Nuclear workers to strike in row over pensions

Hundreds of employees at the Atomic Weapons Establishment are to hold two 48-hour strikes.

Workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which is responsible for the design, manufacture and maintenance of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, are to hold two 48-hour strikes in the dispute over pensions.

The 600 employees will be striking at the Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) two sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for 48 hours from 00.01 on Wednesday 18 January and again for 48 hours on Monday 30 January, also staring at 00.01.

Unite, the union representing the workers, said its members feel “deeply betrayed” as promises guaranteeing their pensions made a quarter of a century ago, when they were transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the private sector, have been broken.

The AWE management plans to close the defined benefit scheme on 31 January and replace it with a defined contribution one, which would rely on the vagaries of the stock exchange and where the final retirement income is not guaranteed.

Bob Middleton, Unite regional officer, said: “The four days of strike action later this month are not being taken lightly. It is not a ‘political’ strike, but one taken reluctantly by our members who have no desire to see thousands of pounds wiped off their retirement incomes.”

Unite members have voted by 92% for strike action and by 97% for industrial action short of a strike. They have already held two days of strike action on 14 November and 6 December 2016.