HARWICH RECOGNITION DEAL

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2018 :: RMTnews 12 R MT has won trade union recognition for staff at Harwich International Port working for Profile Security Services, the company which carries out all security operations including searching for possible terrorist activity. RMT is already recognised for other grades at the port including the dockers and union organisers met with security staff off site to explain the procedure for gaining recognition and it was agreed to proceed with a campaign. Security officer Carol Dean took on the role of rep, organising the membership and petitions of support for recognition among the staff. “We are really pleased to have won at last after a year- long campaign and I am proud to say we won over 75 per cent backing from staff for recognition with no votes against,” she said. An initial claim was made for recognition to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) back in August 2017 to demonstrate that RMT had majority support for recognition through submitting both our membership list and signed petitions from non-members supporting our claim. Throughout the campaign the company would only communicate with the union and the CAC through a solicitor. At the CAC hearing for the company challenged whether the bargaining unit was appropriate and used a QC to put their case. RMT’s case was conducted by the organising unit. The CAC decided that RMT’s bargaining unit was appropriate and awarded a postal ballot on recognition then awarded the union recognition for collective bargaining for all security officers at Harwich port. RMT organisation unit member Dave Marshall said that the victory was only possible through a mixture of access meetings on site, notices, texts and the good work done by Carol and others in the workforce. “We entered into negotiations with the company and have now agreed a collective bargaining procedure with two RMT reps and will be arranging to meet the company to discuss all other issues in the near future,” he said. R MT has signed a collective bargaining agreement with CGL Rail Ltd, who have a contract to provide maintenance technicians at Docklands Light Railway. DLR branch secretary Ray Shackleton originally arranged for RMT organisers to meet with the workers concerned to explain recognition and the procedure to gain it. The majority of them agreed to join to pursue recognition for collective bargaining. Initially the company directors did agree to meet with the union but could not agree on a voluntary arrangement. As a result RMT took out a Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) claim and nearly 82 per cent of the membership supported it. The company engaged outside HR specialists at the hearing who tried to argue that members had not joined for collective bargaining purposes but for individual TU benefits. They argued that, despite RMT having well over 50 per cent membership a ballot should be held on recognition to prove that the majority did want collective bargaining rights. They were asked to produce any evidence that they had to show that members didn't want collective bargaining. No evidence was produced, or indeed any sensible argument put forward.The CAC awarded RMT automatic recognition without a ballot. Dave Marshall of the organising unit said that the deal part of a growing trend in re-organising sectors that have been taken out of direct employment by the main employer and sub-contracted, effectively to de-unionise workers and take them out of the organised workforce. “We arebringing workers back into the organised workforce who had previously and deliberately been removed from it. “The other good thing about these campaigns, and previously at STM Security on MTR Crossrail, is that the impetus to organise and a lot of the work and effort has been from the existing RMT reps and activists working alongside the sub- contracted workers,” he said. DLR TECHNICIANS DEAL HARWICH RECOGNITION DEAL RECOGNITION: Cranes at the International Container Port, Harwich, Essex.