Unite Rank & File

Details of the Unite Constitutional Timetable for 2022 – 2028 are now out following the June EC meeting

 

Details in the document here

 

Doc 11.4 constitutional timetable 22-28

 

Unite members are currently involved in two crucial battles at the Rolls-Royce plant in Barnoldswick, Lancashire and the Optare bus manufacturers in Leeds.

Rolls-Royce bosses announced in August that they would be offshoring production of the Trent Engine blades, currently manufactured at the Barnoldswick plant to Singapore.

The move would see 350 workers lose their jobs, the potential closure of the factory and the further threats to the jobs of workers in the supply chain.  And this is a company that sought £1 billion in financial support from the Government.

Unite members voted 94% for a strike to stop the job losses. 

They began a 3 week strike last Friday 6 November that was due to end on 27 November – but the action will now continue until Christmas Eve.

National officer Ross Quinn told the local press 
“This dispute is not just about maintaining the viability of the Rolls-Royce factory in Barnoldswick, it is about the future prosperity of the local community.”

Workers at bus manufacturer Optare in Leeds have been taking strike action from last month.  They have been staging 48-hour strikes every week to win a pay rise that was pledged but never implemented by the company last year.  Optare can hardly plead poverty. The company is owned by the billionaire Hinduja brothers Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash, the second richest people in the UK.
Despite Unite pickets at Optare wearing masks, socially distancing and regularly using hand sanitiser, last week a police officer ordered them to stop picketing quoting new coronavirus legislation.Unite made legal representations that have been successful so the right to picket has been maintained. The stakes are high, the bosses are accommodating temporary workers in hotels and bussing them in to try and break the strike. But next week, the strike will escalate to four days a week and workers believe that this will have a major impact. 

It is clear that just as with the economic crash in 2008, the Tories and the bosses are intent on making us pay for growing pandemic and economic crises.  These strikes are crucial because if they win it shows that workers don’t have to meekly accept being thrown on the scrapheap or cuts to their pay and benefits.  But the workers at these factories could also be the key to tackling another crisis – that of the ongoing climate catastrophe.  Optare workers specialise in making electric buses. Barnoldswick workers specialise in making blades for aircraft engines – but there’s no reason why they can’t make blades for wind turbines. 

Raise solidarity for these strikes in your branch and committee meetings. Get in touch to invite a speaker or if your branch can make donations.

Send messages of solidarity to:

Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick – facebook.com/UniteNorthWest/  and tweet to @Unite_NorthWest using #BattleForBarnoldswick and #SaveOurSite hashtags

Optare Richard.bedford@unitetheunion.org

In the recent EC Elections held on the 18th June I wanted to comment on the very low turnout in most of the sectors and analyse briefly why this happened. The URF has always campaigned for a real democratic union but at the moment it still remains in the hands of a bureaucratic elite.

In the regions there were contests in the following regions : Ireland, Scotland, North East Yorkshire and Humberside, South East, Wales and West Midlands. Of course voting in territorial elections is restricted to working members only.

In the regions there was an average of a 6.2% turnout. It was better in the Industrial sectors where there were contests in 9 of the sectors again with an average turnout of 6.2%. At the last Rules Conference it was resolved to have equality representatives elected onto the EC. There were only contests in BAEM and Retired Members. LGBT, Women and Young Members were uncontested as well 10 Industrial sectors and 4 Regions without a contest. Of course if you are a Community Member, Unemployed or a student you do not have a vote in these Elections at all. The Retired Members sector where I stood had the highest poll 19% which shows that Retired Members are very active.

The reason for the low poll in the Industrial sectors is that in a union like Unite which has strong bureaucratic apparatus, members feel that they have no say in most decisions. All Officers, National Officers and assistant General Secretaries are appointed either on the recommendation of the Executive Council or the General Secretary. They are not accountable to the membership because they have not been elected. Members therefore consider these elections an irrelevancy and it has nothing to do with apathy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Unite enormously with the threat of layoffs redundancies and sackings. BA Workers are threatened with sackings and or redundancies. In Passenger Transport, 44 Bus drivers have died from coronavirus showing inadequate PPE and protection from the virus.

It is necessary for the URF to campaign for democracy, accountability and a perspective that all members of the union irrespective of whether they work or not to have a proper democratic structure in the union and be able to participate like working members. When the pandemic is over we need to have a perspective to fight redundancies and sackings through strike action if necessary.

Unite Rank and File are really shocked to hear that Moe Manir, a hard working Unite rep on London buses has got a disciplinary this Thursday at Abellio and is facing the sack

Moe, with others, has been a major campaigner for the London-wide consultative ballot on safety that took place last Friday 7th February 2020.

There is going to be a protest at 12.30pm this Thursday outside the Twickenham depot where Moe’s disciplinary is being held if anyone able to make it – Stanley Road, Twickenham TW2 5NP