Ballot papers are being sent out to members today. The closing date is Tuesday 19th August.
In line with the decision of the Extraordinary General Meeting of members, Amicus is campaigning for a Yes, Yes vote in the ballot.
Computer Weekly's online version now carries a report dated 29 July on our dispute. For some reason the article on the front page of the paper version on 22 July hasn't appeared online.
Yesterday's meeting of the union's North-West Regional Council voted unanimously to back our campaign, send a message of support, and donate £1000 to help the branch fund it.
Regional Council Secretary Peter Bury says:
"The North West region of Amicus-MSF took an important decision on Saturday,
to give its full support to the campaign of our members at Fujitsu Services'
West Gorton site in Manchester. Whilst, Amicus is always ready to work
constructively with companies to deal with any issue, we will not stand
idly by and see our members' rights undermined by a company that breaks
long-standing agreements with the union."
We're pleased to report that our ballot on industrial action is back under way. Notice was sent to the company on 23rd July. Ballot papers will be sent out on Wednesday 30th July, and voting will close on Tuesday 19th August.
Copies of the notice of ballot sent to the company are displayed on the union noticeboard and in the union office.
We'd stopped our last ballot after threats from the company to use the anti trade-union laws. The threat was not only to challenge the legality of the ballot, but of any action that resulted from it. The justification was on a technicality concerning the wording of the notice sent to the company seven days before the ballot opened.
It's a good argument for the repeal of the anti trade-union laws. Far from protecting members from their union, they are about preventing members making their views known.
The protest rally on Thursday went very well. The break in the rain certainly helped!
You can see our report and photos of the rally here.
We were very pleased with the level of media coverage too. Not only was it on TV on Thursday morning, and we got BBC, Socialist Worker and VNU coverage, but we also made the front page of this week's Computer Weekly.