Sparks pay wage cutting Gratte Brothers a surprise visit

23 November Construction electricians brought their campaign of defiance to the home of one of the 'Dirty Seven' contractors in London today. Over 150 sparks marched from their morning protest at Kings Cross to the headquarters of Grattes Brothers and occupied the foyer of the office for over an hour.

As electricians poured in to the foyer security guards scrambled to block the stairs, with a little help from bewildered staff. They then stood stony faced as sparks demanded to see the company director to explain why he was tearing up the JIB agreement and cutting wages by 35%.

The march had been accompanied by a police presence from St. Pancras. One police officer had entered along with protestors while the rest of his crew milled about in the courtyard. A person or persons unknown produced a thick chain and pad locked the front door, locking out the rest of the police. The remaining police officer decided discretion was the better part of valour and largely refrained from interfering with the occupation, which was entirely peaceful and surprisingly good humoured despite the indignities Gratte Brothers and the other six contractors have heaped on sparks.

Police eventually gained entry through a side door and a senior officer demanded that sparks nominate three people to discuss with him. Sparks responded that they weren't interested in talking to police they were here to speak to Gratte Brothers management. When the officer tried to repeat himself a cry went up form a number of sparks "I am Spartacus!" followed by gales of laughter and whistles!

Rally earlier in the morning outside St. Pancras

Grattes is one of the companies looking to withdraw from the Joint Industry Board (JIB) national agreement with Unite which will lead to de-skilling. This will cut many electricians’ wages by up to 35% by lowering rates to £10 per hour on the new BESNA contracts. This comes a day after it was revealed that top executives in Britain have seen their income rise by an incredible 49%.

Grattes is the company whose Cannon Street site manager infamously told one of the sparks a few weeks ago: "If it was up to me, I'd pay them £1 an hour"! Angry electricians shouted at managers telling them to explain why they are slashing their wages but they just stood silent on the stairs. In fact one of them asked: "What is the JIB?"!

NSSN Chair Rob Williams addresses rally outside St. Pancras

Earlier in the morning sparks gathered outside St. Pancras for a rally. As they marched to Gratte Brothers office they briefly blockaded the goods entrance of the site on the appropriately names Goods Way and then held a short protest outside the offices of Sheppards.
This is the latest protest in an incredible campaign of rank and file construction workers that is now into its fourth month. Over the last few weeks it has escalated into stoppages at sites in London and nationally, including at the West Burton and Ratcliffe power stations in the East Midlands and at Corus on Teesside.

The Unite strike ballot is under way in Balfour Beatty (BBES), that has just announced that it is looking to sack 1,300 tradesmen and replace them with agency workers (see Unite statement below). This is clearly an attempt to raise the stakes before the ballot ends next week. The new 'Siteworker' leaflet deals with the misinformation of BBES (Siteworker leaflet) and should be read by every BBES worker and everyone facing BESNA.

A massive YES vote for strike at BBES would send this struggle into a new stage, with official picket lines outside their sites from 7th December. This would be the starting point for spreading the action through, if necessary, unofficial solidarity action throughout the industry.

A dry run can happen next Wednesday on N30 when many sparks are calling for a national stoppage of construction workers in support of the striking 3 million public sector workers. This can cut across the divide and rule tactics of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne and the Tory press.

As the executive pay rises show, the real 'gold-plated' pensions and pay packets are in the boardrooms. We need to unite the struggles of private and public sector workers to fight for a decent living for all. The TUC and the unions organising the strike rallies on N30 should invite electricians to speak on the platforms to help build this solidarity.


Next week's London electricians protest - meet at Balfour's Blackfriars site at 6.30am

Unite national Rank & File meeting - Saturday 3rd December 11am-2pm, The Grand Connaught Rooms, 61-65 Great Queens St, London WC2B 5DA 
 

North West

Sparks in the north west continued their protests this morning, at Manchester town hall (NG Baileys) and Liverpool central library (Shephards.

News of three rank-and-file delegates attending this weekend's Unite Construction NISC (national industrial sector conference) buoyed the mood in Manchester, where management locked one of the two gates, making our task of leafleting much easier!

Steve Acheson told me:

"Again today we see a massive concerted effort nationwide by electricians and their supporters. This struggle will be relentless, we will not concede one penny off our rate or one inch from our national agreement, and we will continue to push for mass walkouts both official and unofficial".

Further protests will be organised next Wednesday, with details to be announced.

Balfour Beatty to replace 1,300 skilled jobs with semi-skilled agency labour

Unite has learnt that Balfour Beatty Engineering Services intend to cut up to 1,300 directly employed skilled electricians by semi-skilled agency labour in its move to de-skill the industry and sack workers who do not sign up to inferior contracts.

At a recent site meeting with shop floor workers at Sellafield, a senior Balfour Beatty Engineering Services human resource manager confirmed that it was the intention of the company to maintain a core workforce of skilled trades and bring in semi-skilled agency labour to make up the teams.

These teams would consist of one craftsman, working with eight semi-skilled installer grades.

Unite has always warned that this would lead to the loss of a third of pay for those who were not employed on the skilled grades, but this goes even further as agency labour will lose all security that directly employed workers enjoy.

Unite national officer, Bernard McAulay said: "This confirms the worst of our fears for the workers in this industry.

"Balfour Beatty Engineering Services are not content with de-skilling, they want to get rid of job security for all but a small core of directly employed skilled workers.

Out of around 1,700 directly employed skilled workers, only 300/400 will remain employed. This is an unprecedented attack on the wages and security of workers.

If BBES get away with this the rest of the industry will follow and will lead to instability on a massive scale.

Unite members are currently being balloted for strike action at Balfour Beatty Engineering Services over the move by BBES to impose new contracts and to withdraw from long standing collective agreements with the Joint Industry Boards. The ballot closes on Tuesday 29th November.

Unite union press release, 22.11.11: