Friday, 17 May 2013

Support Carling workers at Burton-on-Trent

Our strike ballot has now started as members at Burton Brewery face what can only be described as a vicious assault.


Molson Coors are proposing :

Pay for 184 of our 284 Technicians cut by £9000 per year, with the remaining 100 becoming "A" grade Technicians on the same salary

Pay for FLT cut by £8000 per year

Site agreement book to be destroyed and re-written by the employer

Abolition of site agreement that protects pay for two years when shift changes result in loss of pay

49.5% of our 455 members facing an extreme pay cut

Forced introduction of extreme shift working that would leave members on call or working at least 95% of the time

Threat to sack us all if we don't agree to the proposals by June 14th


This attack has cast a shadow across the town, as other workers and employers watch carefully how this will end. The branch believes that employers through out the Midlands andthe FDT sector nationally will also be monitoring this dispute closely.

We are a well organised site with over 90% membership. We believe that if we allow this to happen, employers will believe they can do anything, anywhere.

Our fight is every workers fight. If successful, this proposal will depress the local economy. We are told we are paid "upper tier" pay rates. Bring those rates down, and the averages come down for everybody else. Most employers now use local "market rates", and if this attack succeeds, local rates will be coming down for everybody else - in our minds there is no doubt about that.

Our members face losing their homes. That's how extreme these proposals are.

A ballot for strike action is underway, and we expect a resounding YES vote. The ballot closes on May 28th.

Messages of support may be sent to: Burton.Brewery@unitetheunion.org or via #burtonbrewery on Twitter.

A fighting fund has been established. Cheques should be made payable to 'Unite' with 'Burton Brewery' written on the back and sent to Unite the Union, Finance Department, Transport House,9-17 Victoria Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 8HX

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information regarding the

dispute.
In solidarity,

Phil Salt

Branch Secretary



No comments:

Post a Comment