Sellafield strikes off

A strike by members of Unite scheduled for next Tuesday (January 23), which would have created widespread disruption at Sellafield, has been called off to allow for negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute over the victimisation of a trade union rep to take place.

The strike involves workers at civil engineering company DSD Construction, who are undertaking work to improve security at the nuclear reprocessing site. The strike was called after Unite’s newly elected shop steward James Bainbridge was victimised and then dismissed and would have caused widespread disruption if it had gone ahead.

DSD Construction has now agreed to enter into negotiations to seek a resolution. These talks will take place next Thursday (January 25).

As a consequence the first strike which was scheduled to take place on January 23 has been called off. The overtime ban due to begin next Tuesday has also been suspended.

However if the talks do not bring a resolution to the dispute then the remaining strikes scheduled to begin on Thursday, February 1 and Wednesday, February 7 will go ahead.

“Unite has called off the initial strike in good faith, to allow talks to take place,” said Unite regional officer Ryan Armstrong.

“DSD must table solutions to end this dispute and to reinstate the Unite shop steward.

“If this dispute is not resolved through negotiations then there will be strikes in early February which will cause disruption throughout the Sellafield complex,” he added.

Within 24 hours of being elected as the shop steward Mr Bainbridge was relocated from the Sellafield site to DSD’s Carlisle depot, 40 miles away.

Unite intervened and Mr Bainbridge returned to work at Sellafield. He was  then suspended and dismissed after he raised a collective grievance on behalf of members.

The grievance concerned working in the rain, the supply of inadequate and substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) and uniforms and making weekend work available to all workers.