The Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce is calling on the members of Unite the Union working for the Borders and Coastguard Agency (BCA) to do the job they are paid to do and stop inconveniencing members of the public, tourists and businesses with their selfish and thoughtless work to rule.

If the Union and the BCA workers who are members of Unite are unhappy with the status of their negotiating rights they should deal directly with the management of the Agency and not force members of the public, including the elderly and children to wait for over 2 hours to cross the frontier and cause passengers at the airport to queue for hours on end with the resulting inconvenience and serious financial loss to the passengers and airlines. These are the industrial relations practices of the 1970s and Unite should behave as a modern and responsible organisation and not seek to use the entry points to Gibraltar as bargaining tools in the same way our neighbours do from time to time.

It is the height of hypocrisy for Unite to complain about the Spanish government causing frontier delays for ulterior motives and for them to encourage their members to do the same. It is bad enough when delays are caused by ill-judged political motivations from elsewhere, but when they are self-inflicted it makes no sense at all.  Industrial action, strikes and work to rule need to be used responsibly such as when large numbers of jobs are under threat or if workers’ employment rights are being seriously infringed or lives endangered.

For the Unite members of the BCA to embark on a work to rule at the instigation of Unite because of the way just one post in the BCA has been filled is wholly irresponsible.  To complain about which union holds the negotiating rights and hold the public to ransom is pathetic!

Unite and its BCA members should behave responsibly and get on and do the job they are paid to do and stop holding Gibraltar to ransom just because they can.

ENDS