Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Rob Williams
The sparks, rank and file construction electricians in Unite, have yet again defeated the de-skilling agenda of the big electrical contractors. EDF Energy, Balfour Beatty and NG Baileys opened up their offensive almost a decade to the day when workers kicked off their ultimately successful 6-month fight against the BESNA contract, the last main attempt by the bosses to attack wages in the electrical trade in this way.
Employers see de-skilling, employing workers who are not fully trained electricians, as a way of driving down wages and conditions in an industry already plagued by low pay sub-contractors, agencies and umbrella companies. It threatens not just the livelihoods of fully trained electricians but also future fire safety in the buildings being built. Things have come to a head over the attempts to de-skill at the enormous Hinkley Point nuclear power site in Somerset.
Rank and file sparks in South Wales were to the fore of the campaign to defeat de-skilling with weekly protests at sites in Cardiff. (See Andrew Wilkes’s speech at the Cardiff May Day rally)
As the Sparks explain in the Unite Electrical Mechanical Combine statement, they discovered that training standards had been drawn up for a new Electrical Service Operative (ESO) grade, specifically for the massive Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant but with the threat to become a norm throughout the industry.
Instead of the promised 600 electrical apprenticeships, this would have seen containment and cabling work being carried out by cheaper, unskilled labour. The Sparks estimated that this would have seen up to 70% of their work de-skilled.
Just as with the BESNA struggle, the rank and file Sparks launched a campaign of direct action, though this time bravely battling with the difficulties of the severe Covid lockdown rules. These were being strictly applied by the Tory Government, with protestors being arrested on protests such as NHS pay and the murder of Sarah Everard. On a few occasions, police had also tried to break up legal strikes. No wonder the #NO2ESO protests took place behind facemasks – for safety’s sake and to avoid arrest!
The Socialist Party and the National Shop Stewards Network have given support and solidarity right through the Sparks’ struggle. There has been a weekly Socialist Party bulletin, giving reports from the protests. We were there on February 24th, when at a few hours’ notice, the first protest took place outside EDF Energy’s HQ near Victoria Station in London. It was short and sharp but the warning was laid down – back off or we step up the fight!
Over the next weeks, the number of protesting workers grew and the demonstrations spread to Wales, Scotland, Merseyside, Manchester, Leeds and then Hinkley Point itself. This was followed by a determined walkout by Sparks at Whitby Bay hospital.
In March, it seemed that EDF were backing away from the ESO at Hinkley. Then Balfours appeared to be moving away from it. But NG Baileys were refusing to back away and this brought Balfours back on board. The campaign needed to be stepped up.
In April the weekly protests at the Cardiff University construction site in Maindy Road culminated with a blockade of the site for an hour with deliveries turned away.
On May 26th, after 13 weeks of protesting in different areas, the Sparks converged on AWE Burghfield, where nuclear warheads are assembled. In a pincer movement, they defied the police lines and blockaded the massive site at two entrances. Full praise has to go to the electricians on site who refused to cross the protest lines and drove round slowly, helping to back up the traffic for hours.
This was the big signal to Baileys and Balfours. The next step would have been to target more or their jobs and just as with the BESNA, an official Unite strike on one of the key sites.
The Rank and File electricians welcome the commitments that have been secured, including the withdrawal of the ESO and the employment of new apprenticeships. But correctly they add: “However, there is much work to be done” in ensuring ending the threat of de-skilling once and for all as well as tackling issues such as agency labour, direct employment, blacklisting and bogus self-employment. But far better to fight these after a win.
This victory comes after other wins by workers taking action, such as the Manchester bus drivers, who went on an 85-day indefinite strike of against ‘Fire and Rehire’ and the Thurrock binworkers who defeated pay attacks by their Tory Council after 6 weeks out.
As the employers and their Tory Government look to make workers pay for the Covid crisis, the growing action against the bosses’ brutal offensive and especially the increasing number of victories show that if the unions give a fighting lead, workers can win. This should be taken up by the unions to build a united fight against the Tory pay freeze in the public sector and the NHS. The fight against BESNA in 2011-12 took place at the same time as the massive 2-million strong N30 public sector pensions strike and the Sparks joined the picket lines in solidarity.
In Wales the campaign should continue to pressurise the Welsh government to ensure that lucrative construction contracts for public projects are only awarded to companies that adhere to national agreements and ethical practices – no blacklisters or anti-union employers – and they ensure their sub contractors do the same. What use is ‘social partnership’ between the Welsh government and the Wales TUC when anti- union and low pay employers can make millions exploiting their workforces on publicly-paid construction projects?
The defeat of ESO ranks with that over the BESNA. Many of those Sparks have played leading roles this time and a newer generation has joined the battle. The word needs to be spread round the sites to all trades, who themselves can be targeted for de-skilling by greedy bosses looking to protect their profits – we can fight and we can win so get organised in the union!
