Locked out MMP
workers fight on
08 March
Solid support was decisively demonstrated by the locked out MMP
workers for continued action in their dispute. Of 139 papers
issued in the secret ballot following a meeting of the workforce
in a nearby hotel, 138 voted in favour of rejecting the
so-called ‘offer’ by the MMP management. An agreement had been
reached only weeks ago between Unite and MMP bosses on M’side to
reduce the number of redundancies the firm had at first wanted –
from 49 [out of a total of 149 workers] down to 37.
To save the 12 jobs workers had made concessions – losing pay
over the next year to tune of between £1,000 to poss £2,000! The
MMP ‘offer’ was a reversion, to not only their original demand
for 49 jobs to go, but now, more to go “voluntarily” on top of
those.
On the picket line today workers pointed out that the loss of
such numbers put a question mark over the overall viability of
the plant to operate as formerly – would MMP put some of the
printing process out to tender, and maybe just keep the
‘finishing’ work on site as the machinery for ‘gluing’ the food
cartons, etc., was the most modern at the plant.
Further – MMP continued to insist that it would not meet the
formerly agreed redundancy terms, i.e. that of paying 3 weeks
wages for every year worked. It insisted on the following: a
week and a quarter wages for every year for those aged 18 to 21,
2 weeks for those aged 21 to 41, and 2 and a half for those aged
41 years and over! This and the redundancy selection process of
MMP had fuelled the start of the dispute on 10 February.
To add further insult to injury MMP managers now claim that they
want to discipline up to 15 workers whom managers claim
undertook ‘provocative’ actions around the early part of the
dispute between the 10 and 18 of February! The workers obviously
demand that no reprisals be carried out on union activists.
From 6.00am this morning the official strike by the ‘finishing’
workforce – about 20% of the total – had ended. Up to now the
other 80% had been locked out since the start of that strike –
but had nevertheless been receiving their normal wages. Now all
the workers are locked out the feeling is that MMP will stop all
the wages.
In anticipation of a hardening of the dispute the stewards today
drew up, for the first time, rotas for a 24 hour picket of the
factory [up to now no picketing had been in place to cover the
night shift]. Cardboard packaging for the Kellogs cornflakes
factory in Manchester, whose own lines were now only running at
20% capacity, are still in the MMP Bootle plant and management
may now attempt to take these out of the plant and transport
them to Manchester.
Message from Jennie Formby, Unite Trade Union National
Officer, Food Drink and Tobacco. Please take this up in your TU
branches, workplaces, and seek donations to the fund.
Dear all,
You can support locked out workers by sending cheques to the
hardship fund made payable to 'Sogat Progress Fund' to:
*Phil Morgan, Unite the Union, *2 Chantry Court, Forge Street,
Crewe, Cheshire CW1 2DL tel: 01270 500 240
And visit them on the picket line if you can, every day from
8.30am Mayr-Melnhof Packaging (MMP), Dunnings Bridge Rd, Bootle,
L30 6TR
In solidarity
