Union threatens to tear up 'sweetheart' deals with bosses

The left-wing leader of Britain's second-biggest union has threatened to tear up a series of no-strike "sweetheart deals'' with some of Britain's best-known employers.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the Amicus union, pledged to let workers vote to abandon so-called partnership deals, which he said could act against the interests of employees.

Thirty-two companies, including Nissan, Toyota, LG and Go airline, operate no-strike deals with union members. But Mr Simpson, who ousted Sir Ken Jackson – an ally of Tony Blair – in a ballot earlier this year, warned that many deals struck in the 1980s and 1990s undermined the interests of staff. He said some denied staff the right to negotiate pay and conditions, while others imposed compulsory arbitration on pay deals.

Yesterday he said union members would be able to vote to abandon deals if they believed they were not acceptable. He said the first votes would take place as soon as possible.

"We are tearing up the form book on industrial relations," he said. "In future we will seek agreements that achieve real benefits for members. Partnership has been a euphemism for the exploitation of many of our members in the last 20 years. In future, partnership will mean mutual benefits and empowerment of members.''

Mr Simpson insisted he was not opposed in principle to no-strike deals, but said some acted against workers' interests. He said that some unions had in effect "competed to offer the worst possible agreements'' to secure single-union deals with employers.

He said: "We have allowed the good name of partnership and all the TUC has worked for to be bastardised in the name of sweetheart agreements. We are prepared to ballot our members in every company where they feel they have a sweetheart agreement.'

"The right to negotiate over pay, pensions and training needs, and to take industrial action if necessary, are the basic requirements of any decent union agreement.''

Mr Simpson refused to say which companies might be affected, but he insisted that he had received substantial numbers of complaints from union members. He said: "The union will not defend agreements which our members do not want.''

He was backed yesterday by George Brumwell, general secretary of the construction union Ucatt, who praised his "bold and courageous'' stand. "It will help bring to an end the practice of employers choosing a union for their workers because of the offer of a no-strike clause," he said.

Roger Lyons, Mr Simpson's fellow joint general secretary, said the decision would bring members of the former AEEU engineering union in line with members of the white-collar MSF union, which merged to form Amicus.