by René Lavanchy
A logistics firm is squaring up for a fight with Britain’s biggest union after it threatened workers with job losses if they did not agree to derecognise the union.
The AutoLogic company has written to its drivers asking them to scrap a collective bargaining agreement with the T&G section of Unite and accept new contracts. The letter dismissed the union as “out of touch”, said it could provide nothing more than “tea and sympathy”, and rounded off with a warning to consider how they and their families would manage without a job.
Unite said the letter “beggars belief” and promised to begin balloting its members in the company at once.
AutoLogic insisted this week that its requests were “fair and reasonable”, and that it had to increase efficiency in the light of falling profits. But it now faces the possibility of legal as well as industrial action from Unite.
The company’s demand for derecognition is part of a package of cost-cutting measures introduced by chief executive Avril Palmer-Baunack since she took over the Northampton-based company in 2007. AutoLogic, which specialises in finishing and delivering new vehicles for the car industry, made £500,000 in operating profits last year.
In a letter to the company’s 280 transport drivers earlier this month, human resources director Bernard Brown told them that “we are still not efficient enough in terms of how we manage our logistics network”.
It continues: “We value our employees… The trade union is out of touch with you, its members, and we believe you deserve better than that from a trade union which you pay for through your subscriptions.”
The letter also attacks Unite’s shop stewards, claiming they had “looked after themselves handsomely in terms of their own personal enhanced payment terms”. It concludes: “AutoLogic can offer you good pay, good conditions and a good future. The trade union can offer you tea and sympathy when you’ve lost your job.”
“The ballot choice is yours but think long and hard about the economic climate… Think long and hard about how you will continue caring and looking after your families and dependents with no job.”
Ron Webb, Unite’s national officer for logistics, said: “It sounds like rhetoric from a company that wants to bring industrial relations back to Victorian times.
“The conduct of this employer beggars belief. I’ve seen nothing like it in my 35 years at this trade union.” He said the claim that shop stewards had special pay deals was “absolute rubbish” and that it was illegal to request derecognition solely on economic grounds.
Mr Webb said Unite was in the process of balloting drivers for industrial action, and that its legal department was also “heavily engaged”. But he added: “Even at this stage, this union is ready and willing to meet with the employer.”
