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6:30 Wednesday 5th October
Tommy Clarke building site
Park House
opposite Selfridges in Oxford Street
Scotland Yard have been in contact with UNITE the Union to try and stop a planned protest outside a building site in Oxford Street tomorrow morning Wednesday 5th Oct.
For the past 3 weeks thousands of electricians have
been involved in protests at Kings Cross, Farringdon Crossrail Station,
The Shard and Blackfriars Station in a bitter campaign against a 35% pay
cut and de-skilling of the industry. Outside London the Tyne Tunnel was
closed by protesters and walk-outs have occurred at Grangemouth in
Scotland and Lindsey Oil Refinery. The action has been organised by a
grassroots network led by rank & file activists rather than the
official union. Farringdon Station was invaded by 300 sparks - the main
road at Kings Cross was closed by police last week after being blocked
by 400 people. Despite this the police have so far made no arrests.
Met Police have now decided to adopt a
harsher approach in fear that Oxford Street may be brought to a
standstill during rush-hour tomorrow morning. This will almost certainly
bring the issue to a head. These are building workers - not young
students.
The background to the dispute is that the largest electrical contractors in the UK: Bailey
Building Services, Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, Tommy Clarke,
Crown House Technologies, Gratte Brothers, SES and SPIE Matthew Hall have all decided to withdraw from the nationally negotiated electrical agreement (J.I.B.).
Electricians are currently paid £16.25 per hour - the
proposed new contracts cut this to £10 per hour for the vast majority of
the work. In addition the new contract would allow non-qualified staff
to carry out elctrical work. Dismissal Notices have already been sent
out to thousands of electrical workers - the new contracts will be
imposed on 7th December.
The building site in Oxford Street is a Tommy Clarke site - one of the rogue electrical contractors
It
has been reported that major clients fear that the dispute will
escalate and impact upon projects across the UK - some tendering
processes have been halted because of the negative publicity around the
electrical firms involved.
for more info contact:
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