19.12.1996
Occupation meets lockout threat
Joe Gibb has worked at Glacier Metals’ Glasgow plant at Polmadie for 21 years. He is a member of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union and, along with 103 other workers, was sacked at the beginning of November. Nick Clarke spoke to him
Can you give us an explanation as to the background of the dispute and to the sackings at Glaciers?
What happened was that management wanted to implement a 15-point plan that would mean sweeping changes in our working conditions. They picked on the youngest boy in the factory. They attempted to breach health and safety regulations by getting the boy to work two machines at the one time. The health and safety rep told them that this was unacceptable and tried to negotiate. Ted Milligan, the manager, refused a meeting and said, “I’m implementing it. If he doesn’t do it, he’s getting a warning.” Under the grievance procedure if we had let that go, he would have got two warnings then he would have been sent ‘up the road’.
A ballot would have taken six weeks, so we had no alternative but to withdraw our labour as protection for our health and safety. When the shop stewards told him of our decision, Milligan said he wanted to speak to the men, but they said, “If he wants to speak to anybody, then he speaks to the shop stewards.”
Milligan announced, “All you gentlemen are dismissed.” That’s the kind of guy he is. Those he sacked included a worker who had been there 42 years, and one of our members who was in hospital suffering from a brain tumour. The last major dispute was 15 years ago and the factory has been very productive. It has a £10 million turnover and something like £4 million on their order books at the moment, so it’s not a firm in a mess. We can’t understand why he’s attacking us like this. We occupied the factory, so that we are available for work.
Management have refused to speak to anybody - our union officials, local MP Mike Watson and Acas. On Sunday we had a mass demonstration in George Square, Glasgow. We had about 2,500 people there supporting us.
Why in particular did you decide on an occupation?
Management’s plan was to lock us out and to have us coming in under new contracts of employment, including doing away with our productivity bonus and cutting the staff by 25%. He made it quite clear that he was not prepared to negotiate on anything. We thought we would be better in the factory rather than locked out on the street, waiting to be in on a selective basis.
We learnt our lessons from the Timex dispute. We wanted to make sure that that did not happen to us. It is now 40 days that we have been in occupation of the factory. It’s important that the occupation is disciplined in every way.
Is your union backing you all the way?
Our union is backing the dispute, although obviously they cannot back the sit-in because it is an illegal act. That doesn’t matter: we’re solid, we’re 100%
Are you getting support from other Glacier workers?
Glacier’s have a factory at Kilmarnock and one in Manchester. We get financial support from the workers in the other factories, but with the anti-trade union legislation you have got to be careful how you tread. The STUC have set up a hardship fund for us. Our own union and other unions are getting us into other factories to talk to workers about the dispute. We have actually been all over the country, letting workers know the details first hand.
After Sunday’s big demonstration, how do you see the struggle going from here?
It’s up to management to make the next move. We’re open to negotiation. We’re determined to continue with the occupation of the factory. Some of the office staff continue to go in through the picket line each morning. They are members of the Manufacturing Science and Finance union and the Transport and General Workers Union. They sit in the office with absolutely nothing to do. If they’d come out with us in the beginning I think the dispute could have been resolved long before now, because they couldn’t have transferred the smaller jobs to non-union shops.