Sellafield GMB members set strike date for 27 September

“No one likes to take strike action but GMB members have been given a pay cut, on top of a 0.25% increase last year and their pay has failed to keep up with rising prices," stated GMB senior organiser Chris Jukes.  

"Like everyone else, GMB members have bills to pay."

Members of the union had voted by three to one in favour of strike action during their recent ballot.

Their spokesman accused management of being "intransigent and petulant as usual" and failing to negotiate.

Sellafield Ltd had offered a 1.5% increase in June but this was rejected by nearly 90% of the union's members in an earlier ballot.

The GMB complained that the amount is far below the RPI inflation rate of 3.9% recorded on 12 September.

Jukes added that last year, in order to protect apprentice pay, Sellafield workers had accepted just 0.25% extra against the then annual RPI inflation for 2016 of 1.8%.

He said that government-led changes to the pensions meant two thirds of Sellafield workers will pay an extra 2 to 6% on their contributions from next year.

"The gulf between them and those working on the shop floor at Sellafield gets ever wider. Clearly GMB members have signalled that they have had enough," said Jukes.

Commenting previously on the union's successful ballot for strike action, Sellafield management said they believed that pay offer was "fair and reasonable" and based on company affordability. In the statement they added that it had been accepted by Prospect, the union which had collective bargaining rights for the largest section of the workforce.