Old News

Corrupt Employer, Corrupt Union, or both together?

Shorts Belfast: Officer wins victory for the workforce, MSF suspends Officer. 1.3 BILLION Canadian dollars at stake. An industrial tribunal in Belfast ruled 10 days ago that employees have been underpaid for holidays since 1995, amounting to a bill estimated by the workers at £3 million pounds

Lyons has caused the representatives and members at Shorts no end of difficulties by (in response to numerous "complaints" addressed directly to him from Shorts) removing their Regional Officer Joe Bowers from his responsibilities for Shorts Technical Staff, and suspending their Senior and Deputy Senior Representatives, Frank Cammock and Kevin Doherty.

Frank and Kevin were subsequently unanimously re-elected as Senior and Deputy Senior Representatives by the representatives at Shorts, and their re-election was unanimously endorsed at a mass meeting of Shorts members.

Lyons has disregarded these democratic decisions, members complaints about the removal and suspensions have had no effect, and members believe the nature of the relationship between Shorts management and the MSF leadership calls into question the very independence of MSF as a honest trade union.

There is certainly a considerable amount of money at stake, enough to turn any Union leader's head: On Monday Bombardier shares fell sharply. At one point in the day, the shares fell by CDN$1.30, wiping CDN$1.3 billion off the value of the company, and this story was attributed as being a factor: Bombardier shares tumble. According to members (all 7,200 of them) they are owed at least £3 million in back pay.

Frank and Kevin have recently complained to the Northern Ireland Certification Officer about their suspensions, and he is investigating. This follows several legal overturnings of MSF NEC decisions; this week the UK Certification officer has told the NEC to re-instate Dr Sue Michie. She was mysteriously suspended from all posts the day after she won the elections for London NEC member. Lyons Web hopes to have full details this week.

Here are a couple of links to newspaper stories relating to the removal of Joe Bowers from Shorts, followed by an interesting story: Workers reject bid ‘to gag’ Bowers

Irish union official wins action after his removal from Shorts

There is a paragraph in the "Sunday Business Post" article which says that "For much of the 1990s Shorts had been in dispute with MSF about reductions in holiday entitlement" and goes on to say "Bowers last year won a tribunal on the holiday issue". This tribunal was relisted for outstanding matters to be dealt with. The unanimous decision (in members favour) was issued on Friday 2nd March 2001. It attracted some media attention from the Sunday Times "Shorts found guilty of illegally deducting wages" and the BBC "Shorts 'unlawfully deducted pay'"

This story was picked up by the media in Canada, and was mentioned on TV news bulletins and covered in newspapers there: Tribunal says Bombardier-owned firm illegally deducted wages at Belfast plant

Associated Press: Bombardier unit illegally deducted wages

Bombardier in Montreal were concerned enough to issue the following statement, which appears to be written to calm the Stock Market: Statement on Northern Ireland Industrial Tribunal ruling

It's quite a story, and this is only a brief outline here. The main issue is that this tribunal is one of a number of successes achieved on behalf of the members at Shorts by Joe Bowers, Frank Cammock and Kevin Doherty. Members terms and conditions remain under continuous attack. So what does Lyons do? He removed Joe Bowers and suspended Frank Cammock and Kevin Doherty! Even the Belfast solicitor involved in this case on behalf of the members has been "sacked" by MSF!

NEW Lyons found guilty by Certification Officer
NEW Private Eye article
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 10th March-2001