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11 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 30/1998
Now is the time for Exxon, Shell, BP and Mobil to get back to collective bargaining in Britain. So says the country's Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU).
As the Labour government moves to reform British industrial law, the TGWU has stepped up its long-standing campaign to bring back union rights for Britain's onshore oil workers.
Leading the drive is Fred Higgs, Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Higgs is the National Officer for the oil industry at the TGWU, which is an ICEM affiliate.
The four oil multinationals scrapped union recognition in their British process and distribution operations during the early 1990s, under the union-hostile Thatcher and Major governments. "Ideological opportunism" is what Higgs called the companies' behaviour in his recent statement to a key British parliamentary committee. He repeated his charges that the companies had pursued a "collusive strategy" on derecognition and had used intimidatory tactics to pressure workers into signing individual employment contracts, as opposed to collective agreements.
The British parliament first heard Higgs' evidence backing these claims in 1994. He also took the union's case to Europe, where the European Parliament and the European Commission found that Britain had breached EU directives on employee representation rights.
The present British government's labour law proposals should be published within the next few weeks. They are likely to include a legal requirement on companies to recognise unions that can demonstrate a certain level of support within the workplace.
"Whatever the criteria chosen, I am confident that we can demonstrate the workers' strong support for union recognition," Higgs stated. "Despite the worst efforts of all four companies, we have been able to maintain our membership levels. In some places, our membership has actually increased since the companies tried to push us out."
The oil majors should negotiate recognition agreements in Britain now, he urged, instead of waiting until the law forces them to do so.
"In Britain and worldwide," Higgs said, "it is in the oil companies' own interests to work with us rather than against us."
As the Labour government moves to reform British industrial law, the TGWU has stepped up its long-standing campaign to bring back union rights for Britain's onshore oil workers.
Leading the drive is Fred Higgs, Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Higgs is the National Officer for the oil industry at the TGWU, which is an ICEM affiliate.
The four oil multinationals scrapped union recognition in their British process and distribution operations during the early 1990s, under the union-hostile Thatcher and Major governments. "Ideological opportunism" is what Higgs called the companies' behaviour in his recent statement to a key British parliamentary committee. He repeated his charges that the companies had pursued a "collusive strategy" on derecognition and had used intimidatory tactics to pressure workers into signing individual employment contracts, as opposed to collective agreements.
The British parliament first heard Higgs' evidence backing these claims in 1994. He also took the union's case to Europe, where the European Parliament and the European Commission found that Britain had breached EU directives on employee representation rights.
The present British government's labour law proposals should be published within the next few weeks. They are likely to include a legal requirement on companies to recognise unions that can demonstrate a certain level of support within the workplace.
"Whatever the criteria chosen, I am confident that we can demonstrate the workers' strong support for union recognition," Higgs stated. "Despite the worst efforts of all four companies, we have been able to maintain our membership levels. In some places, our membership has actually increased since the companies tried to push us out."
The oil majors should negotiate recognition agreements in Britain now, he urged, instead of waiting until the law forces them to do so.
"In Britain and worldwide," Higgs said, "it is in the oil companies' own interests to work with us rather than against us."