Unite the trade union have confirmed that over 30 members contracted to work on the new Type 26 Frigates on the Clyde are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
The Unite members including electricians, labourers and cable hands are employed by CBL Cable Contractors Limited based at BAE Systems on the Clyde.
The contractors are demanding to be paid the BAE Systems yard rate, or an additional £1 per hour on top of the current rates of pay. The dispute also relates to travel related payments which Unite say their members are due as the BAE workplace falls under the scope of the Joint Industry Board Agreement.
“The agreement sets the standards for employment, grading and apprentice training in the electrical contracting industry. This includes travel time and the use of a personal vehicle to travel to work which entitles workers to a mileage allowance. The industrial action ballot opens on 7 November and closes on 20 November. If the ballot is successful then strike action could take place from early December.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham was quoted as saying:
“Unite members employed by CBL Cable Contractors are an essential part of the workforce building the new type 26 Frigate at BAE Systems on the Clyde. Our members are working on a multi-billion pound contract designed to protect and defend the UK but they are instead being treated as second-class citizens on the job.
This is entirely unacceptable and our members deserve the rate for the job. We will support them all the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions as they are entitled to under an industry-wide agreement.”
The UK Ministry of Defence awarded a £4.2bn contract to BAE Systems in November 2022 to manufacture the next five City Class Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy in Glasgow. The contract is estimated to sustain more than 4,000 jobs across BAE Systems and the wider UK maritime supply chain.
Stevie Dillon, Unite regional coordinator, added:
“CBL Cable contractors are currently getting paid well below the ‘shipyard rate’ and they have been for many years. Unite can’t allow this situation to go unchallenged which is why we are balloting our members on strike action. If these same workers happened to be working in England or Wales then they would be paid the shipyard rate. So, it’s double standards why are our members on the Clyde aren’t getting what they deserve.”
Seriously, all for an extra £1 an hour. Did I read that right?! For goodness sake… give it to them! These ships need to be built and in service yesterday! Carry On 🇬🇧.
According to the wiki BAe Systems made a net profit in 2022 of £1.6 billion, so yes they can definitely afford it.
They are not employed by BA E but by a contractor
Or rather, the taxpayer through government subsidies
And how much if they was made in the UK and how much specifically from the Clyde. And quoting amounts isn’t that relevant BAe is making huge profits by % infact you could pretty much stick money in a savings account and get more back than buying BAe shares, that’s not good for our number 1 defence contract.
Go to parliament and reverse the only build in the UK rubbish. It’s out of date and worthless, and a majo hindrance to the national interest
It’s those idlers who give not a jot to the need of the nation and should get what they deserve, Nothing.especialy future contacts the militant leftists and idlers have had too much sway up in those yards for many years and are contributers to the decline of the fleet, I’d call them traitor withdraw the contract. I drive a foreign car, I’m typing on a foreign laptop and there’s no good reason for us to operate ships built in Poland or elsewhere.
They should invest a good lump of that into a yard of their own.
Yeah, it’s not like we are getting the ships for cheap. They are on a cost plus contract as well.
Shouldn’t be given the work in ty first place. Four years to build a patrol ship? They’ve done nothing to justify the contract awards anyway
Shaving what amount from those huge profits? The industry has only just got into gear and this happens. The sum overall is trivial but a strike could be very damaging in many ways. Someone get hold of a grown up to sort this out.
Withdraw any subsidiaries they get and invest in reopening the Sunderland yards the militant leftists the idlers should get what they deserve, cancelled orders and the threat of closure reopen Sunderland and invest in opening another one in the north east. The politicians know that there is a lot of votes going in the old yard estates and many. Parts of the infrastructures of a shipyard are still up there.get us another yard and stuff Scotland
I like your thinking Andy.
Think you’ll find CBL are an English contract firm based out of Hartlepool who for years have been paying their workers below the going rate everywhere they have a contract…as for your thinking I was in the navy and in the prison service on p*ss poor wages so everyone else should be…do me a favour
Extra 1£ an hour for how many, though? It may make many millions £ in years
This is typical of a monopolistic setup. If the MOD only contracts one yard then industrial actions can play havoc with timelines. The Type26 and others should be built in at least two separate yards. I’m surprised government military contracts allow strikes as this has a direct impact on forward planning.
Monopolistic? Have you swallowed a book?
It’s me new dentures that done it guv!
Can I borrow them
No other yard in the UK can build a T26. I don’t know if Babcock have the space lengthen their frigate factory, but even if they could that only leaves 2 yards capable.
Splitting work between 2 yards when there are only 2 yards completely destroys competition. What’s the point spending a lot of money designing a ship when if you win the contract, your competitor gets half the orders? You’d instead just collaborate with them.
There would also be no point in modernising if you get guaranteed orders anyway.
Even if there were 3+ shipyards to make this viable, most of the ships components are made by other companies which can’t be duplicated- engines, steel, radar etc.
£1 an hour is about £2,000 a year pay rise. It’s not insignificant for the individual, if you have 2 employees then your turnover is likely to be tiny, so £4,000 extra wages could be significant.
If you have 1,000 employees that’s £2 million a year more on pay.
If you are the NHS , then that’s £2.8 Billion a year extra pay !
The effect of £1 an hour per employee on your business is relative depending on the number of employees and your turnover.
In this case though it’s 30 contractor employees who want a pound an hour so their rates set to the level of a BAE worker in the same yard…not a big issue on the bottom line of a contract for billions…it’s not even like they are permanent employees.
Those millitant idlers have taken the nation for millions already. Four years to build a ship? They shouldn’t be given the work in the first place they are a national embarrassment. And should pay for it.
Invest in a national shipyard to build the nations ships, and stuff Scotland and the Clyde. Too much of the English taxpayers money has been wasted on them already.
I did 22 years in the navy 24 As a prison officer. There are many in those yards that earn more than I ever did. They think they are the only show in town,v i say, give one of their T31 Orders to appldore and Portsmouth and invest in reopening a yard in the north east
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Erm.. This being the union who just two days ago called for more investment into defence and national security.
So now they want to hold up one of the most important defence projects in the country.
Joined-up thinking, am I right?
Well yes it is ! You invest in technology, design, materials, infrastructure, training and skills. The last 2 mean investing in people, in fact projects often go wrong when investment in people is neglected.
So yes Unite are displaying joined up thinking !
Yeah but find me union that has ever striked when RnD wasn’t increased.
It won’t be in Scotland.
Unfortunately this is the way things go.
One unions smell a bit of money in the till they go on strike.
Remember Boris’ £16Bn to the NHS – treasury begged him to make it conditional. NHS said ‘we can spend it better’ as soon as the money was floating about *pay strike*
Used to happen every time BL or BSL got investment cash.
In this case it simply undermines the ability to subcontract work packages and means that the union are setting subcontract rates at the yard not competitive tender – the more idiotic in the union don’t like the idea of competition but ultimately this approach pass costs and adds a large % to costs if replicated which it will be if it succeeds.
Your last paragraph is spot, but there will be no obligation for BAe to.pay the sub contractor more. So.the suby could go bust putting its entire workforce out of work.
Competition is key to driving up productivity and innovation, its why we have affordable white goods, cheap flights and so many other things. Without competition in industry we’d be driving Trabants.
Unfortunately lack of competition and cartels pretty obviously operate in some areas of out economy…..cross channel ferry / Le shuttle prices are a rather obvious example – feet sack all the expensive labour and get cheap in – prices double as to do those of Le Shuttle….investigation…..you have to be joking….it is so screamingly obvious.
It also works the other way, where there is no market rate for the workforce and completion to keep wage raised honest, you end with industrial action. the point of competition is it’s mean to level out both ways…the NHS strikes have occurred because of a government monopoly on pay for health workers in this country meant we were slipping well below international rates and the NHS could no longer compete for workers on the world market and healthcare professionals are a world market.
Bunch of W⚓TRS
sounds like sub contracted workers are having further to travel to the site and earning slightly less than BAE workers.
They’re traveling by. Choice, they’re not forced to they don’t have to
The people looking for the pay rise, are a company who BAE sub contract the work out to. All they are asking, is for the same pay and conditions, as those they work alongside, who are BAE employee’s.
Irrelevant – they took on the subcontract roles…..
So thar company has say 20 contracts 1 of which is with BAe. The handfull of employees on the BAe contract get a payrise what about those on the other 19 contracts, does the company make enough on those contract to pay more? Unite has no idea if the contractor can afford to increase pay for all its non BAe contractors
Sounds like they have a valid point, if they are doing the job as required then they should be paid the going rate and T & C’s. BAe isn’t the employer but can certainly “encourage” a settlement by the Sub contractor.
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And if the contract has 500 employee on non Bae contracts should they all get the same payruse.
Ex Pat Right now we have a massive skills shortage in the U.K, a lot of that is down to years of lack of investment in Training and Apprenticeships compounded by a skilled workforce that is aging.
So we have Govan, Scotstoun, Rosyth, CL, Barrow and now H&W expanding and all competing for those same Skilled workers.
Biggest player is BAe and it is BAe that largely sets the Market price that everyone else has to match.
That’s the free Market economy in action.
BAe has peaks and troughs in certain types of workload and needs Subies to meet that demand.
Now imagine you are working in a shipyard doing Job A as a subcontractor and the bloke next to you is also doing the exact job A as you are but he is a BAe employee and on more money and allowances.
Read this and I think you may see the reason why they are balloting for strike action.
https://www.baesystems.com/en/sustainability/diversity-and-inclusion/supporting-our-employees
Thats 2 £1000 payments, 6.75% in 2022 and 6% in 2023 for 34,000 staff so just wait for next years 🥴
Now I would bet every penny in my pocket that BAe factored those rises into their budget, probably reduced their headcount due to natural wastage without backfilling and took on sub contractors to do the same job. On less money.
BAe last year had another dispute where there was a £4 an hour pay difference between staff doing the same job.
The strike never happened and nor will this one 😉
On the flip side if you’re work mate who isn’t working for BAe doesn’t get that money is that fair, just because the contract has contract with BAe it doesn’t mean is other contracts are in defence or even maritime. It would mean every employee for that contractor will need to be paid the same.
The reason why BAe can budget is because of certainty and using fixed price contracts gives that.
Projects irrespective of the industry always use some contractor, so its not back filling, you keep a core workforce and flex it with contractor or subbies. Today that worker could be working on Frigate in months time running in wiring for new equipment in a power plant. So now the subbies paying BAe rates to it work force it will needs up its prices on the power plant job. Other subbies who don’t contract for BAe can now bid lower. All of a sudden working for BAe doesn’t look like the long term sustainable or smart choice for any business. Unless it can up it productivity, so now you have a BAe worker with a contract next to him doing 20% more work per day, que the unions again 🙂
Also, one of the many trade unions that blockaded the BAE System site in Rochester.
10/23 Unite: We want more investment in the defence industry for our BAE System members.
10/23 Unite: We are going to block our BAE System members from working because BAE Systems sells to Israel (Doing what defence companies do)
12/23 Unite: We want more pay for Type 26 workers (BAE Systems) (That uses Israeli components).
Am I missing something here?
Shame they don’t put much effort into protesting Saudi.
Did they ever find out what the issue was on HMS Glasgow with that ‘Sabotage’ incident?
Certainly don’t need that again 😕
National security issues are at stake here. Strikes should not be permitted on such vital Defence projects.
I don’t think it’s a national security issue that 30 sub contractors want to paid the same wage as the people they work beside.
A strike hasn’t been announced this is just the process for sorting out disputes. It shows the employer that the employees are organised and together.
Now negotiations will take place and we probably won’t hear anything else about it.
Hi MS. Maybe I am overreacting😉but one worries about the thin end of the wedge effect. Here in SA, the Police have a Union but are not allowed to strike but one fears for such standards declining along with other things in this country.
I don’t think the police or forces can strike in the U.K. either.
Job has to be pretty grim to consider striking I guess.
I don’t know if the Union will have case with these sub contractors. They aren’t employees of BAE and I would assume took on the job with employer at the current wage they are on.
If they do strike, then, don’t award them any more contracts and tell them and that the work and jobs can go elsewhere. They think they’re bombproof and they are not. Show them and all their cronies in the Scottish parliament that the industry is on a knife edge.
shut t their yard, get the ships built abroad. I don’t care about the militant Scottish unions and the expected award for contacting to Scotland for contracts. T to always gu to them. Their attitude and production rate in delivering , is a disgrace and if they do strike. Cancel the orders and have them built in Poland, and faster than those idlers in the Clyde.
It’s not a Scottish Union. It’s a U.K. Union.
The build speed is set by the government not the shipyard. BAE offered to build them faster and cheaper but that was turned down.
Build speed set by the government? Rubbish.
This is the reason that the aircraft carrier was built by other countries and not ouselves who where the greatest shipbuilders in the world at one time strikes you do not see that in any other countrys unoins are a joke
When I worked for yarrows shipyard any sub contractor that came into the yard had to be paid the yard rate if there rate was below the yard