By an ACTT member at London Weekend TV MEMBERS of the three big TV unions NATTKE, EETPU importantly ACTT - return to work this week confident after an 11-week struggle that has ended in a major victory over the employers.
The pay offer is worth 25 per cent over the next 12 months, and almost 45 per cent over two years.
forcing show-down mid-August, the ITCA employers' organisation. the annual pay talks into a virtual lock-out. Its aim was to demoralise the unions and push through unacceptable changes: rapid and uncontrolled introduction of new technology; a low pay deal; and erosion of the degree of union control over staffing What neither the bosses nor the union leaderships had anticipated was the strength of resistance of the rank and file which brought week's victory. Both NATTKE and the EETPU negotiators had recommended the original 15 per cent ofter to their members, who turned it down. At the end of July Tate withdrawn and all ACTT members in the 'independent' TV were threatened unless they resumed working'.
This meant working management scabs doing the jobs of other members ACTT general secretary Alan Sapper felt he had no option but to call out all ACTT members. members of the other two unions were locked out.
What the companies did next is very revealing. They did nothing. And they did it for a month.
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Four pay improvements local bargaining, alongside increase stewards.
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