US union the Teamsters has called upon Balfour Beatty's (BBES) boss to intervene in what its general president, James Hoffa, called an 'employer offensive against construction workers'.
In a letter sent last week to BBES chief executive Ian Tyler, Mr Hoffa said: 'If this dispute is not resolved to the satisfaction of my colleagues in the UK we will have no option but to demonstrate our support. I am sure that neither of us would welcome this development.'
He added that Mr Tyler must seek to negotiate with UK union Unite on the basis of existing joint industrial bargaining arrangements, 'not the so called BESNA [Building Engineering Services National Agreement] proposals, which I know will remain unacceptable to workers in the UK'.
Despite the Teamsters' intervention, nearly 90 per cent of workers are understood to have signed up to the BESNA deal. See
http://bit.ly/ADzkDy
http://jibelectrician.blogspot.com/2012/02/our-support-is-growing-us-teamsters.html
