Tuesday 10 January 2017

Nuclear workers to vote on strike action

Nuclear workers to vote on strike action

Nuclear trade unions are to ballot for strike action in response to proposed pension cuts in the sector.

The GMB, Prospect, Unite and ASLEF/TSSA unions met in London yesterday and organised the ballot in response to more than £660 million of pension cuts for 16,000 workers across 19 sites.

The workers, who are primarily involved in decommissioning work, will vote in the coming weeks on whether or not to launch industrial action.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has suggested the cuts would take place as part of a wider public sector reform to make pensions more fair and affordable.

The unions said in a joint statement: "These statements are misleading and deeply flawed. The pension schemes concerned are not public sector pension schemes and were not within the scope of public sector pension reform.

"Pension provision is already on an affordable and sustainable footing. The trade unions are united in their efforts to oppose these unnecessary and unjustified attacks on our members' pensions."

Justin Bowden, GMB National Secretary for the Nuclear Sector, said: "Senior representatives were unanimous that if this government is determined to break its promises and is not prepared to negotiate, there is no alternative but to ballot members to take strike action."

ELN has contacted the NDA for a comment.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

Trending Articles