Why is your union balloting you?
Dear Colleagues
Your union is balloting you because we have no choice, there is no alternative but to fight the proposals being put forward by Thales Management. Following a very well attended Branch Meeting a month ago, our members decided enough is enough and now Ballot Papers are due to fall through your letter boxes any day now and we urge you to vote asap and send a powerful message back to Thales.
Compulsory Redundancy
Apparently there is no alternative to forcing people onto the dole queue. We have tried and tried to negotiate with Thales to look for Volunteers, especially in other areas where people wish to leave the company. Surely this is reasonable. At a meeting on the 9th March, Thales made it clear that contractors such as Brookvex will be retained and their own loyal staff will be axed. We strongly believe that the company has valid roles available that these staff can do. The whole purpose of their reorganisation is to make them more efficient and do more work, common sense says you don’t do that by making up 5 extra management positions and forcing 6 Technicians out of work! All this purely in the name of making people work harder, deliver more whilst being permanently overseen by a even larger management team. Let’s be blunt, this is not about getting the work done, this is about worsening your terms and conditions and making more profit
We believe there are roles for these people, so we challenge Thales, come out and put these people’s minds at ease and give them jobs. Look at our counter proposals and let’s save jobs instead of making them compulsory redundant in the run up to Easter. Start talking to us in a meaningful way. The choice with compulsory redundancy is stark, where does it stop, ultimately this affects everyone, whether that is today, tomorrow or next year, we simply cannot allow people to lose their jobs when there are other choices available.
Rosters
Thales in the meeting of the 9th March made their intentions clear on Rosters, they are seeking legal opinion on imposing them. They are happy to talk they say, they are happy to listen they say, yet refuse to sign any agreement on how rosters are implemented and the rules associated with them designed, state that the rosters will be not be 12 hour patterns anymore, and that they are giving your reps ‘a reasonable instruction’ to attend talks with them in what can only be a thinly veiled threat of disciplinary action. We cannot even get a straight reply about what will happen to staffing levels at Palestra should people be promoted into the new Duty Management Positions and will they back fill these new vacancies. This would potentially lead to even worse rosters with less staff than now
The reality is we have told them that our members reject worse rosters, working and travelling more and to withdraw their proposal. They are refusing
Choices
We have asked Thales to put their proposals on hold for further talks and this was rejected now you have a choice because you have a vote.
So we strongly urge you to use it and would urge you all to vote yes for action