Two Days to Victory for Local Trelleborg Workers

Trelleborg is a Swedish multi-national corporation which boasts of soaring profit margins, with record profits being attained over the past year. Yet in stark contrast to the rich rewards this dosh brings to Trelleborg’s well-heeled directors, their staff here in Leicester have been forced to take strike action in order to fight for a fair wage.

Having taken industrial action (short of striking) over the past week, management responded to the majority of their employees necessary actions by rubbing their faces in the dirt. Unite the Union’s regional officer Lakhy Mahal said that managements only offer was an “insulting two pence-an-hour pay increase on the previous offer for 2014.” This was combined with a punishment for the workers engaged in the dispute, who were informed they would lose their annual bonus which was paying on average £600-a-year; so “in effect, a loss of £561-a-year for our members” Mahal reported.

The unwillingness of Trelleborg’s management to pay their workers a fair wage for a fair days work is par for the course for such corporate fat-cats ever happy to engorge themselves at everyone else’s expense. Take for example Trelleborg board member Hans Biorck, who in addition to having recently help set up his own hedge fund, currently acts as a personal advisor to the CEO of the construction giant, Skanska: Biorck’s ties to Skanska coming through his work managing their immense profits by acting as their Chief Financial Officer between 2001 and 2011.

Hans Biorck’s work for Skanska is particularly relevant to the ongoing dispute in Leicester, because of the illegal activities that Skanska UK played in institutionalizing anti-union blacklisting practices within the British construction industry. Here, the anti-democratic group that Skanska funded to organize this blacklisting was known as the Consulting Association, with Stephen Quant, Skanska’s former director of Industrial Relations (from 2003 to 2008), having acted as the chairman of the Association between 2002 and 2003. This makes it abundantly clear that fair play is not something that we might expect Trelleborg’s management to engage in with regard to resolving their employees dispute in Leicester.

On the matter of fair pay in Leicester, it seems that much good would come about if the Unite members taking strike action at the factory in Beaumont Leys were able to link up their struggle with those employees of Enderby-based retail giant Next; another Leicester employer who likes to treat their workers with contempt. This is because the majority of Next’s workers don’t make enough money to make ends meet, with a trade union study published last year by GMB demonstrating that the average wages being less than £9,571 per worker per year. Mick Rix, GMB national officer for retail staff observed at the time that: “NEXT makes huge profits from clothing made in the third world. NEXT should employ workers in the UK on proper working hours and pay a living wage.” It is perhaps fitting that the Tory peer Simon Wolfson, who is the chief executive of Next, is happily married to Eleanor, who just so happens to be George Osborne’s economic adviser.

With such powerful and influential vested interests acting to undermine workers rights it seems logical that only industrial action coordinated between different unions can act to force concessions from recalcitrant bosses. With one such group that is already working to promote such solidarity and coordination amongst rank-and-file activists being the National Shop Stewards Network. Workers in Leicester can also count upon the support of the two ex-Labour Councillors who form the official opposition group (which is affiliated to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) on the otherwise Labour-dominated Council: Barbara Potter and Wayne Naylor being keen to use their political position as Leicester Independent Councillors Against Cuts to boost all trade union campaigns.

It is worth noting that GMB’s campaign to get Next to pay a living wage will be getting a welcome boost on December 2, when pop singer Paul Heaton (the former singer in The Housemartins and the Beautiful South) is playing a concert at the Leicester O2 arena to promote the fight for a £10 an hour living wage for all workers. In the meantime, supporting the Trelleborg workers, whose two-day strike began today at 06.00 (Thursday 20 November) and runs until 22.30 on Friday (21 November) is a must, as is attending their protest on Friday morning at 10.00 (1 Hoods Close Leicester LE4 2BN, between Beaumont Leys and Red Hill, Beaumont Leys Lane off Krefeld Way).

United action between unions however will be essential for future success for poorly paid workers across Leicester and the entire country, even given the mighty resolve that Trelleborg workers are showing in the face of their greed-driven management. With the local workers in Beaumont Leys saying they are prepared to wage further all-out strikes in coming weeks if their greedy bosses at refuse to take their concerns seriously.