Tesco and Mandate Management Cooperating To Deny Worker Rights, Documents Show

Tesco and Mandate management collaborated to union bust rival radical trade union Independent Workers’ Union (IWU), documents seen by Aontacht Media show. 

During a dispute involving Tesco worker Alice Twomey, who is a dual-carding member of both unions, Tesco management sent cease-and-desist letters to the General Secretary of the IWU, Jamie Murphy, who was advocating on her behalf.

“We have been advised that your union, which is not a recognised trade union within our business, has served unwarranted notice of industrial action on the above store in relation to an alleged outstanding collective grievance, “ an email reads from Frank Timmins, Tesco’s HR manager, which also claimed that social media posts from the union were “defamatory, untrue and misleading”.

“For the avoidance of doubt the Independent Workers Union (IWU) is not a recognised trade union in our business and therefore has no negotiation or representational rights on behalf of our colleagues”, the email continued, threatening legal action against the IWU. 

“In the case of Tesco St Finbarrs Express the recognised trade union for colleagues in that store is the Mandate Trade Union. There are no outstanding grievances in this store. Any grievances raised in the past were investigated and appropriate resolutions put in place, “ the email reads, stating that the worker in question must go through the “correct”  channels via Mandate. 

The General Secretary of Mandate, Jim Fuery, was CCd on these emails. However, Tesco management are known for denying the opportunity to bring a Mandate union representative to HR meetings, with this widely-reported in the mainstream media, as well as a press release by Mandate itself from 2018. In fact, Tesco have not negotiated a pay agreement with Mandate since pre-2017. As such, they do not allow representation, on an individual or collective basis.

Therefore, it seems that Mandate management is cooperating with Tesco HR to deny workers’ representation, by clamping down on alternative unions while at the same time refusing to advocate for workers when issues arise. 

The Tesco press office, as of this time, has not responded to requests for comment, while General Secretary of Mandate, Jim Fuery, has refused to comment.

It will be interesting to see whether Tesco re-engages Mandate now that a radical union has entered the fray.