leading construction companies, intends to withdraw from five
long-standing agreements and impose new semi-skilled grades with
massive cuts in pay.
The ballot announced today follows a previous BBES strike ballot
in late November 2011, where over 80 per cent of Unite members
voted ‘yes’ for strike action, but rather than listen to the voice
of its workers BBES preferred to use the draconian balloting laws
to challenge the validity of the ballot forcing Unite to
re-ballot.
“Unite members made it abundantly clear that they do not agree
with their employer’s imposition when they voted for strike action
by an overwhelming 80 per cent in our last ballot.” added Bernard
McAulay.
“If BBES prefers to use anti-union laws and imposition, the
company will continue to alienate the workforce rather than find a
solution to the issues facing the industry.”
The re-ballot in BBES also follows months of protests by
thousands of rank and file construction workers outside sites up
and down the country, including Sellafield, Grangemouth and
Ratcliffe power stations, Blackfriars and Kings Cross station and
Lindsey Oil Refinery.
ENDS
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer Liane Groves on 07793 661657 or Unite national officer
Bernard McAulay on 07958 514837.
Notes to news editors:
The seven major break-away contractors currently involved are:
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited; NG Bailey Building
Services; Crown House Technologies; Gratte Brothers; Spie Matthew
Hall; Shepherd Engineering Services (SES); and T. Clarke Plc.
