Pensions row ramps up

Angry workers at AWE plc – the Atomic Weapons Establishment – are striking today (March 23) in their long-running pensions’ dispute, with another seven days of strikes on the cards.

Unite which represents about 600 workers, is due to meet AWE management next week to discuss the progress of the ongoing pension talks.

Meanwhile, the  workers, who are pivotal to delivering the Trident nuclear programme, have been on strike today (March 23) from just past midnight at AWE’s two sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.

Further strikes are planned for March 27; April 6, 10, 20 and 24; and May 4 and 8 . This would bring the number of strike days since last November to 16.

The workers recently renewed their industrial action mandate in a new ballot which saw 80 per cent vote to strike over the new defined contribution pension scheme being the only scheme they can join and also being denied readmission to the Ministry of Defence scheme.

The dispute centres on copper-bottomed pledges made in the early 1990s by the then-Tory government to AWE workers regarding the future of their pensions, once they transferred to the private sector.

These promises have now been broken as AWE bosses closed the defined benefit pension scheme on 31 January, leaving employees facing thousands of pounds being slashed from their retirement incomes.

“Our members are striking today to drive home the message that they feel betrayed and badly let down by what has happened to their pensions and that they don’t deserve to lose thousands of pounds when they retire,” said Unite regional officer Bob Middleton.

“We are meeting the AWE management next week to discuss progress on the pension talks that we have been holding under the auspices of Acas, the conciliation service.

“However, until a settlement is reached that is acceptable to our hardworking members, the seven further days of strike action remain in place,” he added.

“The essence of this dispute is that governments should honour the pledges they make to MPs and groups of workers – ministerial promises are not something to be lightly discarded for the benefit of corporate profit.”

Unite members, who work as managers, firefighters, and craft and manual workers, are furious at the broken promises made in the early 1990s, which were underpinned by a ministerial statement to the Commons. The union said that if those promises had been honoured it would not have resulted in the scheme’s closure on January 31.

AWE plc, which employs about 4,000 people, is a consortium of two American-owned companies Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering, and UK-listed Serco. The union said that the consortium made a profit in 2015 of ÂŁ57m on total revenues of ÂŁ978m.