Staff water ban lifted at car plant

By Jeremy Grimaldi 

Swindon Advertiser

HONDA has been forced to back down over a water ban that enraged its workers.

The company completed the u-turn during a monthly meeting.

It comes three months after an Advertiser story highlighted opposition to rules banning water, fruit, and biscuit-based chocolate bars like Twix on the shop floor.

During the meeting, staff were told the car giant would now allow employees to drink water next to the production line, however, strict new rules governing the size and colour of the bottle have been ushered in.

Staff were told that all bottles must now be 500ml, clear in colour and have a suction cap to ensure there is no spillage.

One 36-year-old worker said he believes Honda had no choice but to back down because managers weren’t happy with the ban, and it was a huge concern for often dehydrated workers.

He said: “This is a victory for the workers because it is a basic right that has now been clawed back.

“But it never should have been in question in the first place.

“Hopefully Honda recognise that for the next time.

“It was a big mistake to bring it in, they had no choice but to change their minds, as we had guys who were just going to walk off the line in certain parts of the plant in order to rehydrate themselves.

“I can appreciate their concerns about standards, but if the executives were on the line themselves I am sure they would feel differently.”

Union representatives say they negotiated the deal through the company’s Associates Representative Council (ARC).

But they say they won’t stop until rules concerning snacks and fruit are repealed, along with the water.

Jim D’Avila, Unite union representative, believes the company had no choice but to make the u-turn as associates weren’t happy and managers weren’t enforcing the rules.

He said: “We waged a well organised campaign that secured the hearts and minds of the workers.

“In the future Honda should listen to the views of the union’s shop stewards who have proved that they speak for the workforce and not Honda senior managers.”

Julie Cameron, head of corporate communications at Honda, South Marston, said the company’s rules are to ensure a high level of cleanliness.

She said: “Associates within Honda have been jointly developing a new standard with the company regarding drinking of water next to the production line.

“Honda had previously made available ample provision of drinking water within the facility, but through discussions with workers, it was felt that access could be improved and therefore a new standard was agreed.

“There was no change to any other existing company standards.”

Earlier this year, Unite members staged demon- strations outside Honda’s South Marston plant in protest at the company standards.

 

‘New Zealand takes rail back into public hands’

The ASLEF website reports:

‘The news that the New Zealand government is to repurchase its national rail and ferry operations is not only good news for passengers in that country – it is also a clear proof that the same could – and can – be done in this country,’ says ASLEF’s Keith Norman. ‘All it needs it the political will – and for the UK government to begin seeking solutions rather than excuses.’

 

The New Zealand transport union RMTU is delighted at the news, which was announced earlier this month.

 

‘Railway workers are celebrating the news of the government’s repurchase of the national rail and ferry operations,’ said its leader Wayne Butson. ‘The RMTU campaigned long and hard to get the Labour-led Government to buy back the rail tracks but we always knew that in order to have the rail industry deliver what this country needs that they couldn’t stop there. We have all been urging the government to go the final step to renationalize the network.’

Wayne says that from the day that the National government sold the industry to a US-led consortium, it’s direction has been ‘all down hill’. He accuses the private owners of ‘extracting the cash, replacing it with debt and doing just enough to keep it going’.

He added, ‘The RMTU is keen to be a part of the rejuvenation of the NZ rail industry so that it can deliver the safe sustainable transport option demanded by global warming and escalating fuel prices, and we call upon the Government to make strong early statements of investment in new locomotives and wagons.

‘We know that there will be those who will condemn the Government buy back as a return to the ‘bad old days’. To them we say, ‘Look at the record of the public industry from 1987 to 1993, which turned it into a profitable enterprise.’ Hopefully this is the closing chapter of the rail saga that goes back to the right-wing political cabal who stripped New Zealand’s assets and sold them to their mates during the 1980s and 1990s.’

 

Finance Minister Michael Cullen pointed out that, ‘The government’s buy back of the rail system is a long-term investment in our economy.

 

‘A modern rail system will contribute to a more sustainable transport network. And if we can get more freight off roads and onto rail, we can expect significant savings on road maintenance as well.’

 

‘It is music to my ears,’ says ASLEF’s Keith Norman. ‘If only the UK government was not deaf to sensible argument on the issue.’

http://www.aslef.org.uk

 

 

 

 

Government response to Suspension Trauma petition

This is the governments’ response to the Suspension Trauma petition by the local CWU BT branch. I have asked for their comments on the government’s response and will post them as soon as I receive them.

“The Government, through the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has commissioned research into the first aid treatment of those suffering from suspension trauma resulting from a fall from height, as differing medical treatments have been advocated. A workshop is to be held on 30 April to consider the results of the research, to which the petitioner has been invited.

Following the workshop, HSE will consider the development of proposals both on the correct medical advice to treat those suffering from suspension trauma and the most appropriate way to disseminate any subsequent medical advice, taking account of the petitioner’s suggestion.”

Crisis of Health and Safety enforcement

Swindon TUC Press Release
27th April 2008

Representatives of Swindon Trades Union Council and the unions GMB, Unite and UNISON, met with Michael Wills MP to raise concerns regarding the crisis in enforcement of Health and Safety legislation, resulting from government policy. The meeting was organised as part of the programme of events taking place for Workers Memorial Day, when trades unions across the world highlight unecessary deaths and injuries in the workplace, often resulting from negligence or complete disregard by employers for the health and safety of their workers.

Schools shut as teachers walk out

By Emma Streatfield 

STRIKING Swindon teachers have refused to rule out further industrial action following their one day action yesterday.

“Safety” Honda style

This is a letter to the Swindon Advertiser.

I am pleased to hear that Honda management is “not prepared to compromise the safety of their staff”. What comes as something of a surprise, however, is that the main threat to their health and safety comes from cake and fruit, rather than the work they do. Perhaps the company can, in the interests of transparency, publicise the statistics for accidents in the plant, including those resulting from the proliferation of crumbs throughout the workplace. Would that be too much to ask, or is such a thing not possible because it’s ‘commercial in confidence’?

It was also interesting to read a spokesperson tell us that, benevolent company that they are, all “associate related issues” (staff or workers to you and me) are discussed “through our associate representative council”. However, this is a bit of a freudian slip, not mentioning the trade union which the company is supposed to recognise. Oh no, we discuss things with our beloved ARC.

I don’t know who the spokesperson was but their knowledge of life on the factory floor does seem a trifle lacking. Running to the canteen in a 10 minute break?

By the way, how is this rule being policed? CCTV in the break areas? Searching of all staff when they leave the break areas or finish work, for the tell-tell signs of crumbs clinging to their clothing or juice stains from fruit?

No wonder workers feel that they are being treated like children.

Martin Wicks
Secretary, Swindon TUC

Union supports MP’s concerns for health and safety

21 Apr 2008

The work and pensions select committee’s report into ‘The role of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive in regulating workplace health and safety’

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmworpen/246/246i.pdf)

which is published today, warns that if a move to a single HSE headquarters in Bootle goes ahead there could be a significant loss of expertise as many of the current staff will be unwilling to relocate to Bootle.

Let them eat cake?

Honda snack ban angers workers
By Jeremy Grimaldi
http://swindonadvertiser.co.uk

A CAKE and fruit ban is causing problems on Honda’s shop floor - and has led to union demonstrations.

Unite, which has 1,000 members at Honda, has branded the rules draconian.

It says that the guidelines make employees feel as if they are being treated like children.
Now the union has decided to hand out questionnaires to workers to gauge feelings about the revised guidelines, which came into force in October.

It says that the car giant’s strict company standards go too far, particularly as employees are allowed to eat most chocolate bars in break rooms - but not biscuit-based snacks such as Kit-Kat or Twix bars because they may leave crumbs.

Unite is also unhappy that workers are not allowed to take bottled water into the production areas and that they cannot keep mobile phones with them in case of an emergency.
Jim D’Avila, Unite regional officer, said: “The fact that associates are allowed to eat certain chocolate bars and not fruit is utter madness. The canteen is 10 minutes away and for most employees, who only have a 10-minute break, that is too far. So what are they to do?

“Everyone understands rules are necessary, especially on the shop floor.

“But this is not about logic. It’s about Honda imposing its will because it can - these rules are draconian.

“These people have had fluids and fruit in the building for the past 20 years and it has never affected work in the past.”

Mr D’Avila added that depending on how the surveys are received by Honda’s senior executives, Unite plans to organise demonstrations as well as lobbying MPs to get the rules changed.

One employee, who refused to be named, said that the rules were oppressive.

The 47-year-old said: “We are all very worried about the summer. It gets extremely hot in this building and with no drinks we are going to sizzle. These rules are ridiculous and it just hurts morale.”

But Honda believes its company standards are essential to its products’ success and that the revised rules on pocket food were introduced to benefit workers.

A spokeswoman said: “Company standards have been in place at Honda since we started our operation nearly 22 years ago.

“Our overall objective is always to deliver the highest quality product to our customers.

“We will not compromise on achieving this standard of customer satisfaction nor the safety of our associates and therefore the company standards are an important aspect of our business.

“We have three subsidised restaurants on site providing a full meal service, as well as 102 rest areas which supply hot and cold drinks.

“In order to guarantee product quality, our associates are therefore asked not to eat or drink outside of these designated areas.

“We are proud of our excellent working conditions at Honda in Swindon and we regularly
discuss all associate-related issues through our associate representative council.”

Health & Safety Crisis

Swindon TUC Health & Safety Briefing

hsbriefing Download this as a PDF

Swindon TUC and local unions are meeting with Swindon MP Michael Wills on Friday April 25th to discuss what the unions consider to be a crisis in the regime of Health & Safety inspection and enforcement. We were hoping for this to take place on Workers Memorial Day but Mr Wills could not make it on that day. WMD is an event organised by the unions to commemorate workers killed and injured at work, often owing to the negligence of employers.

The importance of Health & Safety is often downplayed or has scorn poured on it by the media, identifying it with ‘PC’ (political correctness), and the odd incident such as children being prevented from playing conkers because of the risk to them.

In fact, Health & Safety is a crucial part of the work of the trades unions, which protects workers from injury, illness, and sometime death, which they suffer as a result of work. It is a well-known fact that the chance of an accident is 50% less likely to occur in a unionised workplace as compared with a non-union one.

Health & Safety legislation imposes a duty of care on employers for their workers. However, too often these responsibilities are either ignored or the workplace Health & Safety system which is in place, is shoddy. Too often union Health & Safety reps have to struggle to take advantage of their legal rights because employers obstruct their work when it costs money and takes reps away from their day job.

The Health & Safety Executive is one port of call for reps when management is obstructive. Moreover, it is responsible for investigating deaths and serious accidents. However, owing to the cuts that have been imposed by the government the HSE cannot do the job that it is supposed to do. Hazards magazine reports that:

“HSE’s desperately poor safety enforcement record just took a turn for the worse. Now 9 out of 10 major injuries don’t result in an investigation, HSE inspections have hit a new low and the last two years have seen the worst enforcement performance on record. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill says only dangerous employers now have reason to feel safe.”

The statistics are worrying:

Fatalities are Up – 241 worker deaths in 2006/07 compared to 217 in 2005/06, an 11 % increase. It should be born in mind that workers (who drive for a living) who die in road accidents are not counted as ‘workplace deaths’.

Inspections are down - 41,496 HSE inspections in 2006/07 compared to 54,717 in 2005/06, a 24 per cent decrease. In 2001 workplaces could expect a visit every 7 years, This has now risen to every 14.5 years.

Investigations down – the proportion of reported serious injuries investigated by the HSE is down to 11% in 2005/06 from 13% the previous year.

Prosecutions remain low - 1,056 offences were prosecuted by HSE in 2005/06 compared to 1,320 in 2004/05, a fall of 20 per cent. Convictions dropped by 10 per cent. Provisional figures for 2006/07 show a minor improvement in prosecutions and convictions, but the last two years remain the worst on record.

Enforcement notices remain low - notices issued by HSE in 2005/06 compared to 8,471 in 2004/05, a fall of over 22 per cent. Prohibition notices were down by 18 per cent and improvement notices by 24 per cent. The provisional total notices figure rose to 8,071 in 2006/07, but the last two years remain the worst on record.

The HSE’s ‘decision reporting forms’ reveal the number of incidents so serious investigation should follow automatically but where no investigation has occurred because of “inadequate resources” has increased from 207 in 2005/05, to 255 in 2005/06 and to 307 in 2006/07.

There are serious concerns that the enforcement crisis at HSE will worsen, as further funding cuts bite. HSE has already lost over 250 jobs since April 2006 and faces a further 100 job losses in the second half of the financial year. HSE is grappling with the news that the anticipated 15 per cent budget cut by 2011 to meet Treasury efficiency targets may in fact be larger still.

Since 2002, HSE has lost over 1,000 posts as a result of government spending cuts; HSE union Prospect says the organisation now employs fewer than 3,250 staff, down from over 4,000 when Labour took office.

These statistics indicate that HSE is an organisation which cannot cope with the amount of work it has. Government cuts mean that the overwhelming majority of serious accidents in the workplace are not being investigated. That inevitably means that negligent employers are not subject to the necessary action to call them to order and to force them to carry out their legal responsibilities.

In June 2007, the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) followed HSE’s recommendation and said there would be no new rights for safety reps, following a “consultation” in which 9 out of 10 respondents supported increasing the rights of union Health & Safety reps. The move came after the CBI “strongly opposed” the new rights, safety minister Lord McKenzie said in an 8 June 2007 letter to NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear.

Lord McKenzie said:

“HSC cannot make changes without broad stakeholder agreement to them and the lack of consensus between the social partners on this issue means that no progress can be made on any regulatory changes.”

So there can be no changes unless the employers agree!

We believe that:

The cutbacks which have adversely impacted on the HSE should be halted, and indeed reversed.

The rights of Health & Safety reps should be reinforced.

‘Roving Reps’ (or Workers Safety Advisers) should be recognised in law.

Swindon TUC
April 13th 2008

Notes:

Workers Memorial Day is an international trade union event, taking place annually on April 28th, organised to commemorate those killed and injured needlessly in the workplace, and to campaign for effective Health & Safety legislation and a rigorous inspection regime.

See material on International Workers Memorial Day
http://www.hazards.org/wmd/index.htm

Below is material which explains the impact of negligence on the part of employers and a slack H&S regime.

Too young to dieA young worker between 16 and 24 is injured every 12 minutes, seriously injured every 40 minutes and killed every 4 weeks. Read the stories of those workers whose young lives have been needlessly cut short.
http://www.hazards.org/2young2die/index.htm

Safety repressed
Despite a consultation on the role of safety reps the government has failed to strengthen reps rights and failed to challenge the obstructions employees place in the way of reps having the time to carry out their role.
http://www.hazards.org/safetyreps/safetyrepressed.htm

Breaking the fifty-first promise!

Swindon’s current Council likes to pride itself on delivering its promises. Hence it put forward its famous menu of 50 promises against which it reckoned it should be judged. Their self-image is one of an efficient and well-managed Council.

Although it wasn’t in the big 50, another promise was made by Council Leader Rod Bluh. When Bath University’s proposal to build a University campus close to the Great Western Hospital at Commonhead, was abandoned, Rod publicly committed the Council to a policy of ‘No University, No housing’ (in the area surrounding Coate Water). Let’s call this the 51st promise.