Strike over pay at IT Services company Steria

UNITE members at Steria are striking tomorrow over pay.  There's a copy of the UNITE press release below, which includes details of the picket lines in Bristol, Coventry and High Wycombe.

Click here for an email address to which you can send messages of support.



Press Release: Unite members at Steria strike over pay dispute
 
Members of Unite, employed by IT services company Steria UK Ltd working on a Capita account, will take industrial action tomorrow (Friday, 16 December) in protest against the company's refusal to offer a pay rise for 2010 (payable from April 2011).

Unite members, who are system developers and analysts, voted an overwhelming 82 per cent in favour of strike action. Industrial action will take place at various Steria sites in Bristol, Coventry and High Wycombe (see notes) and staff will take part in the 24 hour strike from midnight tonight.

Unite regional officer, Jerry Pickford, said: “This is the first time that this group of workers have ever taken these steps as they feel that they have no option other than to withdraw their labour in protest at the refusal of Steria to make any kind off pay offer whatsoever.

“Over the last few years, our members have seen their workload increase tremendously and for nearly a decade they have received below inflation pay rises, which in real terms is seen as a pay cut. They have now reached the point where they are saying ‘enough is enough’.

“Management claim the current financial condition is the reason that a zero pay award has been given to staff, however, Steria continues to post excellent results for both last year and the first three quarters of this year. It also seems that its executives are immune to these financial conditions as they award themselves very healthy pay rises and bonuses.

“Further action will be planned for the near future. However, we hope that Steria will see sense and show proper respect for a group of workers that continually over perform for the company.”

ENDS
 
For further information contact Jerry Pickford on 07764 655759 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite press office on 020 3371 2061 or 07980 224761.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

24 hour strike action will take place from 12.00am, Friday 16 December at the following sites:

• Friends Life Centre, Brierly Furlong, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8SW.
• 75 Corporation Street, Coventry, CV1 1GD.
• Ashton Court, Kingsmead Business Park, Frederick Place, High Wycombe, HP11 1LA.

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UNITE recommends acceptance of Steria pensions offer

According to the latest UNITE "Steria Pensions" newsletter (number 5), Steria has made an offer which the union is recommending for acceptance.

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Fighting job losses - members at Steria vote for strike

Congratulations to UNITE members at IT company Steria in Manchester, who have voted by a sizable majority to strike in protest at planned redundancies.

Let's ensure that they get a mass of messages of support (details here). If Steria don't see sense we must all help ensure the action is as effective as possible. This ballot result should be an inspiration to members elsewhere faced with redundancy - it is possible to fight.

Meanwhile UNITE is taking part in an international day of action to protest against planned job losses after the takeover of EDS by HP.

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Fighting redundancies

I understand the ballot for industrial action among UNITE members at Steria in Manchester closed today, but I haven't heard the result yet.

Let's hope the delays of the painful balloting process haven't undermined people's confidence to fight. The United Campaign to Repeal the Anti-Trade Union Laws reports on the debates and vote in parliament on amendments intended to take small steps in this direction. The vote itself was on an amendment relating to making the ballot process less of a minefield. The campaign's report highlights this as the biggest revolt of Labour MPs under Brown's leadership, with 45 Labour MPs voting to slightly improve workers' rights. While this is quite an achievement for campaigners, it is also an indictment of the Parliamentary Labour Party that there were so few. Perhaps the headline for the story should have been "45 MPs find backbone"?

Meanwhile another tragedy is unfolding for manufacturing in Manchester, with the threatened closure of Rolls Royce Crossley Engines - already a shadow of its former self.

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Media finally begins to pick up Coop offshoring scandal

It is remarkable how little media coverage there has been of the plan to offshore to India work for Cooperative Financial Services (CFS) currently being carried out by Steria in Manchester - especially when this goes completely against the Coop's carefully cultivated brand image and is leading to threats of compulsory redundancies and a strike ballot.

Good to see this report, albeit in a fairly obscure publication.

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IT National Advisory Committee

Last week I took part in a very well attended and interesting UNITE "National Advisory Committee" for the IT industry. Stripped of the jargon, this means a meeting of union reps from various companies in the IT industry.

The process of groups with union organisation TUPEing into the IT industry continues. In terms of UNITE organisation, this is predominantly from the Finance sector at the moment.

We had a video link-up and presentation from India, where we are building links with UNITES (no relation), a union beginning to build in the IT and Business Process Outsourcing industries. These are small but very important beginnings. When workers in the UK see employers cutting jobs and transferring work to India it is too easy to see Indian workers as the enemy, rather than seeing them as potential allies in resisting the attempts by employers to drive down pay and conditions globally. There was a good discussion about practical ways of supporting each other.

We had a brief update on the HQ response to the motion passed at the sector conference about the planned UNITE "IT and Communications" sector. Not much had changed, though we were told that the Communication Managers Association (CMA) were happy with being in our sector, even if we didn't think it was appropriate.

We had a presentation from Incomes Data Services (IDS) about pay trends in the IT industry, which provoked a considerable amount of discussion. They get data from both employers and unions, and are keen to get more so that the quality of their research is improved. We also had a look at a report from e-Skills UK, which is the "sector skills council". This sort of pay data is invaluable for any rep negotiating pay.

We had a brief update on the union's work on learning in our sector from Sunil Patel, who has been heavily involved in the development of the ITQ qualification, which are aimed at IT users. It's all too easy to forget that large numbers of those working in the IT industry aren't in IT-based jobs or don't have qualifications in IT.

We discussed progress with organising and recruitment in the sector. Best progress is being made in EDS and Fujitsu, where there have been sustained and fairly systematic efforts to build the union. A bigger, stronger union means better results for employees. This doesn't just mean people filling in Direct Debit forms - it has to mean getting members involved, recruiting and training new reps etc.

We discussed about the situation at Steria in Manchester, where members are being balloted for action as part of a campaign against compulsory redundancies. As is normally the case when you get a bunch of reps together, the discussion produced some fresh ideas for taking the campaign forward. We all felt that in the current economic climate it is becoming even more important to take a stand against redundancies wherever possible.

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Cooperative, not! Steria dispute update.

UNITE has produced a helpful 1-page summary of the dispute at Steria in Manchester, where members are balloting for strike action against compulsory redundancies as jobs are offshored to India.

The jobs are providing IT services to Cooperative Financial Services (CFS), which is a merger of what used to be the Coop Bank and Cooperative Insurance Services (CIS).

It is vital that we see resistance to job losses starting as quickly as possible - this will be much harder as unemployment rises. Get those messages of support pouring in - the summary includes details of where to send them.

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Fighting redundancies at Steria, job losses at Freescale

In the current economic climate it is vital that unions take a robust opposition to job cuts. It's therefore good to see the UNITE press release about the industrial action ballot of members at Steria in Manchester. They are fighting against plans for compulsory redundancies arising from work being offshored to India.

The members provide IT services to CFS (Coop Financial Services) - does this really fit with the "ethical" image the coop tries to portray?

I don't yet have permission to publish details of where to send messages of support, but will pass on any sent to me for the time being.

Meanwhile the jobs massacre in the manufacturing part of our sector continues with 800 jobs going at Freescale in Scotland.

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