BY IAN GRANT AND CAROLINE BELLAMY
LONDON - Johnson Controls, the manufacturers who produce
seats for the Ford Dagenham assembly plant in London have settled
a pay claim made by the Transport and General Workers Union
(TGWU) here.
In a November 19 ballot, workers voted 88.3 percent to accept the deal, which includes larger raises than the company's earlier offer. Previously, a vote to take strike action was supported by 87.5 percent of workers. A 25-day strike by Johnson Controls workers in the United States last year made some gains and left Ford with thousands of vehicles needing to be "retro-fitted" with seats.
The London workers will get a 8.63 percent raise on their basic pay in year one of the two-year deal, and a further raise in year two, for a total 13.73 percent basic pay raise by September 1999. Including non-guaranteed attendance bonuses, workers' earnings could rise by a total of 19.5 percent over two years. Johnsons had proposed a four-year deal offering 4.5 percent raise each year, or a total of 19.25 percent over four years.
Workers at Johnsons want parity with Ford production workers. Pay has been only 70 percent of a Ford production worker's since the seat assembly was out-sourced three years ago. The Johnson production line is directly linked to the final assembly line in the Ford Dagenham plant a few hundred yards away. Other issues workers wanted addressed were the increasing use of temporary agency workers on production, holidays at premium pay, and a formal collective bargaining agreement with the union, rather than the "bargaining council" favored by the company.
In addition to the pay rise, workers won an extra one-day holiday in each year of the deal, but no premium holiday pay rate, and layoff pay for a maximum six weeks at full pay. The company will enter into discussions with the union on collective bargaining structures.
Addressing one of the key points for workers in the factory, Johnson promised to eliminate the use of temporary agency labor within three months.
"I think it's a good deal, everything considered," said Paul Flint, a seat fitter inside the Ford plant. Flint has worked at Johnson since they started production at Dagenham. "The raise in the basic was the most important thing for me, but the attendance allowance and extra holiday, in that order were factors too," said Flint, who voted for strike action, and then to accept the new contract offer. "The temps agreement is good too. Many are here day after day - why have them as temporary when they could be employed full-time? We also need more skilled workers to run the line," he added.
"I think we could have done better," said Decoursey Stewart, a shop steward and material handler at Johnson. He said that along with other stewards he wanted to recommend rejection of the deal. TGWU officials recommended the workforce vote to accept.
"If we'd taken some form of industrial action we could have got a better second-year basic rise and improved the conditions attached to the unguaranteed attendance bonus," Stewart said.
"The union is stronger, but we're still a fair way from getting equity with Ford, which was our aim," he added. "When we get back to the table in two years' time we'll want to close that gap."
Ian Grant and Caroline Bellamy are members of the TGWU at Ford Dagenham.