News

Mike Dolan has threatened to close Butler and Tanner (B&T) if a strike planned for next Wednesday goes ahead.

As revealed in PrintWeek last week, Dolan organised an unofficial second ballot after accusing the union of "election fraud" in an initial vote for action last Tuesday (15 April). The first, and only official, ballot revealed an overwhelming majority of union members (92%) had voted in favour of strike action.

However, Dolan said that without the proposed changes, the company is not financially viable and he will not invest funds, estimated at £1m, required for B&T to stay afloat.

He said that, should the strike go ahead, B&T will be placed into liquidation. He added the company's assets outstripped its debt and that suppliers and creditors would receive payment in full.

Unite national officer Ann Field would not comment on Dolan's threat to close the company, but called for the continuation of negotiations with ACAS, which has been called in to mediate on the increasingly bitter dispute.

She said: "Industrial action is scheduled to go ahead. We are not prepared to involve ourselves in predictions of what will and will not happen in the future outside that."

Practices that Dolan is looking to change include a rule whereby, should a skilled worker be required for overtime, the other staff at the same level must be offered a proportion of that overtime or payment in lieu. As a result, Dolan said, B&T can end up paying for 140 hours of overtime when only eight is required.

Field argues that the issues involved were much wider. "This is a silly detail that is too complicated to explain in detail and a misrepresentation of what the dispute is about," she said. "Essentially what the company currently wants, in addition to probably £1m cuts in terms and conditions, is for people working at night, if they do any overtime, to be paid double day rate and not night rate.

"We have been negotiating in relation to cuts in pay and conditions, alterations in shift patterns, reduction in staffing levels, changes in holiday pay and meal breaks, the introduction of time in lieu scheme rather than cash paid overtime and widening flexible working. This is what we’re talking about, they are dramatic cuts by anyone standards. What the company now wants is a legally binding agreement with no recognition of existing agreements including the National Agreement, and no union is going to agree to this."

As reported last week, B&T has claimed it has taken legal action against Unite, challenging its 92% vote in favour of industrial action. Dolan organised an unofficial ballot of all employees and found that only 54% of Unite members voted in favour of a strike while 100% of non-members voted against.

Dolan said: "It is a tragic state of affairs where slightly more than one third of the workforce voted in favour of a strike which if carried out, will close down the business."

He accused the union of "economic vandalism on a grand scale" and said it should be "held to account by its members when they line up on the dole queue".

However, Field dismissed the second unofficial ballot as "clearly nonsense" and said it was boycotted by vast majority of union members. "It's a massive distortion to claim that less than a third of staff voted to go on strike," she added.

The union also responded angrily to the accusation of 'election fraud' in the official ballot. "The accusation is wholly without foundation," said Field.