Canberra Times (Australia), July 15, 2006, Saturday

Copyright 2006 The Federal Capital Press of Australia PTY Limited
All Rights Reserved
Canberra Times (Australia)

July 15, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition

SECTION: A; Pg. 21

HEADLINE: Company to act on anti-union claims

BYLINE: London

BODY:
The head of Britain's biggest transport company has promised to "stamp out anti-union behaviour" by senior managers at a key United States subsidiary amid unrest among the organisation's shareholders.
The chairman of FirstGroup, Martin Gilbert, told the company's annual meeting the organisation was taking the issue very seriously after a number of institutional shareholders voted for a "human rights" motion in defiance of the board's wishes.
FirstStudent, which operates more than 20,000 yellow school buses in the US, has been accused of harassing and intimidating union activists.
While shareholders with 78.72per cent of the company's equity voted against the motion, some 6.02 per cent backed it and 15.62 per cent abstained.
Union leaders argued it was highly unusual for institutions to fail to support a company under such circumstances. The pension funds of the Trade Union Council and universities, together with the Co-operative Insurance Society, voted for the motion. It is understood that one of the big financial institutions to abstain was Aberdeen Asset Management, whose chief executive is Mr Gilbert.
A former Labour MP and ex- union official, John Lyons, who acted as a consultant to First- Group, told the meeting the company's managers in Baltimore had used anti-union material last month during a secret ballot on union recognition.
Mr Gilbert told the annual meeting in Aberdeen the group would "do everything in its power" to ensure the company was neutral on the issue of employee representation.
The group has launched an investigation into the allegations of anti-union behaviour and will report back to shareholders in a few months.
Outside the meeting, members of the Transport & General Workers Union handed out copies of a report on FirstStudent's labour relations policies written by a professor of international labour and human rights law at Cornell University in New York, Lance Compa. Professor Compa concluded FirstStudent violated human rights standards on freedom of association.
An organiser for the T&G in Aberdeen, Tommy Campbell, accused Mr Gilbert of trying to stifle debate on the issue.
A spokesman for First said the group was not anti-union and "never had been".
The board believed its present code of ethics covered the points made in the motion which called for the company to abide by standards laid down by the United Nation's International Labour Organisation. However, directors would consider whether policies should be brought more in line with ILO principles.
The group would ensure there were training programs for US managers to ensure they abided by the policies. - The Independent