Bosses need unions too

Although unions may typically be associated with blue collar workers, union recognition and collective bargaining for management becomes ever more critical in a world in which those at the very top lord it over everyone else, including your boss.

 
In the first such victory of its kind at any Delphi site, Unite has won union recognition and a collective bargaining agreement for a management group at the Delphi Diesels Systems site in Sudbury.

 
The group of management staff has grown since Unite started pressing for recognition at the end of August last year.

 
“The decision by managers at the site to join Unite and press for union recognition represents a cultural shift within the business and a growing recognition that only Unite can be relied upon to look after the interests of all workers on the site,” said Unite regional officer Neal Evans, who has lead the organising campaign.

 
Evans said that now, all Delphi Sudbury workers, with the exception of the senior management team, such as the site manager and HR director, are covered solely by Unite for the purposes of collective bargaining.

 
Those in the management group are thrilled by this singular achievement that will improve pay and working conditions for all workers at the site, both now and in the future.

 
Paul Benson, a 30-year veteran at the Delphi Sudbury site, who started on the shop floor and is now a weekend shift product manager, explains why the management group pressed for recognition.

 
“Our struggle to be recognised as a bargaining group within our site started last summer when we felt we were being treated unfairly as a group and as individuals over a number of issues including our annual pay rise which was withdrawn completely,” Benson explained. “Everyone else in the factory got a rise and some reorganisation at the company was targeted at our group and no one else.”

 
Ray Searle, who has likewise been employed at the Delphi site for more than 30 years, started on the shop floor and spent time in many different functions at the site, before taking on the position of assembly and test night shift product manager.

 
Searle said winning union recognition was not easy.

 
“It started with a phone call to Neal, our regional officer, for some advice, and then we had to put in a lot of hard work and networking by a small number of our group,” Searle explained. “We concluded with a vote which was counted early in January.”

 
Evans added that an early challenge in this unprecedented victory was fear within the group itself, since this would be the very first, trailblazing instance of management seeking recognition at any Delphi site.

 
“The employer in this case was evasive, and when I first approached the group, they were reluctant,” he explained. “They were understandably scared to put their heads above the parapet.

 
“Ultimately, though, they realised that the employer was not on their side, that it was only through collective action that they would have their interests served, just as the interests of other unionised workers at Delphi were being served.”

 
“Every worker at the Delphi site acknowledged that it was to everyone’s benefit if all were included in union recognition and a collective bargaining agreement,” Evans added. “If anyone is left out, that only makes us weaker.”

 
Benson explains why union recognition is so important to him and his peers.

 
“The recognition for us is an opportunity to try and influence the direction the site is taking to help us ensure the longevity of Sudbury within Delphi’s plans for the future,” he said. “It also means we have a collective voice to ensure we are treated fairly and not discriminated against as a group or individually.”

 
The victory for the Delphi management group is but one of 11 other union recognition and collective bargaining agreements Unite has won recently in its organising campaign.

 
The success of its organising campaign comes in the face of a steep decline in such agreements year on year since the 1980s. As policy think tank Class pointed out in a recent publication, well below 25 per cent of the British workforce is covered under collective bargaining agreements, a dramatic fall since 1979, when coverage peaked at more than 80 per cent.

 
Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke hailed the advances the organising department has made in its campaign to secure more union recognition and collective bargaining agreements against all odds, especially in the automotive sector.

 
“Our organising campaign led by Sharon Graham and the organising department is going very well,” he said. “This Delphi victory is another recognition agreement in the automotive supply chain.

 
“In 2015 we will be pressing on to organize even more companies in the supply chain as well as campaigning to bring back the auto supply chain back to the UK,” he added.