Heather Rawling, Leicester Socialist Party
More than 100 Unite members at Trelleborg Leicester have been on indefinite strike since Tuesday 11 July, demanding a 10% pay rise.
Pickets greeted the arrival of a company negotiator with boos. The man strode over to talk with strikers, but they very quickly put him in his place in an exchange that lasted around five minutes. The company had accused the workers of laziness and shoddy work.
“All we hear about is profits, profits, profits. You keep on about making profits. We just want a good living.” Another picket said: “Trelleborg made £4.7 million last month but when we ask for a decent pay rise, there’s nothing coming forward. You’ve offered 7% when inflation is running at 10% – Come on!” 7% is an increase on the company’s original offer of 4%, made before the threat of strikes.
All the manager would say was sit down and negotiate. But the workers told him: “Six months of negotiations is enough! We’ve not been offered a fair deal. It’s just made us stronger because we feel we’ve been lied to.”
“Your’e not making a loss, you’re making a profit. Where’s the profits going?” someone shouted out.
Another quoted some hard facts he said he’d got from Companies House: “You made enormous profits in the last year. Turnover increased by 13%. Per employee turnover has increased by £160,000. Rise in profit was 38% per employee. Shareholder dividends has increased to 67%.”
This got a loud cheer from the picket line. The manager’s lame response was “We need to sit down and talk.” “It’s too late now,” the strikers shouted, as the manager walked away looking rather deflated.
