Connect Merger with Prospect Approved

Connect members have voted decisively to merge with Prospect, with over 88% of those voting supporting the proposal. This move will create the UK’s largest managerial and professional union, representing professional members in the private and public sectors and across a diverse range of occupations.

Adrian Askew, Connect’s General Secretary, said:

“I am delighted that our members have strongly backed plans to merge with Prospect. This promises an exciting future, and we look forward to working closely with colleagues in Prospect, sharing our expertise and our innovative approaches to trade unionism to represent and protect our members”.

Connect members will be part of a dedicated sector for communications workers within Prospect, benefiting from a shared focus on delivering for professional members and a commitment to a positive agenda. Adrian Askew added that:

“This merger will help us to realise our vision of creating a union to protect and represent our professional members throughout their careers, with their union membership as a vital part of their career plans. We share Prospect’s commitment to a focus on the issues that really matter at work, working proactively with our members and their industry to shape the future of the world of work”.

Paul Noon, General Secretary of Prospect, said: “This is a great result and confirms Prospect as the UK’s fastest growing union.

“Our strong focus on Prospect as a professional union for professional people has been shown to have wide appeal. This year alone we have seen nearly 25,000 new members join us, ranging from telecommunications specialists in Connect to aircraft safety engineers in the Association of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and public sector workers in the Jersey Civil Service Association.”

Connect Prospect Merger

Connect’s Conference has this week clearly decided that the union should merge with Prospect. The decision was taken at the end of a lengthy and very positive debate, where the merits of merger, and of merger with either Prospect or the Communications Workers Union, were considered in great detail.

The ultimate decision to merge rests with members so we will now draw up a legally binding agreement between Prospect and Connect, which will need to be endorsed in a ballot of members. This is a legal requirement, so the ballot will be a statutory ballot – and that means that it will have to be conducted by post.

We aim to conclude discussions with Prospect over the summer and hold the ballot in the autumn. The merger itself is planned to take formal effect on 1 January 2010.

Connect to Merge With Prospect.

At Connect’s Biennial conference this morning after a thorough debate conference voted to merge with Prospect by overwhelming majority.

25% of IT Workers Abused and Ready To Quit

An interesting survey from a uk computer company (no relation) has done some reaserch that  suggested that as many as a quarter of all IT staff in small to medium businesses have suffered some sort of abuse and are looking for careers elsewhere [PDF].

They say:

“The study also found that over a third have suffered from sleepless nights or headaches as a result of IT problems at work, while 59 per cent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours.”

The story is also being covered by slashdot which is interesting though the results of the survay will not be news to Connect members.

Industrial Action In BT

Hot news from BT Sectional conference:

Following a debate  at Connect’s Conference, with elected delegates from all parts of BT, delegates have voted overwhelmingly to end the suspension of industrial action and to start industrial action short of a strike in BT. This decision builds on a strong vote in favor of industrial action which you delivered
in the postal ballot. We have now served BT with formal notice of industrial action.

Full details of the action will now be sent to you by post but remember to keep checking your private (non work) email address as this is the way that we will communicate with you. Talk to your colleagues and make sure they know what is going on. If any of
your colleagues have not yet supplied their private email address then it is essential that they do so now at www.connectuk.org/homeemail

Keep in touch with us during this campaign – send in news from your branch and we’ll put it on this website so your colleagues can see what you’re doing.

Get involved If you want to take on a more active role in the campaigning, email getinvolved@payfair.org. Give us a phone number or non-work email so that we can contact you.

Send in news, ask us questions Send an email to active@payfair.org

Vodafone reorganisation and job losses in Regional Operations

Information About Vodafone Redundancies

Connect is aware of the major reorganisation announced yesterday by Vodafone.

This reorganisation will have a significant impact across the business and may result in the loss of 450 roles.    

Connect understands that a reorganisation is proposed in Regional Operations and we will be seeking an early meeting with the company to understand the implications of this.

At the same time we are aware that a number of individuals have been impacted directly in Regional Operations.  Those ‘at risk’ of redundancy will have now been individually informed.

Members may also be aware that across the business there appear to have been a number of dismissals not for the purposes of redundancy timed to coincide with these ‘at risk’ announcements.  Connect has made it clear to the company that this is completely unacceptable and will be raising this in the strongest terms in the discussions within the bargaining unit.

As your recognised union Connect will meet to kick off a meaningful consultation process with the company at the earliest opportunity.  In doing so we will need to represent the views of our members.  Please contact one of your Connect representatives with your comments.

Peppone Comments

Very suspicious that there appear to have been “Dismissals” at the same time as  a redundancy exercise.

WGA using Youtube to support strike campaign

As you would expect the WGA are making use of youtube to post videos to suport the strike. Hers one featuring the Famous Ninja of ask a ninja fame.

thanks to Joninit for the initial tip

New Type of strikes ? IBM faces Second Life strike

Rappresentanza Sindacale Unitaria IBM Vimercate (RSU), the official trade union representing IBM’s 9,000 workers in Italy, is planning a most novel form of industrial action – a strike on Second Life – and it wants as many avatars as possible manning the picket lines.

Details are sketchy as how this will work my initial reaction was to laugh but as company’s  use  web2.0  to market and communicate with the public – the register has some interesting comments on how this may actually work as a way to raise issues.

The RSU say (translation from the reg) origional is here (err comrades you need get the site to work better in Ie7)

It seems that the reasons for this first virtual strike are related to the renew of the internal agreement. While IBM is one of the company with major profits, its employees are receiving very few fruits of this big mountain of money.

The internal climate is below all the IT industries (taking advantages for the famous IBM’s competitor: HP), and the drop that overflowed the glass is the long and inconclusive negotiation for the internal agreement. While the works council, supported by the majority of IBM Italy employees, was asking for a small salary increase, IBM responded with the complete suppression of the “productive results benefit”, with a loss for a single employee of €1000 per year. For a company that wants to lead the corporate social responsibility, this is really too much.

wether this would work in the uk i’me not sure have avatars walk arounhd around uncle bens second life hang out and make cruel remarks about bt.com maybe 🙂 though I suspect Ben might have a job explaining web2.0 and social media to some board members.

Connect Rejects BT’s miserly pay offer

Connect Rejects BT Final pay Offer

The company has now put its final offer on 2007 pay to the union. Connect is recommending that this offer be rejected in a members’ e-ballot to take place between 11-22 May.

More info on the  main site here

Vodafone union recognition dispute

The Register has a short piece on the ongoing efforts by Connect to achieve recognition and collective bargaining at Vodaphone.