On Monday 29th June the workers at Lindsey agreed to return to work
with heads held high. It was a magnificent result and all those involved
deserve a great round of applause. The dispute began when 51
scaffolders were sacked at Lindsey and refused employment with another
contractor on the site. They were regarded as troublemakers by
management.The rest of the workers immediatley downed tools in support
of them.
Other workers on other sites around the country took
solidarity action, when 670 workers were then sacked at Lindsey the
fight was really on.What a brave fight the workers took on.Their
demands were simple: all to be reinstated and no victimisation against
any of the other workers involved in solidarity action.
Management
eventually caved in.The reason this happened so quickly was the
solidarity from other workers and the determination of the Lindsey
workers. They told management in no uncertain termsthat they would not
give in and demanded their jobs back. Keith Gibson, GMB steward,said "We
won this because we wouldn’t let them pick and choose who to employ. We
came out together and now we are all going back together." Phil Whitehurst added "if any site is victimised because they supported Lindsey then the whole industry will again stand shoulder to shoulder
in their support." The dispute was completley led by the rank and file,
both unions had initially reputiated the action (GMB later declared the action official and set up a support fund) but the workers led the way, forcing
the employers into talks and only when the workers were satisfied with
the agreement did they consider returning to work. Every strike should
be conducted in this way. The union members are the union not the
beauracrats who often sell workers down the river.It also shows that
the anti-trade union laws can be defeated when solidarity action and
secondary picketing takes place.
Other workers must take lessons
from Lindsey and fight, organise and unite. We have all heard the
slogans spouted by union beauracrats over the years, Lindsey put these
words into action with a stunning victory. Congratulations to everyone
involved – unite london construction branch salutes you.The next step for
the stewards on the NAEICI sites is to prepare for the national ballot
and work hard for a no vote in the ballot, then the fun really begins,
hopefully leading to a complete shut down of all building sites in the UK. This is long overdue in construction where construction companies
have literally being getting away with murder ever since 1972. We owe
it to people like Des Warren (one of the Shrewsbury pickets) who gaves his whole life to the trade union movement
in the hope of making construction a decent industry
