EMEC Sector UPDATE:
What are the 2 most important attributes a trade union must have if it is to succeed?
1) It has to be able to listen to its members.
2) It has to be democratic.
On Saturday, the National Construction Rank and File met to discuss an offer made by Unite the Union General Secretary, Len McCluskey, of an EMEC sub sector. We can confirm today (07/12/20) this has been rejected again, for the third time. The Rank and File and the EMEC committee would like to send a message to Len McCluskey and the Unite EC.
"The Electrical, Mechanical and Engineering Construction membership, who have their own proud history, request a specialised sector specifically for electrical, mechanical and engineering construction workers "
We have a democratic mandate:
Every Unite the Union branch that contains a majority of electrical, mechanical and engineering construction in this country has passed motions requesting the formation of the EMEC sector. The motion is also backed by some of the biggest projects in the UK. A full list of supporting branches and projects below.
On top of that, we are also having an unprecedented response to the open letter. It seems that electrical, mechanical and engineering construction workers want a new sector more than a pay rise but we are planning to get both.
Our members aren’t stupid, they know that to take on the employers and fix the industry we need to be set up to win, currently we believe that we are not.
Please make sure you sign the open letter on the link to Unite the union requesting the new EMEC sector.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetaGW7GdBxz0dSJzChbQ8PDXU_eXrRaRxj7K2U6Wkkt5I3jA/viewform
EMEC, A PLATFORM FOR GROWTH
We are ambitious. We want Unite to be the only specialist electrical, mechanical and engineering construction trade union in the UK. It will create a specific sector on craft or trade lines that is easily recognisable, will strengthen our identity and encourage density. Having this new sector will give us more and much needed scrutiny. We will become faster reacting and be able to combat, more proactively, specific threats and issues affecting our agreements. We believe that the current threats we face, within the NAECI and JIB agreements, need a specific sector and a specific industrial committee with total focus. We need to be able to set up and scrutinise our response to the threats engulfing the NAECI in energy to waste. We want to set up our structures to focus and organise and embrace renewables, wind, wave, and solar farm construction as the government races to meet its UK climate change obligations (climate change act 2008 net zero carbon emissions by 2050 etc). We want to make sure our members have a seat at the table and that our members get decent jobs through training in a sector set to grow. We want to develop strategies which ensure the UK workforce is at the centre of plans to build its energy infrastructure in the UK, from nuclear to energy from waste, ensuring our national agreements come first and our communities prosper.
After looking at electrical, mechanical and engineering construction trade unions around the world, we have seen what can be achieved. We look to emulate those unions by ensuring that our members are the most skilled workers in the country, with centres of excellence, making sure our welders, erectors, fitters, plumbers ,scaffolders and electricians are trained to the highest of levels. As we develop, we will grow membership, develop training at cost by creating training funds which can be inserted into national agreements.
We have unprecedented opportunities ahead but there will also be challenges. We want to make sure our members are ahead of the curve when the revolution in automation takes place, making sure our activists are trained and ready for that will ensure Unite will able to steer automation and not be reacting to it or be a total victim of it. If our brothers and sisters need a just transition, then we need to be ahead of the curve, and excellence in training and industry leading will be vital.
Continuing to develop the electricians licence to practice and the good work which has been done with ECS Check ensuring we have the skilled apprenticeships for the future. We develop high skill sets and eradicate deskilling and unsafe practices. We have to build disciplined strike ready workplaces that will allow us protect our national agreements, grow wages and terms and conditions, build a strong trade union craft identity and tackle rogue employers.
A servicing trade union has not and will not work with the challenges we will face over the next decade.
To the current UCATT Sector committees, we hope you can see we are ambitious. What we plan is bigger than the current set up will allow us to grow. Within the current Unite UCATT structures, our voice has been diminished. To diminish our voice and yet then seek to deny us from growing under our own merits and ambition is unacceptable and not trade unionism. Let us set ourselves up to win for workers. We are of course from the same union in struggle, we will still work and collaborate together as we pursue our joint aims as two equally strong sectors of a growing trade union. We ask you not to withhold and impede our ambitions to set up a progressive mechanical and electrical sector fit for the challenges of the next 25 years and the 4th industrial revolution. Becoming a specialist trade union for electrical, mechanical and engineering construction membership will be central to our strategy for growth and we believe with the right strategy, we will be a biggest sector within Unite. The current UCATT sector has made our voice smaller.
To Len McCluskey This is the 3rd time that the sub sector has been rejected, unanimously each time, and we are urgently asking for your intervention before you sail off into the sunset. When we met you last month you stated you didn't see a problem with it but you didn't think you had the power to get it through the EC Len have faith, you are the general secretary you still have the power and we're asking you to get it done. Today (07/12/20) Tony Seaman, the current EC member for construction, again, contacted Len requesting urgent talks. Speaking earlier he said " We need to get this sorted. We have a clear mandate through the EC election and every branch throughout the UK that has passed motions in support. We also have sites and major projects expecting change. It is about time Unite listens to its members and accepts the democratic mandate from the membership"
Branch resolutions:
South East Wales Construction Branch biggest mechanical and electrical branch in Wales.
The Mechanical & Electrical shop steward and activists Combine. (National committee )
Norwich Central Branch Branch L/E 1800
Liverpool Construction Branch. NW/0541 (in spirit awaiting resolution).
Manchester EPIU Construction Branch 1400/7
Glasgow M&E Construction Branch 155/404
Leeds GEO/11/Branch
NE 404/18 Middlesbrough Construction Branch
London Construction Branch LE0555
Site endorsements:
NAECI cat 1 site The Tricoya Trinity Project. (Unite endorsement across entire project).
Mechanical and electrical workers working on site @ Liverpool metropolitan performing Arts collage.
MGT all the shop stewards committee r spie MGT (TeesREP Biomass Power Station)
Balfour Beatty Woolwich Station Crossrail.
Shanahans on MGT (TeesREP Biomass Power Station) the biggest NAECI job in the UK.
Balfour Beatty Whitechapel Crossrail (site endorsement ).
Balfour Beatty Woolwich Crossrail.
This list is continuing to grow and it's growing fast. The motion is already supported by the vast majority of electrical, mechanical and engineering construction members in this country. Please get involved and ask your work place to support See motion below : This Branch calls for Unite the Union to form a new industrial sector specifically for Electrical Mechanical and Engineering Construction workers in line with rule 7.1 - 7.3 . We believe that the new EMEC sector will be more issue focused faster reacting and more able to fight the specific threats and issues facing the mechanical and electrical workers. As mechanical and electrical workers we have a trade identity and although we work in the construction industry we class ourselves specifically as electrical and mechanical workers with a proud trade union history. We wish for this to be respected. We believe having our own sector will reaffirm our craft identity and will help us grow industrially inside Unite the Union.
