On 17 February Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) withdrew the controversial Building Engineering Services National Agreement (BESNA) that proposed to cut the wages of electricians by up to 35%. This followed nearly seven months of unofficial protests, site shut downs and walkouts by electricians across the country. Under pressure from the rank and file, Unite had called two ballots against BBES. The first was in November 2011 which despite the 81.6% turn out in favour of strike action, Unite called off due to legal pressure from BBES. Continued unofficial protests forced another ballot at the beginning of February 2012 which returned 66% in favour of strike action and 70% in favour of action short of a strike. BBES again moved to take legal action. However on 16 February, the High Court ruled in favour of Unite, legalising the strike. The following day BBES entered negotiations with Unite and a joint statement was released announcing the withdrawal of the BESNA ‘on the basis that wide ranging talks will now take place on modernising the industry’. Unite then immediately called off all industrial action and protest.
The result has been heralded as a ‘total victory for the sparks’ by the National Shop Stewards network, ‘a priceless victory’ by the Socialist Party and ‘historic …workers had beaten the building bosses who wanted to tear up their terms and conditions and slash their pay’ by the Socialist Workers Party. Undoubtedly the withdrawal of the BESNA has won some breathing space for electricians defending their wages and conditions. However BBES, in negotiation with Unite, is still working to scrap the existing Joint Industry Board (JIB) agreements which have been nationally recognised for 40 years.
The joint statement released by BBES and Unite on 17 February concedes that ‘The objective of the seven companies was to address perceived shortcomings within current working rules agreements and to offer ways to create a more modern approach in the current competitive environment. Unite understands the questions raised by those seven companies and believes a review of the JIB and other industry working rule agreements is desirable.’
All eyes must now be on Unite and any attempts to introduce the BESNA piecemeal through the back door. This will depend on the union’s ability to co-opt the rank and file members who were elected in March to be part of a ‘negotiating’ committee alongside six Unite stewards. Unite have already undermined the struggle at crucial times, failing to go through with industrial action with officials such as Bernard McAuley (National secretary for construction) describing the Rank and File committee as ‘cancerous’ and ‘divisive’. Meanwhile protests have continued in London and Manchester taking action against the blacklist and challenging agencies by demanding direct employment.
As the Rank and file newsletter on 11 March states ‘We must ensure that we do not allow Unite or the bosses to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory by allowing the bosses to modernise the industry on their terms. No sell outs! No sweetheart deals!’
Sam McGill
