Orange Worker

Summer Edition of the Juice                                                                   

Added 04th August 2010

The latest edition of the Juice is out now, we look at the Launch of Everything Everywhere, meet your reps in Plymouth and your new rep in Darlington. We catch up on the recent activists conference, and take a look at training that activists have attended. Click here to have a look at events throughout the UK in Orange

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New leafleting dates

Organisers & Activists will be at Orange sites on the following dates.

Plymouth: 11th & 12th August

Bristol: St James - 22nd July, Aztec West  - 2nd & 23rd August

Darlington: 22nd July

Silverlink: 21st July

Solihull: 21st July & Paddington: 21st July.

Added 19th February 2010 

Organisers will be at Orange sites on the following dates.

 

Bristol: Monday 29th March

Darlington: Tuesday 23rd March

Silverlink: Wednesday 24th March

Solihull: Tuesday 30th March

Paddington: Tuesday 30th March.

 

If you've got any questions, or want to discuss any issues they'll be more than happy to speak with you.

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Earlier this month, CWU members in Plymouth, with the support of their local branch, organised a day-long event designed to educate colleagues about the union and the improvements they could make.  The seminar included 13 male and female reps, aged from 20 to 60, as well as representatives from the local branch and national office.

The guest speaker was Pierre Dubois, a member of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour, who told attendees how there had been 24 suicides and at least 12 other attempts at France Telecom over the past 18 months.  Pierre explained how the pressure on workers had grown since privatisation in 2000 with the ethos moving from providing a service to making a profit. "The average age at the

the company was 50 which made it difficult to change their ways," said Pierre, who also talked about how the company had wanted to get rid of 32,000 people. Under French employment law it is more difficult to get rid of staff than it is in the UK, so Pierre explained how people would be redeployed to far away places to almost force them out.

The company had initially denied that the suicides were because of work but then the suicide notes referred to the stress that the individuals concerned had been under. Pierre explained how

the union had sought to discuss the matter with the company for two years but they didn't want to know.

Now, deputy chief executive Louis Pierre Wenes has resigned, being replaced by Stephane Richard, a former chief of staff at the French Treasury and close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Under government pressure, France Telecom has put in place measures to monitor and counsel staff thought to be suicidal, and temporarily frozen 500 employee transfers that were part of the restructuring plans.

Of the other speakers at the event, Steve Mann of the Health, Safety and Environment department told how health and safety could be a way of union members changing their workplace for the better. "There can be a health and safety rep without trade union recognition," said Steve, who also told how places of work where trade unions existed had 50 per cent less accidents.

Nigel Smith from ACAS also explained how his organisation tried to get in before a dispute escalated to industrial action. "It is better to deal with things before they get into a conflict situation," said Nigel. "If one side will give something it is possible to move on from there."  Nigel predicted

big change in the industrial relations terrain over the next few years. "Things are going to change substantially over the next three years whoever gets into power," said Nigel.

During the afternoon session, there was a discussion of tactics between reps. There were discussions as to how the successful tactics deployed at Plymouth could be deployed at other Orange sites like Bristol, Darlington and North Tyneside. The Plymouth reps had got 30

application Forms in the days leading up to the event with 20 more arriving at head office the next day.

The Communication Workers Union has urged Orange to act responsibly over job and efficiency implications of the proposed merger with T-Mobile.

 

Added 24th July 2009

Recognition update
(Click here for background on the engineers recognition campaign)

On Wednesday, representatives of the union met with the Central Arbitration Committee as well as representatives from Orange, BTMSL, and Nokia.  The CAC confirmed that following the outsourcing of Field Services, Orange is no longer responsible for the management of these employees.  As such, recognition has to be sought with the new employers.

This is quite straightforward for those members going into BTMSL.  There is already a recogntion agreement here so all that remains is begin the process for electing reps and training them up so that they can properly represent members in negotiations.

Things are not so clear in Nokia.  However, having contacted the majority of Switch engineers last month it is clear that there is still an overwhelming desire for recognition.  As such, we will continue with the application and let you know when there are any developments.