Strike Action Possible at UK Phone Operator

Industrial action at O2 is now inevitable unless the company budges on a 'final' pay offer which would see many staff receive no consolidated pay rise at all for at least seven years according to the Communications Workers Union (CWU). Delegates at the CWU's Telecoms Industry Conference in Blackpool have voted unanimously for "any action necessary up to and including industrial action in order to receive a fair and just settlement" following a series of impassioned speeches denouncing a company position that was branded hypocritical, provocative and indefensible.

CWU assistant secretary Dave Johnson - the union's lead negotiator on O2 issues - told conference: "This issue no longer amounts to a difference of opinion simply about the money on offer to our members. It's about principles and ideology. There are a number of issues which are of fundamental importance to us as a trade union and more importantly to our members in O2 who quite rightly feel demoralised, undervalued and extremely bitter about the way in which this company has treated them - not just this years but ever since the demerger from BT.

"They are angry, and with every justification, at a board of directors who hypocritically seek to depress the wages of our members whilst at the same time awarding themselves significant increases in their own salaries and fees.

Supporting the call for industrial action if necessary to achieve a fair settlement in the 2005 pay round on behalf of the CWU's telecoms executive, NEC member Mark Taggart warned top level management that their generosity to themselves at a time when they are seeking to reduce in real terms the wages of their workforce would be fully exposed.

"I'll tell you now Ersky (Peter Erskine)...we'll let everyone in the land know that you are a fat cat of the very worst kind....we're coming for you."

Posted to the site on 15th June 2005