Finance unions merge to take on banks

IT professionals in the finance industry look set to get massive backing in disputes with their employers after the UK's three main banking unions voted to merge this week.

Members of the Banking Insurance and Finance Union (Bifu), NatWest's staff association, and UniFI - which represents all staff including those in the IT division at Barclays - voted in favour of the merger by over 90 per cent.

A spokeswoman at Bifu said the increasing use of technology in the sector is creating an environment where staff in IT, clerical and managerial roles across the board need to pull together.

"We want to create one specialised union for the whole industry. The boundaries between insurance, high-street banks and building societies are blurring all the time and we need to provide a voice for staff as these change. The introduction of the euro and the use of new technologies like call centres all make this more important," she added.

The super-union launches on 18 May and will be called UNIFI. It will have almost 200,000 thousand members.

UNIFI's first challenges include continuing negotiations with NatWest after nine out of ten of its union members rejected a pay offer. Seventy per cent of its members have already asked to be balloted on possible strike action.

The union will also take on the dispute at HSBC-Midland, where the bank says there is a conflict between managers fulfilling their roles at the bank and holding union membership. However, the union claims 50 per cent membership and says it will continue to press for recognition.