After a 2-day strike last month against the introduction of zero hour contracts, Unite members at SCA Logistics at Tilbury docks have begun an 11-day strike to continue their battle. The fear of union members is that they - as the permanent workforce - could be replaced by a workforce comprised of lower paid agency or casual workers on zero hours contracts. This is the first major strike against zero hour contracts and a major test of the Unite union after its defeat at the petro-chemical company, Ineos, last year.
Unite said that a collective agreement is in place with the company which allowed a certain percentage of agency workers, but this was being severely undermined by the ongoing replacement of permanent, trained dockers, who now number less than thirty, by even more agency/casual staff. The union believes that at this rate of replacement there will soon be no permanent employed dockers with the company at Tilbury.
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