Great-Britain: Unite is now implementing its harder line with employers

Following Unite biennial policy conference at the end of June this year, the union has begun to implement a ‘get tough’ policy with what it considers to be recalcitrant employers. This has led to the notice of, and taking of, strike action that goes beyond the standard fare of one-day strikes. The background to the policy is that the Unite union is determined not to suffer any further major defeats in the light of its drubbing at the hands of Ineos in Grangemouth, Scotland, late last year.
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General Secretary, Len McCluskey, in his keynote address to the conference said that Unite will ‘work with employers wherever we can [but it is] our duty to fight exploitation and ruthless employers. We will fight for our members within the law where possible. But outside it if necessary’.

In the last few weeks this has feed into a renewed determination to win disputes for members. Increasingly, Unite members are being faced with the imposition of new terms and conditions of employment through ‘

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