Jerry Hicks

No matter what pressure we are put under by the Rogue 7 we must not sign the BESNA contracts. BBES workers in Scotland have been returning the new contracts unopened to BB head office as have sparks at Spie Matthew Hall along with many others around the country.

On the 4th January ‘Rank and File’ committee members from London, Scotland, Wales, Newcastle, and Manchester met with Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey to discuss the dispute and to get the backing we deserve from Unite. At the meeting he promised full backing for our dispute including financial support, he also said that all construction officers would be committed to the dispute.

We told him that we have been badly let down by Full Time Officers (FTOs) in most cases and that new members were generally not impressed with Unite's part in this dispute. McCluskey said this would be addressed, but can we trust him? After all, the last General Secretary, Derek Simpson, promised lots of things and then ran off with over £500,000 of our money! Hopefully, McCluskey will be true to his word, time will tell and there ain’t much of that left!

A campaign strategy was put forward and a follow up meeting between the Rank & file and McCluskey was agreed for 3 weeks time. A rank & file ‘sub committee’ was elected by those present to ensure we hold McCluskey to account at the follow up meeting.

The coming weeks will be make or break for us, let’s get ready for mass walkouts countrywide. The dispute is on a knife edge and could go either way. It is winnable as long as sparks are prepared to take unofficial action if anyone is sacked for not signing new contracts. Then we will we see if McCluskey and Unite will give their full backing.

The Rogue 7 have been bullying workers into signing since Xmas whilst also offering promises of overtime and longer hours, but actually we need to shorten the working week to 35 hours just like the RMT have done and they are paid a far superior wage to construction workers. They had to fight for it and construction workers must do the same. One out, all out!

It’s ‘do or die’ for us and time to stand up and be counted.

Some planned demo’s/Protests to look out for:

January 11th London BBES Blackfriars at 6.45am.

January 11th Hartlepool power station at 6am.

January 11th Manchester NG Bailey Town hall at 6.30am.

January 11th Wales Landough Hospital at 7am.

January 13th Grangemouth BBES at 630am.

January 16th Aberdeen NG Bailey Royal infirmary at 6.30am.

January 14th 1pm to 4pm, National Rank and File meeting, Birmingham Carrs Lane Center, Carrs Lane. Only 10 minutes walk from New Street station.

Finally, if you need help with expenses to cover producing leaflets or hiring rooms for meetings etc then please contact us.For more details of demos protests and meetings near you please visit:

Electricians Against The World http ://www . jibelectrician . blogspot . com/

Get in touch with us by Email siteworkers@virginmedia.com

Some videos of the struggles we have faced. Enjoy and get angry, then let’s get even!

Halfway To Hell, The Workers And Unions That Built The Golden Gate Bridge

http://blip.tv/file/4807516

"Putting Down The Tools" BA Carpenters Wildcat 1999

http://blip.tv/file/3988334

LIUNA Local 166 Hodcarriers & Bricklayers Local 3 Members Picket DOL "Stop The Corruption Cover-up"

http://blip.tv/file/3293231

Rat Monday-SF Building Trades Protest Scab ABC Convention 1988

http://blip.tv/file/2733728

SF UBC Local 22 Carpenters Speak Out on Their Union "We Need Work In Our City"

http://blip.tv/file/1951902/

Fighting Wal-Martization

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8847190364285412428

UBC Local22 Members Fight Against Discrimination &The Firing Of Jim Salinas

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2990443557079354311

Hanging Iron, After The Quake of '89

http://blip.tv/file/2713121