RECOGNITION WIN AT NORFOLK GREEN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2015 :: RMTnews 10 A fter a long-running and determined campaign RMT has won trade union recognition for bus workers in Kings Lynn employed by Norfolk Green Bus Company which is owned by Stagecoach. Despite a large majority of the workers, around 115 members, at the bus depot joining RMT Stagecoach bosses had resisted recognition or allow workers representation at the company which was a green field trade union site. Therefore the union demanded a Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) recognition hearing which was held in London last month. RMT reps Dave Peploe and Howard Yelland and other driver activists travelled down from Kings Lynn to hear whether their campaigning efforts would result in RMT recognition at Norfolk Green for them and their workmates. CAC members were taken aback by the size of the RMT crowd. Such hearings are public but it is unusual that anyone to attend as observers. RMT had around twenty people at the hearing and extra seats had to be found for everyone before the hearing could begin. RMT also ratcheted up the pressure by running a ballot for industrial action at Norfolk Green in response to company’s unfair treatment of staff. The company had held around 40 disciplinary hearings since the beginning of the year in a company with only 140 drivers. The company presented letters between them and another union as evidence claiming that the company agreed to recognise the other union for collective bargaining. RMT argued that a written intention to recognise another union was not evidence of an actual recognition agreement. The union also argued that such actions would completely undermine the purpose of the law (Schedule A1, TULR(C)A 1992). The law allows workers, if over 50 per cent of them want it, to get legal recognition for the union of their choice. The CAC adjourned and two days later it announced that it had found in favour of RMT to the delight of everyone involved. RMT assistant general secretary Mick Lynch said that during the campaign members had stood together and supported each other in the face of blatant opposition from their employer. “Thanks to their determination and defiance we now have recognition in the company. “Negotiations on improved wages and terms and conditions have already begun and the benefits of RMT organisation are already being seen by the workers,” he said. Dave Marshall of the union’s organising unit said that it had been a hard-fought campaign with activists travelling from all over the country to show solidarity and the support of the local trades council. “Drivers at the company contacted us last year and due to their organising efforts and with strong support from the union, membership within the company rocketed from a few to over 100 in a period of six months. “This gave us majority membership and meant we could take a claim for recognition to the CAC,” he said. RECOGNITION WIN AT NORFOLK GREEN