Click Here for the rest of this issue
Socialist Party Home
North - Workplace News
 Visteon bosses say "accept cuts or we close"
By Peter Hadden

Visteon bosses are attempting to put a gun to the heads of their UK workforce saying "either accept cuts in pensions and in conditions or else face the prospect of the plants closing".

The company have scheduled three days of negotiations, starting on 10 May, on their proposals to attack existing terms and conditions. One worker in the Belfast Visteon plant told the Socialist: "Workers here are very angry at these proposals. The mood is that we should not negotiate on these terms. If we pull out of the talks, it is likely that the other UK plants will do the same. If Visteon then go ahead and impose the changes, we would have no option but to ballot for strike action."

Asked about the threat to close the plant he stressed that the workforce were not going to be browbeaten by such ultimatums: "We are not going to surrender our conditions under threat. If we make concessions now, it will be just the start. As it is there are signs that Visteon is ready to pull out anyway. Two thirds of the factory has already been sold off to a holding company. The land has also been sold."

Visteon, which supplies components for Ford, was originally part of the Ford group but was spun off in 2000. One of the reasons was to make it easier to close it and move the production to somewhere cheaper.

Among the workforce there is disgust at Ford: "The problem could be solved if Visteon were to be reincorporated back into Ford. They have already done this with the equivalent company in the US. Instead Ford seem prepared to let this company go to the wall. Workers here are prepared to fight. We have nothing to lose."
North - Workplace News
 Keep the pressure up on pensions
The Socialist

The one day strike by more than one million workers on 28 March against proposed changes to the local government pension scheme clearly put the New Labour government on the back foot.

Plans for a series of regional strikes at the end of April were outlined by UNISON and the other main unions involved. A two day strike in early May was also under consideration.

Faced with the possibility of the local government election campaign being dominated by strikes on this issue, the government entered negotiations. They agreed to discuss "proper protection" for existing staff if the 85 year rule, which allows anyone with 25 years service the choice of retiring at 60, were abolished.

They also agreed that future changes to the scheme would be made by agreement "where possible." UNISON, followed by the other unions, responded by suspending the strike action. There is no doubt that the government has taken a step back in order to try to avert further action.

But what they have offered so far is unspecific and amounts to little more than an agreement to negotiate around certain issues like protection and where savings from changes to the scheme would go.

Labour has approached the local government elections politically punchdrunk from a series of scandals ranging from the peerages for cash to the cost of Cherie Blair’s hairdresser. If the proposed strikes had gone ahead, they would have been under huge pressure to offer much more considerable concessions.

It is possible that they will back off from further confrontation and offer a settlement along the lines of that already offered to civil servants, firefighters and other public sector workers.

If they don’t, the suspended action must immediately be reinstated. It was the 28 March strike that forced the government to the table. An escalating programme of follow up strike action can defeat them on this issue.
North - Workplace News
 ASDA – "Always low wages"
By an ASDA worker

ASDA workers have just voted by a narrow margin to accept a new pay deal. However there is considerable anger among staff that this deal has gone through.

A worker in one of the Belfast ASDA stores told The Socialist: "I don’t know where the "yes" votes came from. Our store voted by about 70% to reject this offer."

The deal means that staff will lose the first three days of sick pay plus their entitlements to time and a half on Sundays and double time on bank holidays. All this for a pay increase of £5.73 (plus a bit extra if you work Sundays).

There is anger at the role of our union (USDAW) leadership who negotiated this and recommended it as "not a great deal, but a good deal".

In the end the vote was very narrow, with only 52% voting in favour of the offer, a poor result from the point of view of the union leadership.

Most workers who did vote "yes" did so only very reluctantly. No-one thought it was a good deal but some voted for it because they had no confidence that the union leadership were capable of getting more.

Wal-mart has a reputation for anti health care, union busting policies. The union leaders used this reputation to frighten members into voting "Yes".

However the narrow vote in favour shows that if the union had provided a militant leadership, the workforce would have decisively thrown this rotten deal out.

Some people are now talking about leaving the union in disgust. This would only serve the interests of the Wal-mart fat-cats. Instead we need to build a powerful shop stewards’ organisation within ASDA to make sure that there is no further erosion of conditions.

We also need to fight to change our union, taking control out of the hands of the full time bureaucracy and putting it back into the hands of the membership.
North - Workplace News
 Lecturers face pay deductions
The Socialist

Following a one day strike on 7 March, College lecturers are continuing to boycott assessments and appraisals in pursuit of a decent pay offer.

Rather than give way, the university authorities are trying to find ways to break the action.

They are considering awarding degrees to students who are unable to complete their degrees because of the action.

Worse still, Queens Vice Chancellor, Peter Gregson, has threatened to dock lecturers pay unless they do "a full range of duties". He has sent a letter to all academic staff threatening to withhold part of their pay. This attempt to browbeat the staff into submission has provoked massive anger and should be resisted. It is now clear that further strike action is necessary if this dispute is to be won.
North - Workplace News
 PCS strike solid
The Socialist

100,000 civil servants in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in Britain went on a two day strike at the start of May against job cuts.

The strike was called by the Public and Commercial Service union (PCS) who point out that 15,000 jobs have already gone and a further 15,000 are to go by 2008.

Alongside job cuts the government is intent on pressing ahead with massive privatisation. The result will be a worse service for the public. PCS members are taking action to defend jobs and services. Reports from around the country show that the strike was solid. In Blackpool delegates from the USDAW conference left the conference to go to support their PCS colleagues on the picket line.

PCS are now considering follow up strike action including the possibility of national action by PCS members across all government departments.