Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://secure.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1129/32359
From The Socialist newspaper, 14 April 2021
SPS Technologies workers end strike after management backs down
Picket line outside SPS Technologies, photo Leicester SP (Click to enlarge)
Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party
Unite members at SPS Technologies in Leicester have ended their strike action against the attempt by management to attack their terms and conditions using 'fire and rehire' tactics.
After four initial one-day strikes, and part way through the planned eight-week strike, the management backed down on much of the attack that could have left workers losing up to £3,000 a year. Union leaders, who describe it as a victory, 'strongly recommended' the management's offer and there was a 90% vote to accept.
The union did, however, make some concessions to management.
Given the intimidation involved in fire and rehire, with the potential of losing your job, and the background of economic downturn affecting the aviation industry which SPS supply, the workers showed huge courage and determination in the strike. There were hundreds of redundancies last year.
After a long period of many years without any industrial action in the factory, workers gave the boss a lesson that they would not just roll over in the face of bullying.
The company is owned by multibillion-dollar US Precision Castparts Corporation, which is in turn owned by a holding company whose CEO is Warren Buffet, the seventh richest person in the world. Workers' action can push back even the most powerful representatives of the super-rich!
The fire-and-rehire tactic has sparked a number of disputes around the county and needs to be fiercely opposed by the trade union movement as a whole. We are now in a period of sharpened class struggle!
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 14 April 2021:
Covid-19
'Covid passports' discriminatory and questionable - fight for workplace safety
Covid inquiry? Workers must decide
News
Tensions escalate in Northern Ireland
How to deal with the tax-dodging mega-rich? Nationalise!
NHS pay: reject Tories' miserly 1% 'offer' - Fight for full 15% rise
Tory hypocrisy over housing benefit cut
US cops shoot dead another black man
Elections
Every voter in Wales has the opportunity to vote for TUSC
TUSC: Launching a working-class electoral alternative in London
London housing crisis: vote TUSC to fight back
Workplace news
PCS elections: Support the Broad Left Network for a democratic, fighting union leadership
St Mungo's maintenance workers on indefinite strike
Thousands of London bus workers strike across multiple companies
Rally for sacked RMT rep Declan
East London cleaners fight outsourcing and redundancies
Bristol Water workers walk out
SPS Technologies workers end strike after management backs down
Thurrock Council workers strike against pay cuts
Deliveroo workers strike and protest
Lessons from history
1920s-30s Britain: A working-class movement fighting unemployment and capitalism
Campaigns news
Students in action: Protest on 21 April
Why you should join the Socialist Party
Cardiff: Hundreds protest to free Siyanda
Fighting fund target smashed. Can we do it again?
Readers' opinion
Home | The Socialist 14 April 2021 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2020