Driver and Warehouse Strike

[lackofinterest]

ditto vlad 

[The Mrs]

That's just Unite with four sites who were in talks yesterday. USDAW have 5000 in distribution centres in nine sites ready to strike in December. USDAW were in talks today, agreement wasnt reached and talks continue on Monday. It's not over yet.

With Boris just announcing work from home from Monday Tesco staff have just become key workers again.

[redeo]

No, it's illegal to stop someone from crossing the picket line. You also can't be chucked out of the union if you don't go along with the strike and continue to work.

Yeah, best to just set up a table and have a nice picnic in front of the entrance and exit of the warehouses, may be read a book.  No one got anywhere important to be.   An then someone car could break down at both entrances

[sunshineman]

Not being funny but we work just as hard as those looking to go on strike so where is the union when we want better pay. I am sure we are now one of the lowest paid in the supermarket sector. The big boss sitting pretty in his office earning the big bucks while we are on the shop floor working hard for little pay. If the union asked me would i like to strike then i would say yes and most of those i work with would say yes. for too long we have been taken advantage of

[NightAndDay]

In any situation where a dirty backdoor deal between union and employer results in the union forfeiting their capacity for strike action in exchange for a mutually lucrative fluffy negotiation process with no transparency or accountability, the union ceases to be a union. Depot workers aren't confined by the USDAW partnership agreement and so can enact a fundamental power expected of a trade union, the right to ballot for strike action.

The moment the partnership agreement became enshrined in Tesco policy and formed the new basis of all new contracts was the moment everyone should have left the union and joined another.

[horatiocain]

If you think a ballot would be successfully go to your branch meeting and bring this subject up.

We can strike, we don't have a no strike agreement  in fact nobody in the TUC is allowed to have a no strike agreement and remain in the TUC.
The problem is getting the ballot to pass, distribution colleagues have always been more in favour of striking, so it's easier.

From a bargaining position for USDAW, if they call for a ballot and lose they lose negotiations power, and their polling suggest this isn't going to change  retail has a large portion of the staff being low earning part time workers  who cannot afford to strike so won't, which means a ballot resulting in a vote to strike isn't very likely  and the whole retail workforce votes together.

Get your colleagues to work to rule and the company will be powerless to do anything  make it vocal that you would be willing to do more if only you had the motivation  they'll start listening when the shelves aren't filled and the customers aren't happy, as long as you follow the rules  every single one  in the manner they train us, we have the power.

I ha e serious problems with USDAW but not striking isn't one of them.

And lastly why are people complaining about how much better these guys are paid than us  we shouldn't be clamouring that their wages shouldn't go up because ours haven't  we should be shouting that we want their rate of pay too, imagine how powerful we would be if we unified  remember the workers make the money, use your power.

[VladPutin]

That's just Unite with four sites who were in talks yesterday. USDAW have 5000 in distribution centres in nine sites ready to strike in December. USDAW were in talks today, agreement wasnt reached and talks continue on Monday. It's not over yet.

With Boris just announcing work from home from Monday Tesco staff have just become key workers again.

We're heroes! That's why everyone from the board of directors to the customers themselves treat us with such love and respect!

(Laughs in Sarcastic. )

[Nomad]

A very wise VLH member once wrote.

I will help you win what you want and/or deserve, but not at the expense of what I have won.

[Modena]

Good for them only wish the cdd could strike aswell up your game Usdaw and match what ocado are paying their drivers £12.40 a hour.

[lucgeo]

 @horatiocain 

well written, concise and extremely informative 

[optout]

Can't wait for shop floor pay to be equalized.

Are union dues the same in distribution as they are in-store?

[redeo]

[admin]Topic is Driver and Warehouse Strike.[/admin]

[grim up north]

Strike by the other 9 DC's is off after an improved offer

[hesketh]

 

How dare Usdaw suspend the strike without us even seeing the offer?

Nicely engineered removal of all our power, Tesco must be laughing their tits off! Even if we reject the offer we can't strike now until after Christmas and Tesco would cope with that.

No way Usdaw was going to risk their sole recognised union status and all those monthly payments eh?

[Nomad]

Something stinks 

How does offer (when workers find out what it is  ) compare to the Unite deal 

[NightAndDay]

The sooner USDAW is binned the better, Tesco needs a militant union with teeth.

[baldeagle]

"The strength and solidarity of our members has secured a much improved pay deal. We have negotiated a 5.5% increase, backdated to July, and a further 0.5% from the end of February next year.

"Having reached this improved offer, we have suspended strike action and are recommending that our members support the new offer. Retail distribution workers are key workers who delivered essential services throughout the pandemic; they deserve this pay rise." This is from USDAW today.

[grim up north]

Something stinks 

How does offer (when workers find out what it is  ) compare to the Unite deal 

Same as the unite deal by the looks of things

https://www.usdaw.org.uk/About-Us/News/2021/Dec/Usdaw-ballots-open-for-members-on-a-much-improved

[hesketh]

The bare percentages don't tell the whole story. I'm not sure if Unite got the add-ons that Usdaw have.

All driver's breaks will now be paid, that is an 8% increase in most cases

Drivers on the old contract will also get t+1/3 for Saturday instead of the current t+20%.

This adds up to quite a significant package and I congratulate the JNC reps for pulling it off

My earlier rant still stands but I'm reliably informed that Usdaw itself was not responsible for suspending the strike, other than that it was the JNC reps who made the call. Striking with such a deal offered would have been nuts.

Also, if we still chose to reject the offer we still have the mandate to strike at Valentines, Mother's day or Easter.....

[Nomad]

Whenever a small % can make a decision for the majority, it's never democratic.

[person7]

can stores not join in? -  i mean paid breaks for a driver to sit around is a bit unfair for those on our feet all day long (dont get me wrong i know its hard work) -

but thought tesco was about equality? and get most of use work in stores get the short end

[Rigger]

I hope tesco don't cave to pressure. A 4% payrise on top on drivers already cushy contracts is much better than stores ever get offered and accept.

If they want a bigger pay rise then Tesco could accept that but bring the depots more in line with store contracts. No deliveries to make, get the drivers cleaning or picking like the staff do in store. Fed up of hearing how the drivers have been sat around for hours being paid to do nothing whilst awaiting deliveries to be picked.

Arrived at a store and there is a queue of lorries in front of you? Park up and go into the store to help tip the deliveries.

Remove the lovely cooked meals in the staff canteens in depots and replace with a sandwhich shop like stores are stuck with.

Having worked in both depots and stores, the depots have it so good and I don't think they realise this.

That's a bit of a poor attitude to the situation you have.

Take your store issues to the store manager, it's not any drivers fault that's there's insufficient numbers of staff working on backdoor..

Drivers should come in & help tip waiting deliveries 

[Totot]

That is true, nor driver or depot workers issue about this. And we should not envy or jealous what they get.

This is literally tesco decision. In my view, tesco think shop worker contribution to profit are small. So it is what it is.
As a shop worker, we just need to contribute small to the business, as it reflect on the payment.

[spike_pkh]

I hope tesco don't cave to pressure. A 4% payrise on top on drivers already cushy contracts is much better than stores ever get offered and accept.

If they want a bigger pay rise then Tesco could accept that but bring the depots more in line with store contracts. No deliveries to make, get the drivers cleaning or picking like the staff do in store. Fed up of hearing how the drivers have been sat around for hours being paid to do nothing whilst awaiting deliveries to be picked.

Arrived at a store and there is a queue of lorries in front of you? Park up and go into the store to help tip the deliveries.

Remove the lovely cooked meals in the staff canteens in depots and replace with a sandwhich shop like stores are stuck with.

Having worked in both depots and stores, the depots have it so good and I don't think they realise this.

That's a bit of a poor attitude to the situation you have.

Take your store issues to the store manager, it's not any drivers fault that's there's insufficient numbers of staff working on backdoor..

Drivers should come in & help tip waiting deliveries 

I never said there was insufficient numbers of staff working backdoor. My point is in stores if you cannot do your own job for whatever reason you support other areas. Drivers just sit around reading the paper and smoking whilst being paid.

[NightAndDay]

It depends on the terms of your contract, CDD drivers may have it that they're not to do anything else outside their role except to drive, similar to how phone shop colleagues don't do anything outside phone shop, including checkout calls.