News about East Anglia
5 depots in East Anglia have this week been put on notice of redundancy.
At Harefield and Hemel Hemstead 3 redundancies from 15 drivers, at Ipswich 4 redundancies from 17 drivers, at Norwich 2 redundancies from 11 and at Shoulden thorpe 1 from 7. That's a total of 10 drivers redundant just as we are entering our busiest period. I hope those who made the decision have a great Christmas because the drivers who are about to lose their jobs probably wont!!
At Kingsbury depot 2 drivers have been made redundant.
5 depots in East Anglia have this week been put on notice of redundancy.
At Harefield and Hemel Hemstead 3 redundancies from 15 drivers, at Ipswich 4 redundancies from 17 drivers, at Norwich 2 redundancies from 11 and at Shoulden thorpe 1 from 7. That's a total of 10 drivers redundant just as we are entering our busiest period. I hope those who made the decision have a great Christmas because the drivers who are about to lose their jobs probably wont!!
At Kingsbury depot 2 drivers have been made redundant.
So what is the union intending to do about this?
ReplyDeleteWhile I consider myself to be a strong supporter of the union my belief in their ability and intent to take any poitive action against a company that treats its drivers like this is diminishing daily. My thougts go out to those drivers who have been made redundant or are under threat of it, which let face it could be any one of us.
What support has the union given them ? what support are they prepared to give any of us? The union says it is only as strong as its members but we the members are only as strong as the union enable us to be. While I remain a union supporter I wish I felt this was more of a two way street.
As a senior steward I'm really confused by your comment. We all have great sympathy for anyone who loses their job through redundancy and we are all angry at some of the decisions that the management of GB Oils make. However making redundancies is not illegal and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it except to make sure the process is done within the law and fairly. I suppose it's slightly less frustrating for the stewards as we generally know what's going on and what is happening regarding the union in the near future. Nevertheless we are also frustrated and we really need every member to be patient, hold their nerve and support us. Also, a steward on his own can't take positive action against a company. Only the membership on mass can do that and I've been in a situation very recently where I've marched the troops up to the top of the hill only to look behind me and find I'm standing there facing the management alone!
ReplyDeleteMaybe shop stewards should let the members know whats happening in the near future then or is it a secret? Because of the lack of communacation between the union and members i'm starting to wonder why i'm paying the union .You say this blog is to let us know whats happening but to me it tells us very litle of the meeting the shop stewards have had or it does'nt concern us.
ReplyDeleteWe had a meeting on 24th Nov and put together a new structure that has already been sent by Ron webb to Diane Foote. We will meet Diane Foote on 17th Dec and all being well the company will have no objections to our proposals. From then on we can make it widely known what our proposed new structure is. What concerns me as senior steward is that members complain of not being in contact with a steward and not knowing what's going on. PLEASE, PLEASE if you are one of those members, contact Fraser Ross and he will put you directly in contact with me and I will personally make sure you are on my list of member contacts and you will get the same updates that the members in my region get. That's a promise!!!
ReplyDeletewell said shop teward , never been a steward my self for that very reason , as a driver i have been in that position with another company , to many workmen can talk the talk !!
ReplyDeleteQuite right talk is very easy to do. Criticism is just as easy. I don't see many critics coming forward to help and obviously they could do so much better than all of us who are busting a gut here.
ReplyDeleteanybody know whats happening with the pay in the midlands ...this just seems a massive delay tatic by GB oils mangement ,there spending money like its gone out of fashion. buying companys all over the uk and europe .surley this is going to increase the buissness and the amount of drivers in any perticular are.....resulting in more drivers going when the quiter period comes
ReplyDeletewhy cant we just issue just ballot on strike action and show them we are not prepared to be bullied and pushed around just because they can, this company is may be growing but from the amount of work the collective group as lost through getting rid of sales staff and crap customer service we will all be looking for a new job..... think some senior managemnet need to take alook at whats going on and start listening to the people who know the buissness THE DRIVERS
The pay in the Midlands is the same as everywhere else and the company have told us it's being reviewed in December. We can't ballot because we have no dispute at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWe will have to wait to see what the company's decision is on the December pay review and decide where we go from there.