Gaining ground – and numbers – in Virgin Media

Telecoms & Financial Services August 8 2016

The support and advice being offered to members in union-hostile Virgin Media has been reflected in a sharp upturn in the number of CWU membership applications being made by the company’s employees.

After a long period of slow but steady membership attrition that followed the initial shock of the company’s decision to derecognise the CWU in November 2012, recent months have seen a significant clawing back of members – apparently driven in large part by the support the union is providing to embattled part-time members in VM call centres.

Across the country part-timers are being pushed into accepting new attendance patterns with increased hours and mandatory weekend working as a condition of remaining part-time – resulting in a big increase in the number of workers contacting the CWU for help and advice.

Assistant secretary John East explains: ” The union has represented a number of individuals in hearings over the imposition of revised attendance patterns that were simply impossible for child-care or other caring reasons. As ever, when the CWU is clearly seen to be standing up against unreasonable management diktats, the non-union friends and colleagues of those we have supported take note and vote with their feet.

“The result is that membership, particularly in VM’s call centres, has gone up significantly this year – and overall we now actually have more members in VM than we did immediately after the initial shock of derecognition.”

Membership amongst the company’s Planners has also continued to increase, with new joiners apparently drawn to the union as a result of the spirited fight waged by the CWU on behalf of 42 Access Planners who’d been forced to accept a change of role and the associated loss of a company car with minimal notice and no compensation.

“Although the ET was finally unsuccessful, the judge was pointed in his criticisms of the way the company had acted in a number of areas, and the individuals we supported have made it clear that, as far as they were concerned, they’d effectively won by forcing senior managers to account for their decisions and actions in court,” said John.

“It’s noteworthy that we still have a high membership density amongst the Planners and new members are still joining.”

John stressed the CWU remains “100 per cent committed” to supporting workers throughout VM, and that the union’s next step will include working with Union Network International (UNI) on a co-ordinated pan-European campaign that will highlight the hostility of VM’s parent company, Liberty Global, to trade union organisation.