Unite sells out Sparks over legal challenge to strike

[bricolage]

On Tuesday, 81.6% of mechanical and electrical workers at Balfour Beatty voted in favour of strike action (http://unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/unite_members_overwhelming_yes.aspx). This followed a highly militant direct action campaign by the Sparks rank-and-file group (http://infantile-disorder.blogspot.com/2011/09/proposed-electricians-pay-cut-sparks.html) forcing the union to up the ante. However, now that the employer has used the anti-strike laws to overturn the ballot (http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2011/12/01/balfour-beatty-gets-strike-vote-overturned/), the strength of the rank-and-file movement will really be tested.

The threat of a legal challenge should come as no surprise in this instance. Balfour Beatty is, as Unite the Union point out, the "ringleader" in forcing through the new BESNA agreement. They are also one of the main players in the continued blacklisting of trade unionists from construction work. As such, in their desire to hamstring workers trying to defend what they already have, it is little wonder that they are prepared to simply wave the draconian ballot restrictions at the union until the ballot is re-run.

What might be more surprising is that Unite actually complied. When they faced a similar situation at British Airways, the company had to get a high court injunction (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10119196) in order to cancel the strike at the last minute. Moreover, the RMT Union's landmark victory against Serco (http://www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/node/2066) means that Balfour's ability to have the vote thrown out on a technicality is less clear cut. Yet the threat alone was enough to make the union back down - albeit with some angry words - and comply with the company's demand. This fits in with Adam Ford's prediction that "Unite bureaucrats will need to find a way of selling defeat to a largely militant rank-and-file," (http://infantile-disorder.blogspot.com/2011/10/make-or-break-moment-nears-for-sparks.html) and the use of the most draconian anti-union laws in Europe almost does the job for them.

The deadline for workers to sign the new contracts or be let go is 7 December. As a mechanical worker I spoke to at a recent Sparks demo in Liverpool noted, the lads will be pulled in the office one-by-one and made to sign. That pressure and the fact that the whole industry is casualised and you can be let go at a moments' notice mean that by capitulating so easily ahead of an already tight deadline the union has effectively abandoned the workers to their fate.

This leaves a lot hanging on how the rank-and-file respond to the latest news. Already, it seems that some pickets are being organised for Wednesday at sites across the country. Though the official action has been overturned, a nationwide wildcat strike would arguably be more effective as it would be beyond the control of Unite bureaucrats and workers themselves can decide how it progresses. If there are pickets, in many places workers will refuse to cross. We have already seen sites shut down by sheer force of numbers, offices occupied and one company forced to back out of BESNA. That same level of militancy and solidarity needs to be displayed now.

The Sparks against de-skilling and 35% pay cuts Facebook group is here (https://www.facebook.com/groups/264935423529258/) and will carry news of planned protests. If you can get down to one, M&E worker or not, show your solidarity and add your voice to theirs. Even if what happens on the day falls short of a national wildcat strike, those taking action will still need to take control of their own struggle back from sellout union officials. We should all help that in every way we can.http://libcom.org/blog/unite-sells-out-sparks-over-legal-challenge-strike-05122011

[bricolage]

very important message from Ian Bradley - "After electricians at Balfour Beatty voted 81.6% in favour of strike action, Balfour's have decided to listen to their lawyers rather than their own workforce and use draconian anti union laws. Faced with 35% pay cuts we have no choice but to take direct action, so tomorrow morning from 06.30 we aim to shut the blackfriars site for 24 hours
. We have had wonderful support from the occupy movement , that has been greatly appreciated but we could do with your help now more than ever. If anyone can come along tomorrow and lend support it would be fantastic, because time is running out for the signing of the new contracts. Thank you"

Support the Sparks!
.

[bricolage]

Quality video of Sparks when they were out on December 9th. Real militant movement this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUaA3dBuZWs&feature=share

[bricolage]

It's on. Wildcat shit inna dis.


This morning was supposed to mark the beginning of on official strike after a ballot recently organised by the Unite union returned an 82% vote in favour of strike action. However, the walkout was called off by the union after Balfour Beatty threatened legal action to stop the strike in the high court - the latest employer to do so after a number of strikes were banned on the basis of technicalities (http://libcom.org/news/high-court-ruling-scuppers-ba-strikes-%E2%80%93-another-nail-coffin-right-strike-17052010) in the last two years.
Regardless, Sparks struck and protested across the country today. Pickets were organised at the Balfour Beatty site at Blackfriars, London, and attempts were made to stop lorries entering the site, before a heavy police presence cleared the road. Other action has been seen in Cardiff, Central Library in Manchester, St Catherine's hospital in Merseyside, Glasgow, Kelvin Hall school in Hull and North East Lincolnshire.http://libcom.org/news/sparks-wildcat-face-pay-cuts-legal-threats-07122011

[bricolage]

Don't normally link SWP articles but they've written an alright one on it here (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=26970). I'll take this over last weeks 'general strike' any day.

[bricolage]

Not sure what's going on at the picket now but have seen these two semi-contradictory twitter posts;

- After a minor scuffle, police have moved in to break the strike. picket is strong but more bodies required. #blackfriars #Sparks #wildcat (at about 6.20)

- RT @Socialist_party (https://twitter.com/#%21/Socialist_party): Two mini vans full of night shift at Blackfriars have refused to cross #sparks (https://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23sparks) picket line (about ten minutes ago)

I only found out about this night shift picket after I'd got home from work :( Maybe I do need a smart phone...

[BurnTheOliveTree]

Annoyingly couldn't make it down to today's picket, wish I'd been able to. How optimistic are people about the potential for this to be a revival of the rank-and-file movement? I think it's fortunate that it's come around the time of the n30 strike, it's like one is the mass of the working class waking up from a long post-thatcher sleep, and the other is showing in advance the way to circumvent the TU bureaucracy when it comes to that.

[brigadista]

depressingly heard today of some nhs workers who were so pissed of with Unison they are going to join Unite.........:(

Gwan the Sparks!!!!

[IndependentCitizen]

Up the sparks, fuck sell-out unite. Wish we had more militancy from within the rank and file members of the labour movement.

[bricolage]

this is sort of the point I was trying to make in the thread on November 30th. the anti-strike laws of thatcher, maintained by new labour and reinvigorated by the coalition pretty much put a legal stop to militancy. calling a general strike is illegal but so is unauthorised striking, mass pickets, flying pickets, secondary striking and so forth. yet while the first one makes an appeal to union leaders that are not under any circumstance going to break the law (and this isn't cos they are bad leaders or bad people but because their social role and position means they will do so), the second lot are things that can and will be enacted by rank and file workers. with this in mind I'd venture that isolated wildcats are a much closer step to the mass strike than the one day token events they are numerically dwarfed by.

[brigadista]

this is sort of the point I was trying to make in the thread on November 30th. the anti-strike laws of thatcher, maintained by new labour and reinvigorated by the coalition pretty much put a legal stop to militancy. calling a general strike is illegal but so is unauthorised striking, mass pickets, flying pickets, secondary striking and so forth. yet while the first one makes an appeal to union leaders that are not under any circumstance going to break the law (and this isn't cos they are bad leaders or bad people but because their social role and position means they will do so), the second lot are things that can and will be enacted by rank and file workers. with this in mind I'd venture that isolated wildcats are a much closer step to the mass strike than the one day token events they are numerically dwarfed by.

I agree and if the sparks can take on the reformed labour laws before this gov tries to reform them further this would be some progress- but not optimistic- but supporting them

[bricolage]

yeah i'm never optimistic about anything but I like this lot more than anything else I've seen lately. someone has to win sometime... don't they?

[BurnTheOliveTree]

I don't know if the mass one-day strikes can be written off so quickly. Lots of the people that struck on N30 were in the first strike-action of their lives, and I think they do a service in making it practically a clear on a mass scale that the ideas about working class being dead etc are myths - where this attitude has been so prevalent for so long, the effect it has ideologically is important for workers still under its sway.

[BurnTheOliveTree]

http://www.facebook.com/groups/264935423529258/

There's the fb group for them, seems the numbers at Blackfriars weren't great (around 100) but were quite successful at holding the picket and persuading people not to cross. other sites seem to have gone well from what people are saying there.

[Hit The North]

I agree with Burn, I'm all for a mixed economy of resistance as long as it draws workers into struggle. The wildcat, in its defiance of the union bureaucracy, the employers and the courts, is obviously a step forward, though. It's wonderful to see how different sections of the class are almost instantly drawn into solidarity, as the Socialist Worker article points out:


Originally printed in Socialist Worker (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=26970)
Construction workers walked out at the Grangemouth site to join Balfour pickets and around 200 workers at ConocoPhillips protested in Immingham. Some 300 protested in Hartlepool, where electricians managed to free an arrested demonstrator.
Electricians are winning support from other workers. In London today, members of the RMT, UCU, PCS and NUJ unions joined the electricians. Students marched to the site to show their support.
Teachers from the NUT union at Langdon School in Newham, who are also striking today, sent a solidarity message. The support gives the lie to the idea that public and private sector workers are pitted against each other.
Happy days are here again :)

[bricolage]

I'm not writing on the one day strikes as meaningless, I participated and thought it was amazing to see workers who had never before been on strike, despite being consistently attacked by the press and politicians, on picket lines and marches across the country forming varying degress of cross-sectional solidarity. my issue is with those who just push for more of the same (but bigger) as the main tactic to follow. we can have one day strikes encompassing millions and millions but essentially they won't get us very much and from my experience most people out on the day were well aware of this. I firmly take the view that it's the generalisation of things that we're talking about in this thread that november 30th etc should be encouraged to emerge into and not just bigger and bigger and bigger set pieces.

[bricolage]

The support gives the lie to the idea that public and private sector workers are pitted against each other.
Much as I agree with the sentiment expressed here if I was to play devils advocate the line has always been that private sector workers don't support their 'priveliged' counterparts in the public sector, not the other way around.

[bricolage]

Another report of this morning at Blackfirars.

A half dozen of ours were out on the line at Balfour Beatty's Blackfriars building project this morning, threading our way through police vans to get to the front gates where over a hundred people were gathered listening to music and speeches. There was a pretty militant attitude with a decent number of sparks bolstered by a load of activists, but police had their battle lines drawn and shoved their way into a half-circle around the crowd, putting them in a good position, when organisers called for a blockade of the door, to tighten the noose quickly.

The crowd managed to briefly shut down the main entrance but we were quickly pushed off again by the large police presence which then held us semi-kettled while building workers walked in.

With the police established in control of the front gate our numbers thinned slightly, but later on the action shifted over to a side door and a road occupation started, prompting police to bring out a German Shepherd to intimidate picketers. As 50 thugs and their dog forced everyone back off the road I couldn't help but think it made for an inventive twist on the famous BBC sheepherding show.

The picket drew to a close, shortly afterwards but the organisers weren't out of ideas yet and about half of the original picketers marched down to Victoria, fetching up with a protest outside Balfour Beattie's HQ at 130 Wilton Road.* The walk, which went straight past the Houses of Parliament, prompted a bizarre moment as people walked into the heart of the city where we were told we would be arrested if we "protested inside the zone." Exactly where the line was between carrying a placard saying "One out All Out" past Parliament as part of a protest march and protesting at Parliament was never made entirely clear.

In a quest to make things even more unclear, sparks also visited a site near Victoria station which is owned by fellow agreement-breaking firm Grattes. Rather coincidentally as they approached, a sudden fire alarm was heard onsite and all the workers had to leave, shutting the site down. About an hour later, they were all still out. That presumably didn't count either, fortunately, as police failed to rock up with the handcuffs.

The outcome of the day, despite severe police interference, was generally positive. A great deal of discomfort was dealt out to the building workers who tried to cross the line with many being turned away and most importantly, a message was recieved from inside the building that not a single electrician was in on site that day - while that can't be entirely confirmed, it's certainly true that the general takeup of the call to strike has been high and that Balfour Beatty took a bloody nose just after they'd "won" their court injunction against official strike action from the Unite union.

Later on in the evening a second picket drew hundreds of people to the same site. Although we are still waiting for eyewitness reports on that, turnout appears to have been good and there are reports that two minibuses of night workers agreed to head home.
---
*Many thanks, incidentally to the postie who refused to deliver Balfour Beatty's mail once we'd arrived, as a note to any local RM bosses who might read this, they definitely had no other choice, serious health and safety risk etc etc.http://www.solfed.org.uk/?q=rub-a-spark-the-wrong-way-and-you-get-a-wildcat