Union recognition imminent at Seagate

With the second tranche of redundancies due at the Derry plant, councillors have agreed to a follow-up meeting with Unite the Union representatives and Seagate workers.

The meeting follows a motion which received unanimous support at last week’s Derry City and Strabane District Council Governance and Strategic Planning meeting.

Proposed by Cllr Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit) and seconded by Cllr Gary Donnelly (Independent), the motion stated: “Council will organise a meeting with unite representatives and Seagate workers to discuss job security concerns, considering the large number of voluntary redundancies, continued anti-union campaigning from senior management, and the Industrial Court ruling in favour of the union.”

Speaking to Derry Now, Unite regional organiser, Lynn McKinty, said the meeting would be a follow-up to one which took place at the end of January.

“At the start of the year, councillors from various political parties, along with then Mayor Sandra Duffy [Sinn Féin] met senior management from Seagate to discuss worker representation and trade union recognition at Seagate,” said Ms McKinty. 

She added: “This latest motion is to be welcomed as it reiterates the continued support the Derry City and Strabane District Council has shown for trade union recognition at Seagate. 

“Council has been involved all along the route of us getting trade union recognition at Seagate, a campaign which has been ongoing for quite a while.

“We put in for statutory trade union recognition in February, so we are now coming to the end of the process. The fact councillors are giving us a bit more support visually is really good because it has been a long and frustrating process for the membership at Seagate.

“Basically, we are in the statutory process now, where our backroom unit has been defined by the Industrial Court as manufacturing specialists, so the next stage is either going to be automatic recognition or a ballot. That should be coming up in the next month.”

Ms McKinty said the Unite members in Seagate were “looking forward” to the conclusion of the union recognition process. 

“They want to start to have negotiating and bargaining rights with Seagate,” she said.

“I can’t stress enough how amazing the membership has been in terms of their strength and resilience and their commitment to having their collective bargaining rights upheld.

“I definitely welcome Council’s continued support of the workers at Seagate to form their trade union. We will definitely be taking them up on their offer of a meeting.”

Ms McKinty said she had been involved in the Seagate workers campaign for union recognition since October 2022.

She explained: “I have taken them right through the whole process from start to finish. We started with 40 people who would have been long-term members at Seagate, out of a workforce of 1,600. 

“We have got that up to 500 members, which is a massive achievement in a comparably short amount of time. It was on the back of that membership growth we were then able to go for recognition and to really establish the union there.

“Achieving recognition is a formal process. Obviously we would have preferred voluntary recognition. We would have loved to have sat down with Seagate but Seagate did not accept us. On that basis, the only route left for us to gain recognition was through the statutory process. 

“That is why it has ended up meandering its way through the Industrial Court.

“However, we are at the end stages of this process now. The Seagate workers have done brilliantly. They are an amazing group of people. For me, it has been an absolute privilege to get to know Derry and Derry people.”

According to Lynn McKinty, the redundancy process at Seagate is nearing conclusion. 

“A tranche of workers left at the beginning of September,” she said “and another tranche is leaving in mid-September. Altogether, 306 people have been made redundant from Derry. Worldwide the redundancy figure was 3,400.”

A spokesperson for Seagate told Derry News said: “We have no further comment to add at this stage as we conclude the recent global restructuring programme and continue to participate in the Industrial Court process.”