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Sparks
protest forces Balfour Beatty off Carrington site
02 November
Continued
protest at the Carrington paper-mill site halted traffic at the site this
morning, causing traffic to back up for miles on either side of the site
entrance.
Showing that protest works, Balfour Beatty have lost the contract
for the second part of the Carrington job. This follows United Utilities
refusing to use any of the pay-slashing 7, and rumours of other contracts lost
for the same reason.
Workers should be clear – this is a consequence of the
demonstrations and walkouts and fear by clients that this will escalate to
bigger protests and strikes. The 7 can be defeated before they impose new
contracts on 7th December, and will be if the protests are maintained
and significant strike action develops on a number of the big sites.
Sparks from across the north-west continued the weekly protest
and are now preparing for the national demonstration next week. Management at
Carrington might not see next week, some of them nearly died of self-induced
stress this morning on the gates! But we continued getting a supportive response
from sparks and many trades across the site, despite Balfours’ threat that
anyone not working today would be sacked.
Sparks will discuss now what the next steps are locally. Next
week’s demo is a great chance to discuss with members and activists regionally
and nationally, to plan further protests in the north-west and increase the
numbers taking part. It is a chance too for putting pressure on Unite to back
these protests properly and mobilise the members going forward from 9th
November.
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