THE trade unionist who was at the centre of the most bitter industrial relations dispute of the last decade is now the key figure in a strike at Scotland’s nuclear base.

 

Stephen Deans was described by former Prime Minister David Cameron as a “rogue” trade unionist during the discord at the Grangemouth petrochemical plant. He is now a regional officer for Unite and represents civilian staff at Faslane, which is home to Trident, and at the nuclear warhead storage facility at Coulport.

 

Following a dispute with employer Babcock Marine over workers’ rights, Unite members backed industrial action and are planning a continuous overtime and on-call ban this Friday.

 

This move will coincide with a series of staggered periods of strike action which are expected to have an impact on naval operations until June.

 

In 2013, Deans was the Unite convener at the sprawling oil refinery plant at Grangemouth, owned by Ineos.

 

However, he became embroiled in a major political row after he tried to help Karie Murphy, a friend of Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, in the selection for a Labour candidacy in Falkirk.

 

Deans was suspended from the party amid claims the union had attempted to manipulate the contest, but he was eventually cleared and readmitted.

 

The political controversy spiralled into an industrial relations dispute over allegations he had used company time for his political work.

 

Unite members voted for strike action over what was claimed to be the victimisation of Deans and the plant was temporarily closed by the employer in anticipation of the action, which never went ahead.

 

Ineos, owned by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, then threatened to close the petrochemical facility permanently, which would have led to the loss of hundreds of jobs.

 

After high-level political interventions by both the Scottish and UK governments, together with financial guarantees, a deal was struck to save the plant and Deans quit as an Ineos employee.

 

The deal also included scrapping the final salary pension scheme, a no-strike deal and agreement for no full-time union conveners, which were interpreted as a heavy defeat for the union.

 

Earlier this month Deans was quoted about the current dispute: "This action will coincide with a particularly busy period at both Coulport and Faslane and will cause major disruption to the day-to-day services that Babcock Marine provides.

 

"This includes land-based repairs, mail delivery, feeding the Navy sailors at their normal mealtimes, and nuclear operational and waterfront services. There will be a severe impact.”

 

A spokesperson for Babcock said: “We are already actively engaged in discussions with ACAS and Unite on the issues that have been raised with us and made good progress at our meeting on 7 March. We fully expect these issues to be successfully resolved when we meet again with ACAS next week”.

 

Pat Rafferty, the Scottish secretary of Unite, said: “Unite has absolute confidence in Stephen Deans. We are proud that Stephen is part of our union, standing up for workers’ rights with calmness, understanding and skill. That’s what he did at Ineos in Grangemouth. That’s what he continues to do as a regional officer with Unite.”