back to article Vodafone forced to recognise Connect

Vodafone UK has been forced to recognise the Connect union, the Central Arbitration Committee has ruled. The union must now be consulted about changes in pay, hours, and holiday. Connect started negotiating with Vodafone in November last year, and despite trying employment resolution service ACAS, ended up taking Vodafone to …

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  1. vodaworker

    Excellent news for Vodafone Workers!

    This is great news for all Vodafone workers. Connect are have applied for recognition in Regional Operations South. Hopefully this time the company will have the good grace to accept this volentaryily this time around once Connect demonstrate over 50% membership.

    http://www.connectinvodafone.blogspot.com/

  2. Anigel

    Yea great news

    Just like with the post office the union will do everything in its power to make the company unprofitable and drive it out of business

    Look at how successful the unions have been over the years, Coal, steel, docks, shipbuilding, car plants so lets have three cheers for them moving into mobile phones as well now.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    S'no Anigel

    Are you suggesting Vodafone have their employees' interests at heart ?

    LOL

    Not all unions are bad, and not all employers either, but mobile phone companies have been taking the piss for years - or is there someone out there who thinks their pricing is fair?

  4. Mo

    Re: Yea great news

    Oh yes, because it was the *unions* that drove the coal mining, steel, shipping, shipbuilding and carbuilding industries out of business in the UK.

    How foolish of the whole damned entire world to believe otherwise.

    It's really *really* easy to not end up on the wrong end of the disruption caused by industrial action supported by unions: don't treat any of your employees like dirt.

  5. vodaworker

    Re: Yeah great news

    Union members have absolutely no interest in making the company unprofitable, Connect members work hard every day to make as much money for the shareholders (Many Vodafone workers hold a substantial proportion of their savings in Vodafone stock) as possible.

    We want the company to do well, but we want a fair deal.

    The company has taken advantage of the loyalty shown to them by many workers, this year in Vodafone even the best performing employees received sub inflation pay rises.

    This is why we have had enough, the days when the little man stood alone to negotiate his terms and conditions are drawing to an end. Now the workers are organised and our stronger bargaining position will help us get a fair deal.

    The success of the Coal, steel, docks and shipbuilding industries can be squarely attributed to British government policy over the last 25 years and the fact that other countries pay subsidies (rightly or wrongly) to these industries.

    http://www.connectinvodafone.blogspot.com/

  6. Chad H.

    Unions

    Ah, the number of times I've seen crap in a workplace and wished "if only there was a strong union here, just as a holstered knife, not to be used, but just to be present, because its presence does actualy change a situation, even if unused... just a 15 min after work meeting with the members might just be enough to scare through an improvement or two"

    Course, since the union wasnt strong, I never joined, and neither did anyone else. Thus the union remained weak and powerless.

  7. leslie

    here we go...

    Oh yes, because it was the *unions* that drove the coal mining, steel, shipping, shipbuilding and carbuilding industries out of business in the UK. [/quote]

    And were you in those unions?

    Were you one of those workers?

    Unions exist to try to maintain a fare wage for their workers with acceptable working conditions, something most management dont want, as it costs more than treating employee's like drones.

  8. Giles Jones Gold badge

    It can work both ways

    Strong unions and powerless management is bad.

    Weak or no unions and powerful management is bad.

    We have the problem where management feels to need to pay stupendous wages to the top players and a pittance to the people who actually do the work.

    In the USA they pay their top dogs at heck of a lot more money. But at the same time their staff also get paid fairly.

    We have the stupid situation where a director can screw over a company causing job losses and loss of market share, but leave the company with a few million quid pay off. All carrot and no stick.

  9. John Murgatroyd

    Not unions, greed and cheap labour

    It certainly wasn't the unions that drove car manufacturing out of the country, nor the unions that moved other manufacturing out of the country. It was cheap labour in other countries along with weak employment laws.

    But why should you care that your tv is made in china by people working 60+ hours a week for less money than you earn in a day (if that).

    Then you have a domestic cleaner manufacturer who moves his base abroad because it is too expensive to make them here....and still sells them here at the same price even though it costs 60% less to make there.

  10. The Mighty Spang

    change your job

    don't like your terms & conditions? change your job

    can't get another job because you have no skillz? stop watching eastenders, or big brother or "you are what you watch", put down those celeb magazines and train yourself up in something.

    yes the unions killed the car industry in the uk, always striking for more money. can't remember how often dagenham went out on strike in the 80s.. loads.

    listening to the radio 4 programme about longbridge it was pretty clear they were being paid well above market rates...

  11. heystoopid

    Propaganda rules the world

    Propaganda rules the world , and once a closed minded opinion is formed based on crap misinformation and ill conceived simplified views not even a direct hit from an A-bomb can change some peoples illogical views!

    We , forget that we live in a full market economy , if you don't sell a product that the market expects , wants or desires at a useful affordable price then no amount of government tax paid subsidies will keep you afloat period!

    As for the failures in industry , like all armies one cannot blame the soldiers , if their leaders are too greedy , dumb and stupid and locked into past glories , and thus fail to read the correct market and legislative trends (Anti Competitive Trades Practice Acts or "The Clean Air Act 1956" is but the grandfather of all Anti Pollution legislation that came after that , traces it roots back to the killer smog of 1952 in London generated from excessive small burning open coal fires spewing air pollution from every chimney pot in London including the old cheap Coal Fired Battersea Power Station )

    We can now see this effect permeating , the moribund and dying monolithic Audio entertainment industry of the big 4 like EMI selling last centuries technology, and bemoaning imaginary demons like piracy, in the new age of change, while the companies are viciously sinking in the self created morass , the top five using old last century ideas , slashing staff to give themselves excessively generous increases in stipends , and handing what market they have left , to the more hip open minded niche market producers , why have not all the Financial Markets punished them for their collective stupidity , remains unanswered!

    Strangely , the English still make small ships less then 10,000 tonnes cost effectively using a prefabricated technique the Germans invented to build U-boats in 1943 and much cheaper then the Hyundai Yards in Korea which are geared up to build vessels not less then 60,000 tonnes and above gross weight like super tankers , bulk carriers and super sized 10,000 plus cargo container ships!

    Yes , the old propaganda story , of blame it on the workers for seeking a decent liveable wage , to cloth feed , raise and educate the next generation , for all the failures in senior management still rules to this day!

  12. ian

    Don't mistake Connect for a Union

    Connect isn't a union. It's a management patsy.

    I worked at BT once. Connect supported BT Management in their call for a pay freeze (ie: A real terms pay cut)

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