Defending trade union rights

Morrison’s supermarkets:

Defending trade union rights

SUPERMARKET COMPANY Morrison’s have issued two of the TGWU stewards
at their massive Gadbrook Park distribution depot, Northwich, Cheshire,
with disciplinary notices, effectively de-recognising them. A depot
worker spoke to the socialist.

"Under the recognition agreement, if you’ve got a warning you
can’t stand in the elections for the depot stewards. The elections are
due in November, so they won’t be able to stand.

"Morrison’s say that one of the reps spoke to union members,
urging them to vote against the company’s pay offer, which the TGWU
nationally is recommending. And the other guy has been put on final
written warning for reporting a safety matter to the Health and Safety
Executive. He’s the union Health and Safety rep!"

The company’s nonsensical and bizarre reasons give the strong
impression that these disciplinary procedures are more like an attempt
to influence the elections than anything else.

It is only a matter of weeks since Morrison’s were forced to concede
national negotiations with their workforce, under threat of a national
strike by TGWU and GMB members.

City analysts at the time warned that ‘heads would roll’ if the
strike went ahead, and the company had to concede basic consultation
rights with the unions.

Now it would appear that they are looking to insidiously chip away at
the foundations of the unions in the company by seeking to influence
union elections and interfere in the democratic rights of union
stewards.

The employment rights of Gadbrook Park’s Polish workers (see the
socialist 29 September 2005) seem to count as lightly as the union
rights of TGWU activists.

"The Poles have been finished. We came in and they just weren’t
there. Business has been pretty flat and they seem to have just let them
go. Morrison’s put profit in front of everything. It’s gone really
terrible", I was told.

Morrison’s chase for profits is proving remarkably unsuccessful. They
have just revealed a half-year loss of £121 million, compared with a
£73 million profit for the same period last year as the company
struggles to digest Safeway, for which they paid £3 billion. The
Morrison’s board seem determined to solve the problems they have created
at the expense of their workforce – closing depots, clamping down on
pay, and employing then sacking migrant workers.

The only thing that stands in their way is effective trade union
organisation.

Morrison’s woes have released a boardroom battle. The Deputy
Chairman, David Jones, who clashed with Sir Ken Morrison on how to
recover from the Safeway merger, has just been removed, leaving the 74
year old "dictatorial and abrasive professional Yorkshireman"
(the Guardian 9 June 2005) with the job of finding a new successor, a
task the Guardian estimated will take up to five years. The old Chief
Executive, Bob Stott, is to go only a month after Sir Ken told the
Financial Times he would be there till 2007.

A new Finance Director, Richard Pennycook, has got until next March
to come up with an optimisation plan "to deliver profit and get
back on track" (Financial Times 21/10/2005).

The optimisation plan does not sound optimum for Morrison’s workforce
– he aims to "drive out dual running costs, re-engineer the supply
chain and drive margins" (Financial Times 21/10/2005). The GMB and
TGWU and especially their reps are going to have their work cut out.

  • Defend union rights in Morrison’s – free speech for union reps and
    let the unions run their own affairs.
  • Build the unions in the retail industry.
  • Repeal the anti-union laws – allow unions to be effective.
  • Equal rights and equal pay for young, casual and migrant workers.
  • Nationalise the retail giants – without compensation and under
    democratic workers’ control and management.