More January 2007

You are in > Archives » Headlines » January 2007

January 2007

January 29th 2007

Britain: Fujitsu workers strike to defend their pay and conditions

Manchester-based workers at Fujitsu, an IT services company, began a five-day strike today.

Members at the sites concerned are taking continuous strike action from Monday 29^th January until Friday 2^nd February due to a dispute over redundancy rights, union recognition and better pay. Action short of a strike involving the withdrawal of goodwill recommenced on 22^nd December and is still ongoing.

The trade union Amicus suspended strike action in December 2006 to allow talks with Fujitsu management and the Arbitration Conciliation and Advisory Service (ACAS) in an attempt to settle the dispute. Amicus says that Fujitsu rejected proposals from both ACAS and the union (including binding arbitration) and chose to walk away from further talks instead.

Amicus Deputy General Secretary, Graham Goddard, said:

“We are dismayed and saddened that management have refused to hold meaningful talks to settle the dispute.   We hope the five-day strike will send a message to Fujitsu that they need to return to negotiations to bring the dispute to an end.

“Amicus is committed to supporting our members to defend their redundancy rights, union recognition and fight for better pay.”

 Members staged successful strike action for two days earlier this month, which included a rally of members and leafleting other Fujitsu and customer sites locally and across the UK.

Amicus members are fighting to defend their rights against a company that is seeking to worsen pay and conditions and is attacking union recognition. This includes Fujitsu imposing two different pay deals on its workforce in Manchester, delaying pay rises and offering no increase in pay rates for many lower paid jobs. This is despite Fujitsu's reported profits increasing by 46% to £150m in 2005-6.

Staff are angry at Fujitsu trying to deny them the benefits of union recognition and representation, and trying to cut their rights to a 90-day consultation before redundancy and their redundancy payment terms.

Amicus members at Fujitsu will gather for a joint union rally with PCS and Unison on Wednesday 31^st January at 12.00 pm at Methodist Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester.  Civil servants who are members of the PCS trade union are striking over jobs, privatisation and pay, and community nurses in Manchester who are in the trade union Unison are fighting against job cuts.  The NHS and civil servants are among Fujitsu’s biggest customers.

A picket line will be in place each day outside Fujitsu’s Central Park offices from 6.30 am to 10.00 am.  Members will be leafleting other Fujitsu sites locally and across the UK throughout the strike week.

For further information please contact Karen Viquerat on 01704 546500 or 07768 931316 and Terry Thompson on 0161 7988976, or  see the Amicus website at
http://www.amicustheunion.org/