UNIONS and management working together to secure the future of mothballed Teesside Cast Products (TCP) have set a precedent for the future, the man bidding to lead Unite the union said.
Les Bayliss, who is standing for general secretary of Britain’s biggest union, met steelworkers on Teesside yesterday ahead of the leadership election, which begins next week.
Unions and Tata Steel, formerly Corus, have been praised for working together to try to secure a new owner, with Thai company Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), proposing to buy the plant. Mr Bayliss said: “It is how we need to be in the future, we need to work with good employers, but challenge bad ones.
“I have been using my experiences at Corus as a good example of where the union needs to position itself.”
He cited the bitter industrial dispute between British Airways and Unite as an example of how not to carry out industrial relations.
Mr Bayliss said: “As soon as there was an announcement of 12 days of strikes over Christmas we were turned from victims to villians.
“We have to learn from that as we are keen to learn from the positive actions of our members here at Corus.”
Mr Bayliss believes steel workers should march across Teesside again, this time in celebration, if SSI’s purchase of TCP goes ahead.
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