{"id":11452,"date":"2017-02-14T12:05:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T12:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11452"},"modified":"2017-02-14T16:45:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:45:22","slug":"awe-pensions-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11452","title":{"rendered":"AWE pensions demo"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As we go to press, angry workers at AWE plc – the Atomic Weapons Establishment Defence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are preparing to demonstrate outside the constituency office of defence secretary Michael Fallon in Sevenoaks, Kent today (February 14) as part of their long-running pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The workers, Unite members, will be staging the protest outside the MP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office in Sevenoaks between 12.30pm and 1.30pm, as their 600 colleagues at AWE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire hold a 24-hour strike, which started at just past midnight today (February 14), on the pensions issue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The reps had asked to meet with Sir Michael Fallon, MP for Sevenoaks, during this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parliamentary recess \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but have received no reply.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur committed members feel betrayed and badly let down by what has happened to their pensions and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deserve to lose thousands of pounds when they retire,” said Unite regional secretary for the south east Jennie Formby.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are working hard to deliver the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flagship Trident nuclear programme, but they appear to have hit a brick wall, so they are taking their case this morning to Michael Fallon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constituency in their bid for pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 justice.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In their letter to the defence secretary, Unite reps at AWE wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe members of our union are dedicated to their job, producing and assembling the Trident nuclear warheads. They work with hazardous materials and accept that this is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098part of the job\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have to undergo strict security vetting and are bound by the Official Secrets Act, even when they retire,” they wrote. “This is why they feel so betrayed by the government and will lose thousands of pounds in pension benefits, if the defined contribution scheme is the only pension scheme that they can join.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are requesting that they be allowed to join the Principle Civil Service Pension Scheme as they work on a MoD site producing work solely for the MoD. They do not believe the defined contribution scheme that is now in place is acceptable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite members, who work as managers, 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closure on January 31.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 \u00c2\u014157m on total revenues of \u00c2\u0141978m.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we go to press, angry workers at AWE plc – the Atomic Weapons Establishment Defence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are preparing to demonstrate outside the constituency office of defence secretary Michael Fallon in Sevenoaks, Kent today (February 14) as part of their long-running pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute.   The workers, Unite members, will be staging the protest outside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[627,664,144,270],"wps_subtitle":"Workers doorstep defence secretary","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11453,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452\/revisions\/11453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}