Workers at packaging firm API Foils in Livingston, West Lothian will strike this Friday (25 May) over imposed changes to their terms and conditions and increasing attacks by management to their long-standing collective agreement.
A resounding 92.4% of Unite members voted to take industrial action in what will be the first in a series of 24-hour strikes.
A collective agreement has been in place for over 30 years at the Livingston plant, but management has imposed new contracts of employment without consulting local Unite representatives in a move which will impact all workers – from the shop floor to the back office.
Unite Regional Industrial Officer Gillian McKay said, “This is the culmination of six months of management hostility towards our members and now they have simply had enough of this draconian approach to employment relations.
In recent negotiations the employer refused to accept our members’ right to reject their offer and then proceeded to impose the new terms without any notice. These new contracts of employment will make employees work for longer with no salary increase and remove all flexible working arrangements.
It would seem API management are touting themselves as poster-boys for the botched Beecroft Report with this dictatorial agenda. They should now come back to us with their own Plan B that respects the existing collective agreement.”
Further 24 hour strikes have been planned for every Friday from a minute past midnight for the next 12 weeks.
ENDS
For further information please contact Unite Regional Industrial Officer Gillian McKay on 0131 556 9676 or 07798531007.
Unite Scotland 