Unite to announce construction strike ballot timetable
8 November 2011
Thousands of workers to protest to defend
pay and sector skills
Thousands of construction workers are expected to take unpaid
leave and travel to London tomorrow (Wednesday 9 November) to
demonstrate over an unprecedented attack on the skills and pay of
skilled workers as Unite prepares for a strike ballot at Balfour
Beatty Engineering Services.
Unite will announce the date of the strike ballot against
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services at tomorrow’s rally.
Unite, the UK’s largest union, is providing coaches from all
over the country to bring electricians, plumbers and heating and
ventilation engineers to the capital for a national day of protest
to defend the skills and pay of thousands of skilled construction
workers.
WHEN: Wednesday 9 November 2011, 11:30am
WHERE: The Shard (London Bridge) rally, then a
march to Blackfriars station building site for a second rally from
1pm-1.30pm, followed by a march down the Embankment to the House of
Commons for a lobby of parliament.
The day of protest and lobby of parliament is over an attack by
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, along with six other leading
construction companies, to withdraw from five long-standing
agreements and impose new semi-skilled grades with massive cuts in
pay.
Unite is balloting Balfour Beatty Engineering Services first as
it believes the firm is acting as the `ring-leader' of the
break-away employers, with five firms out of the seven threatening
to sack workers who refuse to sign the new and inferior contracts
by 7 December.
Ahead of the rally Unite's general secretary Len McCluskey said:
“Unite’s highly skilled workers in construction are facing an
unprecedented attack on skills. If Balfour Beatty and their fellow
conspirators get their way eight out of nine workers will lose one
third of their pay and will lose any voice they have over their
working lives. These employers have threatened to sack any worker
who does not sign up to their employers’ ‘charter’.
“But Unite members have shown that they are not going to sign
away their future livelihoods. Our members have been demanding a
ballot so that they can defend their skills and pay.
“Electricians, who have trained for six years, demand the right
to be paid as skilled workers. They have families to support and
mortgages to pay and simply cannot afford to hand over a third of
their pay to maintain the profits of their bosses."
The national day of protest follows months of demonstrations by
thousands of rank-and-file construction workers outside sites
up-and-down the country, including at Sellafield, Grangemouth and
Ratcliffe power stations; Blackfriars and Kings Cross stations; and
Lindsey oil refinery.
What form strike action will take will be announced in due
course.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officers Liane Groves on 07793 661657 / Shaun Noble on 07768 693940
or Unite national officer Bernard McAulay on 07958 514837.
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.
Unite has been told by these major employers that they will no
longer be party to the following 40-year-old agreements: JIB (Joint
Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry); SJIB
(Scottish Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting
Industry); JIB-PMES (Joint Industry Board for Plumbing Mechanical
Engineering Services in England and Wales); SNIJIB (Scottish and
Northern Ireland Joint Industry Board for the Plumbing Industry);
HVAC (National Agreement for the Heating, Ventilating, Air
Conditioning, Piping and Domestic Engineering Industry); and MPA
(Major Projects Agreement).
