Construction workers need national strike action

Rank and file electricians in the construction industry have been meeting in Scotland, Manchester and now London over the last two weeks as their magnificent campaign of defiance against ruthless employers enters its second month. They want to impose new contracts, which will see many electricians losing up to 35% in their wages and see other terms and conditions attacked. The response from thousands of these workers has been incredible.

Inevitably after a tremendous series of protests, meetings, rallies and most notably walkouts at West Burton, Saltend and Cambuslang workers will be reviewing what has happened and debating the next stage of defending the JIB agreement that now seven of the biggest construction companies want to withdraw from.

Initially, with little support from Unite, the action has been organised by a handful of union activists, many of them blacklisted. The pressure from this campaign has seen Unite moved into action, with full-time officials now present on the protests. Construction workers will welcome this but will now want them to act with a sense of urgency.

At the Farringdon protest, Unite Assistant General Secretary Gail Cartmail promised a strike ballot but that was 3 weeks ago! It is crucial that the momentum that has been built up isn’t dissipated. The series of protests nationally including in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Lindsey, Scotland, London and now the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire last Friday (where 100 electricians were involved) have raised the stakes with the employers and the union. They have also played a crucial role in informing electricians of the employers’ attacks and raised the idea of fighting back to thousands of workers. But a clear lead has to be given by Unite.

A national ballot of all electricians working for the 7 companies should be organised immediately. Even a ballot at one of the companies would be a step forward, which would focus the national campaign. Whatever happens, rather than going to a different site every week, one site could to be targeted every week with the workers discussed with consistently. Whether there is an official ballot or not, this could give the electricians on the targeted site the confidence to walk out with a view to spreading this action nationally.

On Wednesday 12th October up to 400 electricians and other workers from the construction industry along with fellow trade unionists and students held an impromptu march in central London from the Tate Modern to the Balfour Beatty site at Blackfriars as part of their ongoing struggle against the employers’ plans to smash their wages by up to 35%.

The police were trying to play catch-up as the demonstrators marched over the Millenium Bridge, then stopped in the road outside St Paul’s cathedral before heading to the Blackfriars site.

This incredible campaign is taking place nationwide and saw another four protests today around the country.
For two months, rank and file electricians have been building a campaign of protests and walkouts to stop the ‘Big 8’ construction employers withdrawing from the Joint Industry Board (JIB) national agreements.
Such as been the effectiveness of the campaign that it’s now down to the ‘Dirty Seven’ as MJN Coulston has backed off.

But it still means that thousands of electricians are facing 90-day notices to put them on the new BESNA terms and conditions which will open the way for worse contracts.

Balfour Beatty alone has put over 1,600 workers in this corner. The deadline for them is 7th December so no more time must be lost.

Meeting the previous evening

At a 200-strong Unite open meeting in Conway Hall in London on teh Tuesday night electricians heaped more pressure on Unite officials who have promised a strike ballot against the employers.

In the end, Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail promised to serve the notice as soon as possible: “Read my lips, we will support you”.

Workers welcome Unite coming on board but they recognise that a sense of urgency has to be injected into the battle.

Preferably all the companies must be served notice urgently but even if say Balfour Beatty workers were balloted, it would mean their sites would be picketed and would be the focus for action that could be spread nationally.

It would send a strong message to them and the other employers that the battle is on. The consensus from last night’s meeting and today’s protest was that there should be a slight change to the tactics.
While protesting outside different sites every week has spread the word to thousands of workers about the bosses’ attacks, it is now time to concentrate on one site to see if action can be built – official or unofficial

Next week, we will all be down where we started seven weeks ago, at Blackfriars. Union activists need to get on the site, discussing with the electricians to convince them that if we fight, we can defeat the employers.
There was also a call from the meeting and protest that whatever happens with the ballot, there should be a national walkout of all construction workers on 30th November to join with the public sector strike to defend pensions.