Crown Holdings
Workers Uniting has written to the chief
executive of Crown Holdings to challenge the aggressive behaviour
to their staff across the world
Click here to see the press
release
Click here to see the letter to Crown
Glass
Pilkington
Through Workers Uniting the USW in America are supporting the
campaign in Pilkington glass in Kings Norton, UK. The attached
leaflet has been distributed to workers at the Pilkington plant in
America to make them aware of the dispute in the UK.
Pilkington
Leaflet
Metals
Workers Uniting represents members in the United States, Canada,
Caribbean, United Kingdom and Ireland who make a variety of metals
and metal-related products – from steel, titanium and aluminium to
Stanley tools and industrial machinery. Some common employers
include Alco, Rolls Royce and Timet.
National Grid
Click
here to view the USW letter in support of Unite members in their
dispute with National Grid
Click here for more information about USW and
Unite's global strategy plan at National Grid
Paper and Pulp sector
The Workers Uniting project has enabled the Paper and Pulp
sector members to work together in order to share their experiences
not only across the sector but also in specific companies where
both unions have membership.
Both Unite and USW have members in: Kimberley Clark, SCA
Packaging, Georgia Pacific, Riverwood Graphic Packaging,
MeadWestvaco and Glatfelter – just a few examples. In the specific
companies Workers Uniting has allowed information exchange of terms
and conditions, pay and benefits.
Since the start of the Workers Uniting union the paper and print
sectors have lead the way in bringing the global union to life.
There is regular dialogue between officers and union
representatives from both unions.
The first Workers Uniting industrial sector conference took
place in Pittsburgh, USA in August 2009. Unite workplace
representatives from three paper companies in the UK joined
colleagues from all over the US and Canada to discuss
trans-Atlantic collective bargaining in their industry. The UK reps
each gave presentations to their respective company bargaining
groups and received valuable information in return.
The conference concluded with a Workers Uniting group meeting
that discussed future development of the project. It was agreed to
commence a joint health and safety campaign in view of an increase
in workplace deaths in paper production in the US and the UK. The
campaign will be launched in late 2009 to coincide with the Unite
sector national sector conferences.
Universities sector
Unite the union and the USW both represent workers in the
university sector. Working across the higher education industry
members of Unite and the USW are the academic members and tutors
working in universities and colleges.
Canadian and UK trade unionists have through Workers Uniting
been able to share experiences of a range of current industrial
issues which members face. Most significantly, Unite members have
been able to share with USW colleagues their knowledge of ‘job
evaluation’ – the system whereby employers compare different jobs,
which in turn enables them to determine where jobs should be placed
on the pay system – which Canadian universities are attempting to
implement.
Through the virtual meeting facilities leading union activists
have been able to interact with one another regularly.
Representatives of USW attended the Unite Sector
Conferences in Brighton, UK during November 2009 in order to expand
the Workers Uniting interaction in this important sector.
Report on the Workers
Uniting Conference in Higher Education held 22/23 April 2010 in
Toronto Ontario Canada.
The meeting between Unite higher education senior negotiators
and USW university workers and representatives was held on the
22/23 April 2010 as part of the ongoing work for the Workers
Uniting project.
Unite delegates from the higher education sector went to Canada
to participate in the two day conference, which began with a
welcome and introduction from Ken Neuman National Director of
USW.
The agreed joint programmed prepared in advance of the visit was
ambitious but was trying to link together various items and themes
that have affected both Unite and USW in higher education
recently.
The Unite delegation consisted of 6 senior negotiators covering
the sector including: Mike Robinson National Officer Unite, senior
reps Tony Britton University of East London, Sandra Robinson
University of Liverpool, Jo Westerman University of Leeds, Mike
Baxter Coventry University and Dave Jones University of
Manchester.
For USW as well as Ken Nuewmann there were union staffers Doug
Olthius, Laura Ramerez, Judith Marshall, Omero Landi, Tom Walsh and
Tom Walsh.
The main Canadian attendance was from University of Toronto and
University of Guelph, with Alison Dubarry and Wendy Morley the
respective senior reps from these institutions. There were also a
further 25 representatives from the main universities.
The agenda had been split into presentation sessions with both
UK and Canadian reps doing presentations on each topic. These
included:
- The University as a Public Education: Public
Policy
- Privatization - "The Corporatization of
Education"
- Keeping the Union membership
strong
- Greening the University – Green Jobs and the
Environment
Next steps – Building Links and Developing Common
Project
The University as a Public Education: Public Policy
There were many common themes coming through especially on the loss
of educational standards and the loss of concept of education as a
benefit to society as a whole. Certainly many universities seemed
to be operating on a corporate strategy that had more in common
with the City of London or Wall Street rather than the provision of
public education.
Privatisation - "The Corporatization of Education"
Development of how both unions could work together to highlight
this loss of public utility and the drive for privatisation was a
major part of that session. Workers Uniting could be involved in
development of international campaigning on the issue with perhaps
simultaneous demonstrations in London and Toronto to highlight the
changes was a real possibility. This was identified as an ongoing
project.
Keeping the union membership strong
The difference in organizing was probably one of the most
pronounced between the two groups. In the UK the higher education
group saw itself as a more centralized national wage bargaining
structure. In Canada there are local negotiations in HE. That meant
the approaches were different with the UK being part of joint union
negotiations and campaigning with more joint interdependency.
Whereas in Canada USW seemed to be very much more independent and
on site campaigns were led by USW.
The use of recruitment and organizing material was also a
different feature. The UK group certainly picked up on the need to
distribute more union badged material such as hats, t-shirts and
bags as a way of spreading the union name and by virtue of that
promotion of the campaigning issues.
Another theme coming out of this session was the joint work that
could be possible on job grades and job evaluation. The HAY job
evaluation system is in fact a universal system sold to many
countries in many sectors. The system applies the same mathematic
calculations to similar occupations on roles. It follows that job
scores therefore should equate to similar levels in each country.
Obviously there are currency differences but the job ranking of
roles should be the same for similar jobs whether in the UK or
Canada.
However both countries also operate home grown job evaluation
systems which are not directly transferrable. However by scoring in
both country systems it is possible to get a value and price on
jobs. This would enable staff to see if particular skills are
better valued in one country over another.
Greening the University – Green Jobs and the Environment
On this item the UK led the way. The concept of auditing a
workplace on "green" issue was far advanced in the UK. In higher
education in the UK universities are often measured on
environmental standards with Green League and Green Gown awards
commonplace. Unite has also been well advance in this field with
the development of an environmental agreement for Universities and
Unite to work together on. The UK and Irish experience that to
leave the environmental issues alone only allows managements to
develop policies that do not include the workforce and unions in
the planning should not continue. Organize on everything was a
theme the UK was picking up from Canada but on this occasion Canada
was a little behind. There is the possibility of some of the UK
examples being tried in Canada and more collaborative working on
this was clearly a way forward.
Our hosts USW were fantastic. Not only did they lay on lunch and
dinners for the UK delegation to attend they also included visits
to two main Canadian universities. Toronto and Guelph.
At Guelph the delegation was able to see first hand the remote
technician working facility as well as the laboratory and library
set ups on the campus.
At Toronto a full tour of the university campus meant a chance
to see not only the facilities but also the daily interaction
between members and the USW union reps. As much a part of
organizing as anything else.
The Workers Uniting visit I believe was so beneficial for senior
negotiators in both unions to see differences of approach but also
how common problems can be tackled jointly.
My thanks to our USW hosts especially Doug Olthius, Laura
Ramerez, Judith Marshall, Omero Landi and Jorge Garcia who proved
to be perfect hosts and trade union comrades.
Mike Robinson
National Officer
Education Sector
Unite