The Struggle for Union Recognition at Regatta

My son and I met with the Chair of the local Trades Council and a National Organiser for Unite the Union at the Cheshire Oaks Outlet Village in Ellesmere Port to leaflet the Regatta store to show solidarity with the Unite members at the distribution centre

Workers at Ellesmere Port were told for many years that Regatta would not recognise a trade union, but workers in the distribution centre thought differently and so decided that they wanted a collective say on their pay, terms and conditions of employment.

They built up union membership amongst their colleagues in order for Unite to be recognised.

Orla Flynn, the Chief Operating Officer of Regatta, reacted to Unite’s climbing membership by deciding to recognise another union, USDAW, who are well known for making cosy deals with management and valuing sole recognition agreements over representing their members.

Regatta are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative, part of the criteria for being a member of ETI is to allow workers to form or join a union of their own choosing and this is what they did.

Ms Flynn then took it upon herself to sign a recognition agreement with USDAW without any consultation with the workers and with no rights to collective bargaining, something she knew Unite would be able to offer the workers, enabling them to have a voice in the workplace

This is a blatant move to delay recognition of Unite, but this on-going action will escalate further, in my opinion, to possible strike action in the future.

Next time, there will be more of us here. We started out low key this time, there will be more us the next time and more again the time after that until the Regatta management accept that they cannot ride roughshod over workers rights

The Class Consciousness Project fully supports the fight for trade union recognition at Regatta distribution centre by members of Unite and sends our solidarity.