Electrical firm lays-off trade unionists
Article published: Thursday, January 29th 2009
The Trade Union Unite is claiming foul play after both shop stewards were sacked from Manchester manufacturing firm IMI Scott Ltd.
The Wythenshawe-based company laid-off four workers last October, citing a reduction in orders coming into the company.
But the union says directors of the firm, a subsidiary of IMI plc that manufactures electrical wiring, were unable to show they had considered other courses of action to reduce costs.
Trevor Prior, one of the shop stewards sacked by the firm, is convinced that the redundancies are a reaction to the increased activity of the union over the last year" adding that "the management has repeatedly put barriers in our way.
When the firm announced that attendance records would be used to determine who lost their jobs, it was clear that it would result in both of the shop stewards being made redundant, according to Prior. He explains that IMI Scott marked the shop stewards down as "absent" for days dedicated to union activity, to which the shop stewards were legally entitled.
The union at IMI has had recognition in the workplace since 1985 but it is only in the last year, with the election of new shop stewards, that it has been willing to successfully challenge management. For the first time, workers have been able to negotiate pay deals and have established a seat on the Trades Council.
The shop stewards’ union Unite claim the management were hostile to these moves and attempted to disrupt them, labelling the unions representatives Communist agitators.
Unite believe the lay-offs, which equate to 16 per cent of the total work force at the industrial plant, were a deliberate attack on the workers right to organise.
IMI Scott management refused to comment on the redundancies when contacted by Mule.
The remaining workers at the Manchester plant are said to be sympathetic to those who have lost their jobs. They are refusing overtime in protest and have threatened to ballot for strike action unless moves are taken by IMI Scott to reinstate the sacked workers. Meanwhile, the four workers plan to target the business’ head offices in Birmingham to put pressure on IMI to respect the terms of their own corporate responsibility policy.
The sacked employees are still out of work, but workers believe their campaign has halted a further wave of redundancies alluded to by IMI in October.
Trevor Prior has set up the Campaign Against Compulsory Redundancies to highlight the plight of those losing their jobs at smaller firms and to raise the profile of his campaign.
You hear a lot about the mass redundancies from larger businesses, like the 10,000 jobs lost at BT, but never about all those at smaller firms, he said.
Patrick Smith 29.01.09
More: Manchester
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