Don’t forget that the “action short of strike” continues until further notice:
The more effective you and your workmates make the action short of strike, the less strike action will be required to bring the dispute to a successful conclusion.
The UNITE Q&A on industrial action has further information about the action short of strike, including details of the UHP and model letters you can use.
Strike days have also been called for:
The intention is to have members’ meetings around the country on 7-11th January to discuss how the campaign is going and next steps. Please do your utmost to attend.
Thanks to everyone who took part in Friday’s strike action in support of our campaign on Jobs, Pay and Pensions.
Despite the snow and it being the Friday before Xmas, large numbers of members didn’t just strike, but took part in campaign activities designed to put pressure on the company to make an offer acceptable to members.
Members staged a “Scrooge” protest outside the (LON22) head office in London. Strikers heard speeches from our UNITE National Officer and our Assistant General Secretary, as well as being joined by supporters from a wide range of unions including UNITE, PCS, FBU, NUT, UCU, NUS and TSSA, as well as campaigners from Right To Work and the National Shop Stewards Network. Senior managers Peter Jeram and John Lucas came out for a chat. Members then leafleted outside customers (Marks & Spencer, Vodafone and Lloyds) in Oxford Street. You can see photos from the London events online.
There were pickets at all the sites planned, with photos already online from Manchester, Belfast, Crewe and Stevenage. In Manchester, members also leafleted outside customers (Marks & Spencer, Tesco, TK Maxx) in Market Street. In Crewe, pickets sang the Fujitsu song (with alternative lyrics).
On Friday large amounts of money were donated to the dispute fund, but please keep up your fundraising activities to ensure every member can get the financial support they need throughout the campaign. Our “Appeal For Support” leaflet and collection sheet can be downloaded from www.ourunion.org.uk.
The strike attracted extensive media coverage, which is part of our strategy to put pressure on Fujitsu’s senior management. Notably, BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today, carried both interviews and commentary.
The company has not yet agreed to return to talks, but these are early days.
Friday's strike attracted significant media coverage.
Much of this is collated via LabourStart, some via Google News.
Saturday's edition of the BBC's flagship news programme, Today on Radio 4, included interviews of strikers and analysis of the dispute. The relevant section is about 1 hour and 14 minutes in.
The publicity is an important aspect of the campaign, putting pressure on Fujitsu's senior management to negotiate a fair settlement to the dispute over Jobs, Pay and Pensions.
Some photos from the Fujitsu strikers Unite Scrooge Protest at Fujitsu HQ London are here. There's a lot more here along with photos of leafleting on Oxford Street, London.
Photos from the picket today outside a Fujitsu site in Belfast are here.
Photos from the picket today outside a Fujitsu site in Crewe are here.
Photos from the picket today outside Fujitsu in snowy Manchester are available here, pictures of strikers leafletting in Manchester city centre are here (M&S), here (Tesco) and here (TKMaxx).
A couple of photos of the picket at Stevenage are here. They also sent a contingent to the demo outside the HQ in London.
A lot is riding on tomorrow’s strike. The more people that take part, the sooner Fujitsu are likely to start listening, so that we can find a settlement acceptable to members on Jobs, Pay and Pensions.
Most of this notice deals with the practicalities, but here are a few vital reference documents:
London protest
The priority for Friday will be the “Scrooge” protest outside Fujitsu’s HQ at LON22, which is 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW (map) at 12:00 on Friday 18th December. Fujitsu will be visited by the ghosts of pensions past, jobs present and pay that is yet to come. The protest should attract considerable media interest, helping our campaign. The intention is then to pop round the corner onto Oxford Street to leaflet outside one or two of Fujitsu’s High Street customers. Activities should be complete by 2pm.
The more people who join in, the better. As this is not a picket, you can bring along family and friends.
UNITE members in many parts of the country have already arranged with their Regional Officers for the union to cover their fares to London to take part. If you haven’t already done so, don’t delay.
There are still places left on the coach from the north-west, which is picking up:
The coach will leave London for the return journey at 3pm.
Local pickets and protests
Members around the country are making plans for their local pickets and activities. Here are some we have been able to collate so far:
Please send in more details of what you’re planning.
Photos
Fujitsu staff and the media alike will want to see what’s happening around the country as part of our campaign. Whatever you’re involved in, please make sure you or a colleague takes some photos. To save clogging up email, we suggest you use the following system to get them online as quickly as possible:
Keep Warm
Most of us aren’t used to standing around outside in December. Whether you’re picketing, protesting or leafleting, please remember to dress up warm. A flask with a hot drink is a good idea. If there’s a few of you, why not bring flasks of hot water along with tea, coffee, sugar and milk so that you can all make up the drinks you want.
PCS Update
Fujitsu had made a different offer to PCS for their bargaining units than that made to UNITE for the UK as a whole. PCS members have rejected the offer by a large majority. PCS has now issued notice of action short of strike starting from 23rd December 2009. Fujitsu has agreed to further talks with PCS.
It has become evident in recent weeks that Fujitsu's aim of penalising employees “because our competitors are doing it” is not matched by reality as two of our main competitors (Steria and Cap Gemini) have negotiated pay rises, equitable pension schemes and even Christmas Bonuses.
Consequently after the overwhelming rejection of the insulting company ‘offer’ by Unite members and with no further moves forthcoming from Fujitsu management it seems that we will be forced into taking industrial action on Friday 18th December 2009.
In order to allow members to engage with their representatives and discuss the forthcoming plans for industrial action we have called a meeting for Thursday 17th December 2009.
Please encourage all members in the Northern Ireland region to attend, and interested non-members too.
We do hope that you will be able to attend and give your invaluable support to this campaign.
Date – Thursday 17th December 2009
Time – 12:30pm for 1 hour, prompt start
Location:
Data Prep Room
Fujitsu
Trident House
301 Airport Road West
Belfast
BT3 9AE
(Google map link)
See here for a leaflet we will be handing out to the public while we are on strike.
Unite announced first ever national strike in a UK IT company over jobs, pay and pensions
To launch the action, UNITE is organising a “Scrooge” protest outside the company’s HQ at 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW at 12:00 on Friday 18th December. This should attract considerable media interest, helping our campaign. The intention is then to pop round the corner onto Oxford Street to leaflet outside one or two of Fujitsu’s High Street customers.
We need as many members as possible to join in the London protest on 18th December.
For members whose normal place of work is Canary Wharf, we will be meeting outside the Jubilee line station from 9:00am onwards.
Please join us at Canary Wharf if you can, alternatively you can join up with us at Baker Street at 12:00.
Wear plenty of warm clothing, there are plenty of coffee/eateries on and around the Baker Street offices.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday.
I would expect that we would be moving off to the Baker Street offices at around 10.00am.
Fujitsu’s London office (Jubilee line direct to Baker Street), for a short lunchtime demonstration to ensure the message is heard loud and clear.
The priority for Friday will be the “Scrooge” protest outside Fujitsu’s HQ at LON22, which is 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW (map) at 12:00 on Friday 18th December. Fujitsu will be visited by the ghosts of pensions past, jobs present and pay that is yet to come. The protest should attract considerable media interest, helping our campaign. The intention is then to pop round the corner onto Oxford Street to leaflet outside one or two of Fujitsu’s High Street customers.
We need as many members as possible to join the London protest on 18th December (the first strike day). As this is not a picket, you can bring along family, friends, or even colleagues who left on Friday!
UNITE in the north-west has agreed to pay for transport, and is putting on a coach, which will pick up:
Please note the CHANGE to the pick-ups previously announced. You may also wish to speak to your local reps to arrange to arrange lifts to the pick-up points for those who need them.
If you want a place on the coach, please BOOK IT NOW, stating where you want to be picked up and providing a mobile phone number if you can. The coach will leave London for the return journey at 3pm. Please book a place even if you have already said you want to come.
There will also be pickets on Friday at a number of sites including Manchester, Warrington and Crewe, as well as other campaign activities. Please talk to your local reps about arrangements.
UNITE members in Crewe have been meeting today to make their plans and preparations for Friday’s strike. Tomorrow there are two further meetings in the North-West:
All members are encouraged to attend.
The more people that play a part in the action on Friday, the sooner we can make our senior management listen to employees. Nobody wants to be involved in a dispute, but if we don’t make Fujitsu listen, we will have members avoidably losing their jobs, members facing a cut of around 20% in their package when their pension scheme closes, and members on ever more inadequate rates of pay.
UNITE is campaigning on issues which can benefit us all:
Jobs:
1. Minimise job losses
2. Oppose compulsory redundancies
Pay:
3. A fairer pay system
4. More money for employees
Pensions:
5. Defend the ICL DB pension scheme
6. Improve pension provision for those with something worse
If we don’t take a stand now, what cuts in jobs, terms and conditions will Fujitsu demand next? Enough Is Enough!
The official notice of the industrial action, which includes what action has been called, was included in Friday’s email notice and is available online.
To help inform staff who aren’t yet in UNITE about what’s going on, UNITE has produced a new “One Per Desk” leaflet which is being distributed around the country. People may query with you the date when the action short of strike starts, as some printed copies include a typo in one place. The action short of strike starts this Friday - 18th December 2009.
Preparations are now well under way for the first strike, which is this Friday - 18th December. As well as asking all Fujitsu’s UK employees who are not posted overseas to strike (which means doing no work that day), it is important that as many people as possible play an active part.
The priority for Friday will be the “Scrooge” protest outside Fujitsu’s HQ at LON22, which is 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW (map) at 12:00 on Friday 18th December. Fujitsu will be visited by the ghosts of pensions past, jobs present and pay that is yet to come. The protest should attract considerable media interest, helping our campaign. The intention is then to pop round the corner onto Oxford Street to leaflet outside one or two of Fujitsu’s High Street customers.
We need as many members as possible to join the London protest on 18th December (the first strike day). As this is not a picket, you can bring along family, friends, or even colleagues who left on Friday! To help UNITE provide transport, if you’re willing to take part please email your reps ASAP saying where in the country you’d be coming from. Please also speak to your local reps, who should be able to arrange funding for transport via your Regional Officer.
For members in the north-west, UNITE is putting on a coach, which will pick up:
Please note the CHANGE to the pick-ups previously announced.
If you want a place on the coach, please BOOK IT NOW, stating where you want to be picked up and providing a mobile phone number if you can. The coach will leave London for the return journey at 3pm.
If you can’t make it to London, you can always help out on a picket line near you. Whatever activity you take part in on the day, please remember to sign one of the strike activity registers. This is important both to help your reps organise the campaign effectively, and also because only members who play an active part will be eligible for Hardship Payments on top of the standard Dispute Benefit.
Please let your reps know where you’re able to picket on Friday (which must be your normal place of work).
UNITE has updated the Q&A on industrial action and published it online. Please take the time to have a read, as it will not only answer many of your questions and concerns, but also help you answer queries from your colleagues.
The company has issued its own Q&A to people managers. There are a few errors in it, which UNITE has drawn to the attention of the company. Nonetheless, some of the answers from the company will help clarify the situation for staff, such as:
To help coordinate the campaign, members voted earlier this year to set up a UK-wide Combine Committee. Members have approved the proposed small amendment to the Thames Valley and South West constituency. Two Combine Committee members are amongst those who took Voluntary Redundancy. There are now have six vacancies which need to be filled as soon as possible.
The committee structure is now:
UNITE Fujitsu UK Combine Committee The campaign over pay and pensions requires a UK-wide UNITE structure to enable timely, representative and democratic decision-making, involving members as fully as possible. Given the large number of Fujitsu sites and HOM99 staff, representation must be regionally-based, rather than built upon the workplace rep/contact structure. UNITE will run a ballot for members to elect a “combine committee” (this name is widely used in other companies). The ballot will be run by email, with a paper alternative where UNITE does not hold an email address. The constituencies and numbers of seats set out in the table below are roughly proportional to membership. The regions definitions are largely based on the UKCF constituencies.
All members are invited to stand for election for their constituency. The candidates with the highest number of votes would be elected to the “combine-21” committee. Members on the combine-21 committee who are elected from a particular constituency or group of constituencies would agree amongst themselves who would be their representative(s) on the combine-7 committee, who would act as deputies etc. If the committee members in a constituency or group of constituencies are unable to agree this by majority vote, the decision will be put back to a vote of members. The smaller combine-7 committee could deal with more urgent decisions, while the larger combine-21 committee could deal with those that required broader discussion. Having the combine-21 also helps ensure cover on the combine-7 when particular committee members are unavailable. Members on the combine committee are expected to:
Being a member of the combine committee is a separate role from being a local rep or contact, but it is expected that most committee members would also be doing that role. It is recognised that the time and facilities available will vary considerably, depending on geography, whether or not the committee member is covered by union recognition etc, and that activities are undertaken on a volunteer basis. |
The Combine Committee has also agreed some more detailed Standing Orders.
Could you help the campaign by standing for one of the following Combine Committee constituencies:
* London, South & East
* Manchester bargaining unit (HOM99 staff)
* Scotland
* Thames Valley & South West (3 seats)
If you are willing to stand, please send an email by the end of 2009, including your name, your base location, which constituency you are standing for, your email and phone contact details and (optionally) an election statement of up to 100 words.
If you are in one of these constituencies but aren’t willing to stand yourself, please talk to colleagues to make sure members do stand and your area is properly represented.
Many staff who aren’t yet in UNITE may not even have seen the company offer, or details of the action UNITE has called.
Employees overwhelmingly support UNITE’s objectives on Jobs, Pay and Pensions, whether or not they have the confidence to take industrial action. Some may be prepared to take action short of strike but not strike action. Whatever they are prepared to do to support the campaign can help achieve a fair settlement for all employees.
If you know a few colleagues who might be interested, please forward this email on to them.
If you’re one of those colleagues, please join UNITE today and play your part in making Fujitsu a better place to work.
UNITE’s ability to win improvements to the company stance on Jobs, Pay and Pensions depends on the size and involvement of its membership. The rapid growth in membership over recent months has been crucial in bringing the company to the table. We need to keep building the union and the campaign to secure a successful outcome for us all.
The notice of industrial action was issued on Friday. There is a lot to organise before the first strike takes place on Friday 18th December, to ensure our campaign is as effective as possible.
UNITE is holding a lunchtime “strike committee” meeting, open to all members, to make the necessary preparations:
1pm, Wednesday 16th December
35GCR1, MAN35
Please come along if you can.
Andy --, a Workplace Rep and Health & Safety Rep, left the company on Friday through Voluntary Redundancy. Thanks to Andy for all his hard work over a number of years.
At the EGM on Tuesday we elected Dave Whitworth from MAN35 as a new Workplace Rep. Dave was already an Equality Rep.
Please see here for our Q & A on industrial action.
Please see a local copy of our new national newsletter here. A version internal to Fujitsu is available here.
Many people have been getting in touch asking how to support the industrial action over Jobs, Pay & Pensions from Friday 18th December.
There's a frequently updated "appeal for support" leaflet and a collection sheet on the home page of this site.
Here's a list of the main Fujitsu sites.
Members voted by 83% to reject the company offer, an even bigger majority than originally voted for strike action.
The eleven members’ meetings around the country all overwhelmingly endorsed the motion on “Campaign Plans”, with a few minor variations.
Your elected Combine Committee discussed the result of the vote on the offer, and the results from the eleven meetings, and asked UNITE to issue the official notice of action to Fujitsu. This notice has now been served for both strike action and action short of strike starting from Friday 18th December. Below is text of the notice to members of action:
FUJITSU SERVICES LTD REQUEST FOR AUTHORITY TO TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION We refer to your request of 10 December 2009. Following their vote for industrial action, our 1,632 Unite the Union members, who are employed by the company at various sites in the UK and not posted abroad, as per the attached breakdown, as hereby called upon to take industrial action. The action will be continuous, commencing on Friday 18 December 2009, and will consist of the following:
In addition our members concerned will take discontinuous strike action for six days on Friday 18 December 2009, Thursday 7 January, Friday 8 January, Monday 11 January, Thursday 14 January and Friday 15 January 2010. Please find attached a copy of the notice we have faxed to the employers. Yours fraternally pp DEREK SIMPSON |
Copies of the full notice will be posted on the “Amicus the Union” CafeVIK community and on www.ourunion.org.uk/news.
Please maximise support for the action, to get the best result on Jobs, Pay and Pensions. Industrial action is always a last resort, but there comes a time when we have to say Enough Is Enough!
UNITE is willing to reopen negotiations at any time. If the company is willing to make a sensible offer it is still possible to avoid industrial action.
The aim is to secure a settlement acceptable to members with the minimum possible strike action. To achieve this, we also need to apply other forms of pressure to the company. External pressure (media, MPs, customers etc) is an important part of this strategy.
To launch the action, UNITE is organising a “Scrooge” protest outside the company’s HQ at 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW (map) at 12:00 on Friday 18th December. Will Fujitsu be visited by the ghosts of pensions past, jobs present and pay that is yet to come? The protest should attract considerable media interest, helping our campaign. The intention is then to pop round the corner onto Oxford Street to leaflet outside one or two of Fujitsu’s High Street customers.
We need as many members as possible to join in the London protest on 18th December (the first strike day). As this is not a picket, you can bring along family, friends, or even colleagues who are leaving today! To help UNITE provide transport, if you’re willing to take part please email your reps ASAP saying where you’d be coming from. The union is already planning to lay on a coach from the north-west, which is likely to leave at 7am in Central Manchester, and at points en-route near Warrington and Crewe.
UNITE will be putting in place more campaign plans as necessary – please feed in your ideas through your reps and Combine Committee members.
Your Combine Committee has already decided to encourage members to take part in the national Right to Work campaign's “Conference of Resistance and Solidarity” being held in Manchester on Saturday 30th January. Jobs and Pensions are amongst the themes of the conference, and it seems likely that we will be able to get a speaker to help promote our own campaign. Given that the company proposes to enforce the dismissals for the last Compulsory Redundancies on Sunday 31st January, this will be a crucial time for our campaign. Members are encouraged to sign up for the conference so that we have a strong presence.
Many staff who aren’t yet in UNITE may not even have seen the company offer, or details of the action UNITE has called.
Employees overwhelmingly support UNITE’s objectives on Jobs, Pay and Pensions, whether or not they have the confidence to take industrial action. Some may be prepared to take action short of strike but not strike action. Whatever they are prepared to do to support the campaign can help achieve a fair settlement for all employees.
If you know a few colleagues who might be interested, please forward this email on to them.
If you’re one of those colleagues, please join UNITE today and play your part in making Fujitsu a better place to work.
UNITE’s ability to win improvements to the company stance on Jobs, Pay and Pensions depends on the size and involvement of its membership. The rapid growth in membership over recent months has been crucial in bringing the company to the table. We need to keep building the union and the campaign to secure a successful outcome for us all.
UNITE has issued notice of industrial action at Fujitsu across the UK. The notice is available on CafeVIK.
This is an extract from the notice:
Following their vote for industrial action, our 1,632 Unite the Union members, who are employed by the company at various sites in the UK and not posted abroad, as per the attached breakdown, as hereby called upon to take industrial action.
The action will be continuous, commencing on Friday 18 December 2009, and will consist of the following:
In addition our members concerned will take discontinuous strike action for six days on Friday 18 December 2009, Thursday 7 January, Friday 8 January, Monday 11 January, Thursday 14 January and Friday 15 January 2010. |
Voting on the Company Offer closes at 1pm.
Thanks to all the members who have taken part in the members’ meetings in Bracknell, Crewe, Belfast, Stevenage, London (ThomsonReuters), Wakefield, Basingstoke, Manchester, Solihull, London and Warrington.
Your elected UNITE Combine Committee is recommending you vote to REJECT the offer because it is vague and woolly, offering little of substance on Jobs, Pay or Pensions. This recommendation has been endorsed at all the members meetings.
Meanwhile members of the PCS union are voting on the (different) offer they received from the company. PCS reps are also recommending rejection. Any PCS industrial action would also have to start by 23rd December.
Once voting has closed, your elected Combine Committee will be discussing the result, along with the decisions taken by members at all the meetings, and deciding on next steps.
Thanks to all the members who have already taken part in the members’ meetings in Bracknell, Crewe, Belfast, Stevenage, London (ThomsonReuters) and Wakefield. These are important meetings to discuss the Company Offer and our response. If you haven’t yet been to one, there are still a few left:
Date | Location | Room | Time | Negotiating team member(s) |
Tuesday 8th December | BSN01 | Restaurant | 17:30-18:30 | Alasdair Lewis |
| MAN33 canteen | 14:45-16:15 | Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge | |
SOL10 | Training room 7 (first floor) | 12:30-13:30 | Alasdair Lewis | |
Wednesday 9th December | LON22 | Room 123 | 18:00-19:00 | Ian Allinson, Steve Warren |
WAR08 | Room C | 12:00-13:00 | Alan Jenney, Robert (Wilf) Williams |
The template agenda and motions were sent out by email on Friday at 17:13. Thanks to all the members who spotted the typo in Motion B – “Friday 9th January” should have read “Friday 8th January”.
Once you’ve been to a meeting (or if you can’t get to one), please vote on the offer using the voting buttons included in the email notice sent out on Friday at 15:33. Votes must be received by 1pm on Thursday 10th December.
Your elected UNITE Combine Committee is recommending you vote to REJECT the offer because it is vague and woolly, offering little of substance on Jobs, Pay or Pensions.
Rejecting a company offer does not mean being unwilling to talk to the company. It means saying that the offer isn’t good enough and that the company should offer more.
Don’t forget that many non-members won’t have seen the company offer. Why not draw it to their attention, invite them to make up their own minds whether they think it’s good enough – and ask them to join?
The notice sent out earlier included a list of important meetings for UNITE members taking place Monday 7th –Wednesday 9th December. The list is reproduced at the foot of this email for reference.
AGENDA
The agenda for the meetings may vary locally slightly, but the core will be the same:
1. Report on talks and discussion of company offer on Jobs, Pay & Pensions
2. Motion A (included in the original email): Company Offer (included in the email notice earlier today)
3. Discussion on action if offer is rejected
4. Motion B (included in the original email): Campaign Plans
5. Election of reps
6. Q&A on industrial action
Please remember that at this stage the offer has not been voted on and NO INDUSTRIAL ACTION HAS BEEN CALLED.
The meetings
The meetings are:
You are encouraged to attend one of the members’ meetings below before casting your vote.
Your elected Combine Committee is recommending you vote to REJECT the company offer.
The pressure of the campaign has produced some welcome movement from the company, irrespective of whether that is reflected in the text of the offer, measures already taken on jobs, or Roger Gilbert’s announcement. It is also possible that the company could announce further concessions after the offer.
However, the offer is vague and woolly, lacking the firm and substantial commitments that would make a substantial difference to members on Jobs, Pay or Pensions. For example, Roger Gilbert’s “commitment” on pay is no more than the possibility of a thin smear of jam tomorrow – maybe. After the company’s recent record on bonuses and pay, who would rely on this? The company can make firm commitments to customers, suppliers, partners and shareholders, yet they want to carry on giving no real commitments to the workforce that generates the profits.
The only really substantial point is the offer to change the date of redundancy dismissal for those who have already asked to stay past 11th December from 31st January to 26th March. It is disgraceful that instead of offering anything positive to employees, the company is using the threat of dismissal on 31st January to try to bully members into accepting a third-rate offer. Many members have notice periods that extend past 26th March. Terminating their employment on 31st January would actually be breaching their contract of employment. As one member puts it:
“I am one of the people selected for CR who would be affected by an extension to 26th March. I find the way the company is making this conditional on accepting the offer outrageous and appalling. I will not submit to blackmail. We should fight this.”
In the course of negotiations, UNITE put forward many practical and affordable suggestions on Jobs, Pay and Pensions. The company didn’t even include many of the cost-free points in the offer. The company is still targeting profits of around £10,000 per employee this year, so can afford a fair deal. Instead, the company is still pursuing damaging short-term cost control in desperate attempts to get as close as they can to the unrealistic targets set by our previous senior management.
Enough Is Enough!
UNITE members will decide whether or not to accept the company offer. There is obviously a lot of context around the offer and it is important that members can make fully informed decisions, so UNITE is organising members’ meetings at key locations around the country where members can discuss the offer before casting their votes.
The meetings will also discuss what action should be called if the offer is rejected.
Please do your best to attend and have your say. If you are unable to attend, please contact one of the Combine Committee members for your region to give your input.
The meetings are:
Date | Location | Room | Time | Negotiating team member(s) |
Monday 7th December | BRA01 | Thames Valley Club | 5:30-6:30pm | Ian Allinson |
CRE02 | CR0-2 | 12:30-13:30 | Alan Jenney | |
IRE11 | Data Prep Office | 12:00-13:00 | Roger Dane | |
STE04 | Room 108 (middle floor, above reception) | 12:30-13:30 (but you are welcome any time 12:00-14:00) | Ian Allinson | |
ThomsonReuters bargaining unit | GB SC 06 Brainstorm 01 LDN04 | 12:30-13:30 | Steve Warren | |
WAK01 | Hemsworth Room | 12:00-13:00 | Robert (Wilf) Williams | |
Tuesday 8th December | BSN01 | Restaurant | 17:30-18:30 | Alasdair Lewis |
Manchester bargaining unit | MAN33 canteen | 14:45-16:15 | Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge | |
SOL10 | Training room 7 (first floor) | 12:30-13:30 | Alasdair Lewis | |
Wednesday 9th December | LON22 | Room 123 | 18:00-19:00 | Ian Allinson, Steve Warren |
WAR08 | Room C | 12:00-13:00 | Alan Jenney, Robert (Wilf) Williams |
More details of the agenda, motions etc will be circulated separately.
It is vital that we keep our membership records fully up-to-date and this requires your help. If there are any changes to your circumstances (particularly if you expect to leave Fujitsu on 11th December) it is vital that you inform UNITE. Failing to do so could give the company an opportunity to challenge the legality of any action.
If you are leaving Fujitsu, you don’t have to leave UNITE:
Good luck to all the members who are leaving Fujitsu over the next week.
The most recent figures the company the company has provided to UNITE are that of the remaining 326 people selected for Compulsory Redundancy, 94 have asked to remain in employment beyond 11th December until at least 31st January. If you were selected for CR and want to stay in Fujitsu, but have not already notified the company that you want to stay past 11th December it is vital that you do so immediately.
The latest breakdown from the company is:
Pool | Accepted VR | Total CR | Requested extend to 31st January |
1 (Engineering Services) | 246 | 120 | 31 |
2 (Application Services) | 102 | 53 | 17 |
3 (Government & Defence) | 46 | 18 | 3 |
4 (Private Sector) | 51 | 37 | 11 |
5 (Central Functions) | 41 | 35 | 9 |
6 (Core) | 86 | 77 | 23 |
TOTAL | 579 | 340 | 94 |
NOTE: These figures are continually changing and dont match the ones in the offer |
To comply with the Security of Employment Agreement (SEA) for many employees nationally, and to comply with Annex 1 for employees in the Manchester bargaining unit, the company should have stopped overtime unless jointly agreed otherwise, in order to save as many jobs as possible. Wouldn’t it be better if we all worked reasonable hours rather than some of us losing our jobs while the rest of us work (paid or unpaid) till we drop? Sadly, the company has not stopped overtime or even tried to agree where it is legitimately needed (e.g. short-term requirements or out-of-hours cover). The company has identified a shortage of staff in two areas – Infrastructure CSAs and Test & Integration – and there are RARs for vacancies in both these areas. To help ensure other shortage areas are identified in time to save jobs, every employee can:
Following discussions, the company has made some improvements to its “Pairing” process to match up people not selected who want to leave with CRs who want to stay. If you want to leave Fujitsu, UNITE strongly urges you to ensure that you are on the company pairing list and to escalate it via Paul Brown (HR) immediately if your manager doesn’t approve your participation. This applies no matter whether you were at risk or not, rejected VR, or previously refused participation in pairing. Don’t forget the UNITE pairing process too.
UNITE has discovered this week that instead of treating people who were not at risk who find a successful “pair” as VRs, they are asking them to sign a “Compromise Agreement” (CA), which is a legal agreement where you sign away some of your rights in exchange for money. Members should seek advice from their UNITE rep immediately if they are offered a CA, regardless of any (misleading) warnings about confidentiality you may hear, so that you can make informed decisions. UNITE believes that using a CA is another unnecessary barrier to using pairing to prevent CRs. However, if the company does use CAs, it is important that they are worded correctly. The company template provided to UNITE this week required the employee to sign away far more rights than Fujitsu can reasonably justify (which would relate only to the redundancy). In the light of UNITE’s comments, the company is considering revising the template. UNITE has also raised with the company examples of HR trying to reduce the full SEA package when offering a CA. The company is now saying this will be corrected.
If you are involved in the redundancy process in any way – CR, VR, pairing, redeployment etc – and anything gets in the way of preventing a CR (yours or someone else’s) it is vital that you escalate, escalate, escalate. Don’t take “no” for an answer. The company has identified Paul Brown (HR) as the key escalation point for redeployment, pairing etc.
If you have any examples of VR rejection, refusal of pairing, not getting interviews etc that aren’t promptly resolved by escalating with the company, please let UNITE know so that your reps can help escalate them too.
It isn’t only UNITE members in Fujitsu who are having to consider strike action. Over at HP, mobile engineers plan to hold their first strike on Monday (7th), in opposition to cuts in pay and pension benefits, with further action also announced.
Meanwhile UNITE in IT multinational Steria is recommending acceptance of an offer to settle the dispute over closure of their Defined Benefit (DB) pension scheme. According to the latest UNITE newsletter, Steria has offered to replace the DB scheme with a Defined Contribution (DC) scheme “designed to provide ‘parity’ of benefit with the existing pensions promise people have from their current DB arrangement, at the same cost to them in terms of the contributions that they pay”. The offer includes improvements for staff already on the DC schemes and the agreement being “a legally binding agreement between the three unions and Steria. (In effect Steria would have to give 15 months notice of their desire to close this new scheme and any changes to the scheme have to be agreed by all the parties to the legal agreement”. It also extends union rights in Steria. While the offer doesn’t save the DB scheme, it does protect the overall package value for DB members and provide a number of other gains. No doubt the fact that UNITE members in Steria ran such a successful campaign over pay earlier in the year has influenced Steria’s approach. UNITE members are now voting on the offer.
You can read the UNITE Steria pensions newsletters online.
UNITE has an elected Combine Committee with members from every part of the UK to coordinate our work in Fujitsu and ensure democratic decision making.
The Combine Committee is proposing a small change to the constituency arrangements to encourage greater participation. There are three seats for Thames Valley and South West, and these include one reserved for HOM99 and one reserved for BRA. The proposal is that all three seats should be open to any member in Thames Valley and South West to stand for.
[The original email gave details of how to vote on the proposed change]
A big thank you for all their hard work to the UNITE reps and contact expected to leave Fujitsu on 11th December through Voluntary Redundancy.
See here for the Company Offer to Unite 3rd December 2009.
Talks between UNITE and Fujitsu to try to settle the dispute started in earnest last week and are continuing up to Thursday 3rd December, with the aim of producing a written “offer” from the company for members to consider.
Some progress has been made, but it currently seems unlikely that the company offer will be good enough for your reps to recommend for acceptance. If the offer is rejected by members, reps would expect UNITE to issue a new call for industrial action, starting no later than 23rd December.
Fujitsu can well afford a fair deal on Jobs, Pay and Pensions. It is still forecasting well over £100m profits for this financial year – around £10,000 per employee.
As well as the company “pairing” scheme, don’t forget the UNITE one. As one member puts it:
"I added my name to the pairing list that was set up by Unite in Fujitsu as I am currently selected for compulsory redundancy. Unlike the company's pairing initiative, where I have had to do all the leg-work within my own network of contacts to find someone taking VR, UNITE’s has resulted in me being contacted by three members of the union who had some good matches for my skills within days of being added to the list. They seem like good prospects for me."
It is only pressure from employees that has got us this far. Everyone is hoping the company takes the opportunity to make a reasonable offer which members can accept. It is of course possible that the company could respond to the pressure by making concessions separately, to avoid the appearance of giving in to UNITE. Members are likely to be more concerned with the substance of what changes on Jobs, Pay and Pensions than with how it is presented.
For many people, the issues on Jobs, Pay & Pensions crystallised a more general feeling that “Enough Is Enough!”. Just to make us all feel better, the news is gradually trickling out that Roger Gilbert has decided not to continue with the extra “Courtley Day” holiday over Xmas. What next?
Timetable and Campaign
The expected sequence of events is:
Members won’t be considering the offer in a vacuum, but rather in the context of the large majority for industrial action over Jobs, Pay and Pensions, the costs of taking industrial action and what might be won if action was taken.
While we hope for the best in terms of the negotiations, we also have to prepare for the worst. As well as discussing the company offer, the meetings next week should be discussing plans for action in case that is necessary.
So far, the meetings organised are:
Date | Location | Room | Time | Negotiating team member(s) |
Monday 7th December | BRA01 | Thames Valley Club | 5:30-6:30pm | TBC |
CRE02 | CR0-2 | 12:30-13:30 | Alan Jenney, Robert (Wilf) Williams | |
IRE11 | Data Prep Office | 12:00-13:00 | Roger Dane | |
STE04 | Room 108 (middle floor, above reception) | 12:30-13:30 (but you are welcome any time 12:00-14:00) | TBC | |
WAK01 | Hemsworth Room | 12:00-13:00 | TBC | |
Tuesday 8th December | BSN01 | Restaurant | 17:30-18:30 | TBC |
Manchester bargaining unit | MAN33 canteen | 14:45-16:15 | Ian Allinson, Pauline Bradburn, Lynne Hodge | |
SOL10 | Training room 7 (first floor) | 12:30-13:30 | Alasdair Lewis | |
Wednesday 9th December | ThompsonReuters bargaining unit | TBC | TBC | Steve Warren |
Meetings are also being organised in London and Warrington.
Please make sure you attend your local meeting. If there isn’t one listed yet, please speak to your local rep or Combine Committee member to get one arranged. If we don’t prioritise attending a meeting about our Jobs, Pay & Pensions, can we really expect the company to prioritise sorting them out?
UNITE’s ability to win improvements to the company stance on Jobs, Pay and Pensions depends on the size and involvement of its membership. The rapid growth in membership over recent months has been crucial in bringing the company to the table. We need to keep building the union and the campaign to secure a successful outcome for us all.
If you know a few colleagues who might be interested, please forward this email on to them.
If you’re one of those colleagues, please join UNITE today and play your part in making Fujitsu a better place to work.