Once again the sparks have shown the rest of us how to fight back, organising one of the largest wildcat strikes in decades. Construction sites across the country were shut down as trade unionists picketed and occupied sites, defying the corporate killers Balfour Beatty, who have legally challenged the right of the electricians to go on strike.

JARGON BUSTER: wildcat strikes mean picketing sites even if the courts rule it illegal or the union won’t officially support it.

Official strike action against Balfour Beatty had been scheduled for December 7th, but Unite leaders decided to back down in the face of legal challenges from the company, who claimed 70 union members were sent ballots when they shouldn’t have been. The bosses threatened to take Unite to court and have the strike banned, just like BA bosses did last year.

The leaders of the union sent out a press release promising to re-ballot their members and delay the strikes. They’re talking big but in practice are too scared to break the Tory anti-union laws. Fortunately many Unite members ignored the press release and decided that December 7th was the right time to take action, as the bosses of the seven companies trying to slash pay and conditions promised to use the day to force workers onto their new contracts.

Protests and pickets happened across the country. In London, police used dogs and attempted kettles to prevent the sparks from blocking construction work at Blackfriars’ Station. So the hundreds present occupied the road in front of the site entrance, leaving the site empty, before marching on Balfour Beatty HQ! As they passed a Gattes Brothers site (GB is another construction firm trying to tear up workers’ pay and conditions) a fire alarm went off, meaning another boost for the protestors’ numbers and another site shut down.

In Glasgow around 200 strikers took the protest to Balfour Beatty’s offices before occupying the offices at a nearby site. Pickets from Manchester stormed a council meeting demanding an answer to why the council had used one of the NG Bailey (one of the Big 7 and a notorious blacklisting firm) to do construction on the town hall. Protests also spread to Wales for the first time, as 40 sparks protested at Llandough Hospital construction site.

There were also a number of other strikes and protests in Hull, Immingham, Teeside, Birmingham, Hartlepool and Wirral. While the heads of the union are asking the employers to sit in ACAS negotiations to prevent further strikes and civil disobedience, the electricians are taking the struggle forward and putting the bosses on the back foot by continuing with the kind of direct action needed to win.

The sparks have been let down by so many who claim to stand for the workers; from union leaders who don’t have the spine for a fight or the will to break the anti-union laws, to Labour councillors who have given the firms breaking their workers’ backs and breaking blacklisting laws lucrative contracts. They’ve already experienced the wrath of the police (they even got a mention in a memo sent to business-owners about terrorist threats!) and the courts, which uphold the bosses’ laws and crack down on legitimate protest. But they’re still growing stronger.

This is because the workers are organising at the grassroots level and pressuring the Unite union to go further. In August 500 ordinary trade-unionists set up the Rank and File National Committee, which has been key in helping organise in the face of the bloated bureaucracy’s lack of action.

The sparks are currently taking on Balfour Beatty as the ringleader of the Big 7. Tomorrow (Friday 9th), electricians are planning on giving the Managing Director of the firm a welcome of their own at an award show in his honour. We encourage all activists to support the protests, pickets and occupations at Balfour Beatty- check out our expose of the corruption and cruelty inherent in the company and share the info with your mates and other activists. There are so many reasons to take on these corporate killers, and right now we need to work with the employees who can shut down the sites.

But if the sparks are to be successful, they need to keep up the pressure. There’s already been some really positive developments, with non-Balfour sites being shut down and targeted by roving picket lines (‘flying pickets’), and workers at 2 of the other Big 7 firms balloting for official action. We need pickets at every site and occupations of the companies’ offices to give the bosses the message that we won’t give up until JIB terms and conditions are given to every worker in construction- One out, all out, stay out to win!

Read more

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Sparks vote to strike at Balfour Beatty

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Sparks march under media blackout

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The electricians’ fight is our fight! 

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